The latest trend in child restraints is higher rear-facing weight limits. We’ve been seeing 35 lbs. rear-facing weight limits, but now we have a standout. Graco has introduced a new seat called the My Ride 65 that breaks the 35 lbs. barrier and accommodates a rear-facing child to 40 lbs.! This is a convertible (rear-facing and forward-facing) child restraint for kids 5-65 lbs. who are less than 49″ tall. Rear-facing the seat is rated from 5-40 lbs. Forward-facing, it can be used for children over 1 year old who weigh between 20-65 lbs.
The My Ride 65 comes with an infant body support cushion, a head support pillow, and harness strap covers.
Features and Advantages
Side Impact Protection: Many seats are now touting side impact protection. The My Ride 65 has deep side wings lined with EPS foam. It’s been side impact tested by Graco for “occupant retention by the harness system,” which means a child should stay in the restraint in a side impact crash.
5-point Harness to 65 pounds: Most convertible seats have weight limits of 40-65 lbs. The harness is good quality and is nontwisting. The buckle tongues fit the width of the harness and allow the harness to slide freely through them.
High Rear-Facing Weight and Height Limits: Graco has introduced the first American car seat to rear-face to 40 lbs. Rear-facing is the safest way for kids to travel; for many years, experts have recommended rear-facing for as long as possible and one study has shown that it’s five times safer for children under age 2 to ride that way. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends rear-facing for children for as long as the convertible seat allows. Because the My Ride 65 has a tall shell and high rear-facing weight limit, it will allow the average child to rear-face for 2-3 years or more.
5 Harness Slots: There are five harness slot heights on the My Ride 65. For rear-facing, the bottom 4 slots may be used and the straps should be in the nearest slot at or below the level of the child’s shoulders. The top 4 can be used for a forward-facing child and the straps should be in the nearest slot at or above shoulder level. The lowest harness slot height is approximately 8″ with the infant pad in place and approximately 8.5″ without the infant pad and the top slot is about 17″ when measured with the cover on. A child will outgrow this seat by height when he exceeds the 49″ height limit OR when the top of his ears are above the back of the restraint OR when the shoulders are above the top slots.
Adjusting the harness height is accomplished by removing the shoulder straps from the splitter plate in the back of the restraint and re-threading them through the desired slots. If the seat is installed rear-facing it is possible to re-thread the harness without uninstalling. However, if the seat is forward-facing you will have to uninstall it to move the harness straps to a different height. Because the seat is rated for such a wide range of weights, Graco has 3 harness strap lengths from which to choose. When the harness is in the lowest slots, the top loops (shortest length) should be used. When the harness is in the 2nd or 3rd slots from the bottom, the middle loops should be used. When the harness is in the top two slots, the bottom loops should be used (longest length).
Recline Adjustments: Recline for rear-facing is achieved by tucking the feet sideways under the base of the seat. Flip the feet back out into locked position for forward-facing. There is no recline for the forward-facing position, but the restraint has a deep natural recline to it.
Harness Adjuster and Use: To tighten the harness, pull on the harness adjuster strap on the front of the restraint. It is similar to the type found on many car seats and is somewhat stiff, requiring some muscle to tighten the harness. The buckle clicks audibly when each buckle tongue is inserted. The chest clip has a pictogram showing proper placement on the child’s chest. I found the clip to be difficult to unlatch; it could have been user error since I’m not used to using that type of chest clip or something that will loosen up over time.
LATCH: The My Ride 65 has two flexible straps to attach to the lower anchors found in newer vehicles; one strap is threaded through the rear-facing belt path, the other is threaded through the forward-facing belt path and they are different colors. There is an adjuster on one side of these straps. The LATCH connectors are the clip-on style connectors. There are clearly designated storage areas on the shell to store the LATCH connectors and tether strap when not in use. The tether strap is to be used forward-facing only. While tethering a forward-facing child restraint with a harness is always recommended, a top tether is not required for this seat.
