Rear-facing child seat install

[Token57634]

Has anyone installed a rear-facing infant seat in the center of the 2nd row bench? I'm having trouble getting the base to fit in the center (one side sits a little higher than the other), but would like to put it there if I could. Otherwise, I'll just install it to one side or the other. Wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if they were able to make it work. Any tips?

 

[jeeden]

Are you putting a towel underneath the seat to level it out properly and provide compression material so you can get the belts really tight? It also doubles to protect the seat.

 

[Token57634]

Are you putting a towel underneath the seat to level it out properly and provide compression material so you can get the belts really tight? It also doubles to protect the seat.

Yes and yes. It just seems that there isn't quite enough room between the seat buckles on either side for the base to fit up against the back of the seat. I have a friend that has gone through the 32 hour certification training that should be able to install it properly in the next week or so, but I was curious if I was wasting my time trying to get it to fit in the middle of the bench in the first place.

 

[blwnsmoke]

When we ordered from my dealer, he stated that the seat isn't meant to go in the center, left or right seat only. You see the little bumps in the seat back that show where the clips are to latch the base onto..

I was planning on doing the same thing though, trying the inner latch of the left and right seats to mount the base in the center. If not, passenger side it goes.

 

[Token57634]

When we ordered from my dealer, he stated that the seat isn't meant to go in the center, left or right seat only. You see the little bumps in the seat back that show where the clips are to latch the base onto..

I was planning on doing the same thing though, trying the inner latch of the left and right seats to mount the base in the center. If not, passenger side it goes.

Most LATCH systems don't work for the center seat (of our 2 cars, 1 did and 1 didn't). You can use the regular seat belt instead. It stays tight and doesn't move much in the Ex, but because the buckles are so close, one side is slightly elevated. Adding a rolled up towel helped level it out a bit, but I think the base is too wide to fit in the middle.

 

[sm4astan]

I spent a lot of time yesterday after picking up my X (with bench and DVD system) trying to figure out how to arrange our seating for our 2 youngest (10 months and 4 years). New guidelines say you should have kids in rear facing seats until 2. Ouch.

Here is what I've found to date, and when I get back from business trip need to play some more. For the record, I'm working with a Britax Frontier (booster) and Marathon (convertible). Both are really big so that's part of my problem -

• Marathon does not appear to fit in 3rd row in rear facing position. Not the end of the world, as we didn't really want to put our little one way back there.
• Marathon fits (rear facing) behind passenger in 2nd row, but only if the passenger seat is moved up somewhat.
• Marathon on my first try would not fit behind the driver seat (rear facing). I need to re-test this, because the driver seat might have been in easy entry mode. I need to adjust it up until the seat will fit, and then see if that leaves enough room for me. Since it's easier to open the 40 side of bench seat (passenger side) I would prefer to have the Marathon behind the driver seat.
• Marthon seems to fit in Center bench position, but the big issue I see with that (besides not being able to use latch system) is that due to the size of the Marathon, if in the middle the 40 side of bench seat won't tilt forward for 3rd row access...so I think middle position is out for me.
• Frontier will fit anywhere in 2nd row, but since the Marathon needs to go in 2nd row, and we still need to leave access to 3rd row, unless I put Frontier in middle position (and I'm not sure that will work with size of Marathon, and size of Frontier, and allow 3rd row access) the Frontier has to go in 3rd row.
• Frontier right now is on passenger side, behind the Marthon seat, but when I tested this with my son yesterday, he didn't have room for his feet. They were hitting back of 2nd row. I tried to correct this by adjusting bottom of base to "booster" mode, and that allows the seat to sit more straight up as opposed to angled back. My wife was going to test this today while I'm out of town and I have not heard back if my son fit ok. If he didn't, we may need to try to put him on opposite side and not behind the Marathon, so 2nd row seat can be tilted a bit more upright.
• If all else fails, we may need to find new car seats that are not so big, and relegate the Britax to the Odyssey. Our originl plan was to have duplicates in each car that were the same, but if they don't fit the X they don't fit.

The car seat fitting is the only thing at this point I'm not 100% happy with, but that's not the X's fault. It is what it is and we just wanted what we feel are the best car seats out there. Once we have a final solution, I'll let people know.

 

[jeeden]

ok, I know what your talking about now. I had the same issue with some front facing gracos. I wound up getting it aligned in the center just right with a towel to get it locked down. I use the belts with the front facing so the tether isn't in the way (you can get them really tight with the belt tensioners on the cars these days).

I always put one on the right and one in the center so we can fold down the left to access the third row.

 

[SteveP]

I've heard the radian car seats are very slim. may help with 60/40 issues.

 

[sm4astan]

I played around with the seats today, and Marathon fits behind the driver seat when adjusted to a comfortable position for me (I'm 6'). I did have to set it at medium recline, but then adjusted driver seat forward more, so I may have room now for more recline.

 

[thunderstruck]

Just wanted to throw my two cents in for this thread.

I picked up my explorer on Sat. and like many others, love everything about it aside from the car seat issue. We ended up purchasing a new car seat on Sunday to accommodate the Explorer. As an FYI, we have the 2nd row bench as well, and this was in reference to an infant carrier with a base; our booster fits fine with no problems.

I am around 6 foot, and I have my seat adjusted comfortably, but I don't like to be too far back from the dash anyway. I don't feel crammed in though.

We bought a Chicco key fit 30, and it fits behind the driver side. This seat is readily available in multiple colors at the large baby store chain, so no need to search furiously online to find something. I put it behind the driver because I thought that folding the 40 side of the seat to access the 3rd row was going to be easier than folding the 60 side all the time.

So far it is working well and I don't have any issues with the position of the seat. Good luck to all others with infants and the new Explorer!