Note: Graco prohibits using the LATCH system for a child weighing over 48 lbs. This is an issue with almost all child restraints that have a harness rated above 40 lbs. At some point, it will be necessary to use the seatbelt for installation. Seatbelt installations are just as safe as LATCH, providing that you can get a good, tight installation. Consult your vehicle owner’s manual for more specific information. Some vehicles have a lower, 40 lbs. weight limit for the lower LATCH anchors and you should conservatively defer to the lowest number in these cases. Graco does allow the use of LATCH in the center seating position of the back seat if the lower anchors are less than 11″ apart from the center of one anchor to the center of the other anchor.
Inflatable Seat Belts: Graco has determined that the My Ride 65 CAN be installed with inflatable seat belts found in some Ford Motor Company vehicles. Other types of inflatable seat belts are still incompatible for use with the My Ride.
Crotch Strap Adjustment: There is only one crotch strap slot located approximately 6.5″ from the back of the seat without the infant pad in place.
Padding, Comfort and Appearance: The My Ride 65 cover is nicely padded along the bottom and back, but there is little padding along the sides. The cover on the restraint I tested is called Edgemont Dots and the fabric is a gray soft polyester with tone on tone dots in the seating area with a plush black trim around the edge. It’s machine washable on the gentle cycle. The harness straps are black and chest clip is light gray. The strap covers and head support pillow are entirely optional and must be removed when the child reaches 40 lbs. Kudos to Graco for labeling right on the front of one harness cover the rear- and forward-facing weight limits!
Infant Support Cushion: An infant body support is included with the seat and is well-padded. The infant body support is styled in the same manner as the cover with the gray dots in the middle and the black plush fabric along the edges. It’s to be used only when the child is using the bottom harness slots.
6 Year Expiration: The My Ride 65 has a 6 year expiration and the “Do Not Use Past” date is stamped on the bottom/back of the seat. Graco specifies in the manual not to use the seat if it is in a crash.
Airplane Certification: The My Ride 65 is FAA-approved for use in aircraft. Because the cupholders take up so much width, I don’t think the restraint will fit on an airplane seat unless the armrests are lifted. It also is a fairly heavy restraint weighing in at 14.7 lbs., so if you do travel with it, you’ll want to use a luggage cart to avoid having to carry it.
Value: With high weight limits, safety testing and other safety features, and a price point that is competitive with other popular, high-end convertible seats you’ll definitely get your money’s worth with a My Ride 65.
Construction: The My Ride 65 is solidly made in the USA, though the sides that flare out with the cupholders are more flexible. The cupholders are designed to fit cups or juice boxes and are deep enough to hold them securely.
Disadvantages
Weight and Width: At 14.7 lbs., the My Ride 65 isn’t the heaviest restraint on the market for sure, but it is something to consider if you carry it through an airport. Also, because of the permanent cupholders, it’s a wide seat; however, it may puzzle well with other seats that sit lower on the vehicle seat if you have other children to restrain in your back seat.
Installation Issues: I had trouble installing it forward-facing because of the natural recline. The bottom of the restraint sat very far forward of the vehicle seat bight (crack) in order to have the back of the restraint touch the seat back. I had to resort to some tricks to get it to work in my van, but I’m not sure those tricks would work in a vehicle that has a stationary vehicle back.
Also, the forward-facing belt path is quite narrow. If the seat is being installed with a vehicle seat belt, it will be a tough fit for many people with medium to large hands.
Cover Issues: One problem I had with my cover is that it didn’t fit securely on the edges of the restraint. There should be elastics to hold the cover in place on these edges, especially since these are locations that will get a lot of handling. 
Recline Feet: The recline feet are flimsy. I felt like I was breaking them as I 
tucked them under the seat and in fact, one of the recline feet was incorrectly installed when I pulled the restraint out of its box. The feet are held in place by a screw on one end and are fed under tabs on the other end. On the right side of my seat, the right foot wasn’t placed under the tabs. It was an easy fix, but not something that immediately caught my eye as I was giving the seat the once-over.
Conclusion
Rear-facing installation of the My Ride 65 in my 2005 Sienna using both LATCH and later the vehicle seat belt was both a breeze and a pleasure. The recline angle was fantastic, even for a newborn; however, I know that in other vehicles this restraint may require a noodle or two to achieve a proper recline for a newborn. I was able to vary the angle from a good 45° to a more upright position appropriate for a toddler and still maintained the ball in the green area on the angle indicator on the side of the seat.
As I specified above, the forward-facing installation was more of a challenge, but it was also rock solid just as the rear-facing installations were. The natural recline angle for forward-facing makes the My Ride 65 a wonderful seat for low-tone or special needs kids that won’t break the bank. Given the $150 price point of the seat and the features included-the long-awaited 40 lbs. rear-facing weight limit, EPS foam, 65 lbs. forward-facing weight limit-it is a seat definitely worth considering.
Graco’s webpage for the My Ride 65 – www.gracobaby.com/Search%20Results/Pages/Search.aspx?search=my+ride
For more information on child passenger safety, please visit:
I just purchased this car seat (2-17-15) for my 12 month old that has out grown his infant carrier. He is 29 lbs. and 32″ long and my concern was to find a seat that would give him the most leg room as possible. I liked this seats recline and the depth of the seat. It looks as though it should accommodate his length better than some other options. My secondary thought was can I use a tether on this seat in the rear facing position? It makes sense to do so but I do not want to compromise the integrity of the seat.
@Joei, no, the tether is only approved for forward-facing use on the My Ride 65. How do you like the seat so far?
I recently purchased this seat for the 16 month old toddler I Nanny, I love it she rides rear facing in my vehicle yet forward facing in her parents.I’ve tried showing them information about extended rear facing but they are not interested.
@Holly, how old is your dd? If she’s napping a lot and is still under the weight and height limit of the Safety 1st seat, she may be more comfortable rear-facing. Same for the Graco My Ride seats. They have a great ff recline, but truly, if a child sleeps a lot, rear-facing is the way to go. Plus it’s 5 times safer. I’m not aware of any substantial differences between the 65 and the 70 other than soft goods.
Hi, I am torn between the My Ride 65 and My Ride 70. My main concern is the natural recline. We have a Safety First, FF and it has absolutely no recline, which makes it super uncomfortable for my DD. Her head hangs to her chest when napping and that is unacceptable!!! So I am quickly trying to find the right seat now and we tried the My Ride 70 at Target and seemed like the recline would be great. But now I’ve seen reviews on the recline for the 65 so…my question is, do you know which has more natural recline?
That’s a great testimony, Beth! Hope your dd is not so traumatized anymore :).
I know this review is really old, but I see recent comments, so I’ll add mine as well.
We got this seat in October 2009, a first birthday gift from the grandparents, when our daughter was outgrowing her infant seat.
We are firm believers in going with the most / safest restraint possible to the seat’s limit.
Our daughter just hit 40 lb, and is about 38″ tall. We turned her seat FF yesterday, at exactly one month shy of 4 1/2 years old.
At first, she completely freaked out about it!
Her primary concern was that she wouldn’t have anywhere to put her feet, so when we changed it, we moved her to the passenger side, so if she wants them on a seatback, it won’t be mine! (My partner generally rides in back with her when we’re all together.)
On her first FF ride, she kept telling me, “I’m not ready to ride this way! I’m still little!”
She’s doing better with it today, and we keep pointing out things that she can see up ahead of us, and signing back and forth since we can now see each other, but she would still really prefer to be rear-facing.
So much for people’s concerns about comfort, leg-room, and being upset about “riding like a baby” huh?
Glad you’re liking the seat, Erica! We aim to educate with each review we write as well as give our opinions :). You may also be interested in reading the Why Rear-Facing Is Better blog (https://carseatblog.com/5168/why-rear-facing-is-better-your-rf-link-guide/ ) and passing that along to your family.
Thank you for not only the blogs reviews of the Graco My Ride 65 car seat, but the comments and questions from readers. There are two reasons why, here they are. One; I was interested in the user reviews (and real world use) of this seat, and I’m now completely satisfied with my decision and purchase of it. Two; I was under the (normal) assumption my son is now 13 months and feet touching the back seat, weight and height wise ready to face forward now like a “big boy”. I installed this seat FF at first, then read your blog and went strait to the garage at 10:30 at night to reinstall it RF. I may not agree with keeping him RF past a certain age, weight and height, BUT I thank you for making it known that my son is at his safest RF for a while still. He has a cousin who is 3 months older and was placed FF as soon as he turned one, and asked why we hadn’t done the same with our son. I will be thusly informing them on the research I found concerning it and directing them to to your blog! As for the seat it’s self, it found it to be no more difficult or not, to install in either position then previous seats we’ve owned. He is the only child, so size is not an issue and fit great into our VW Passat. Actually size was one of our deciding factors since we just wanted a roomer and more comfortable ride for our little prince. Considering the fact that the seat will not be moved or adjusted in the foreseeable future, the missing “luxury” connectors or ease of adjustability of the seat are not a factor. It’s staying put! I like the material of the seat better then our last and the height of the seat is also taller. Every day wear, tare and function will be on a day by day basis but I am confident that in this price range we have a premium seat for years to come! Again, thank you for the information of the pros to keeping our son RF, this should be come the general and practiced knowledge.
I’ve used this seat since June 2009 when my dd was 8 months old. She rf’d until Aug 2010, just shy of 2 years old. I went with the Graco over another high end brand seat because the Graco had a deeper seat which allowed more leg room, and deeper side impact wings. The wings and recline kept her head from flopping forward or too far to the side while sleeping. We spend a lot of time in the car shuttling older siblings around, so there was a lot of car sleeping going on. DD is now 4y3m old and just now grown out of the seat. She has consistently been in the 95th percentile for height and 75th for weight. I am so sad she’s grown out of this seat, I can’t recommend it enough. We had this rf and ff in a Suburban, with no problems, and ff in a Mazda 5 with plenty of room.
Glad to hear it worked so well for you, Tawnia.
Hi Brian. Sorry to hear about the blind spot. That happens with most rear-facing carseats, though. Some are better than others! When you check for movement, you should check right at the belt path, so if it’s secure there with less than 1″ of movement, you’re good to go. The further away you get from the belt path, the more it will move. The top of the carseat moves so much because there’s nothing holding it to the vehicle (and Graco doesn’t allow use of the tether in rear-facing mode). So it actually sounds like your carseat is installed pretty well. If you have any questions, look for a carseat checkup event or see if you can make an appointment with a tech in your area: http://cert.safekids.org .
Thank you for the great review!
We just installed the My Ride 65 — rear facing with latch. The base seems secure as it does not move, but, the top part of the seat will sway from side to side. Has anyone else experienced this? I adjusted the incline level slightly, which helped some. I also made sure to apply pressure to the seat while tightening the strap. Any additional suggestions or insight would be appreciated.
I drive a Honda Civic and found that the seat is quite bulky. We installed the seat on the passengar side as the driver lost considerable leg room — to the point where it affected my driving (we spend 2-3 hours a day in the car). Because of the bulkiness — and the lowness of the car, it is very hard to see out the rear side window, resulting in a major blind spot.
Glad to hear it, Kim!
I love my Graco myride 65, actually I have 3. My son is 6 and 46″ tall and weighs 49 pounds, he will be in this seat til he is at least 7 and he loves it. My daughter is 2 1/2 and weighs 30 pounds and is 38″ and loves it too. They fall asleep easily in it and their heads stay upright when they do fall asleep.
QUESTION: The sides of the Graco My Ride seem double the size of other carseats. They stick out farther. I am concerned it will obstruct my babies view who likes to be able to look out. Does anyone know from experience if the blinders are a problem?
I tried skimming the comments but didn’t see this asked. The review mentions that the top 4 strap slots can be used while FFing and the bottom 4 (out of 5 total) while RF’ing. Does this mean that if your child needs the top strap but their head still isn’t within one inch of the top you need to turn them FFing? Anyone have an average height of when this would occur?
Hi Everyone!
I am a grandmother of 5, and keep 4 little ones everyday. I have 2 grandkids,ages 29 mths, and 19mths, who are in the Graco My Ride 65 in my car, and I also purchased them for my sister’s car…as she sometimes helps me out with the kids. Plus my daughter uses one in her car for the 29 mth old. We LOVE this carseat!
Both are still riding rear-facing, and we will keep them there until they can no longer fit.
When I purchased the first one, my older grandchild, age 4, rode in it a couple of times,rear facing, and she loved being able to relax and watch movies..I have portable headrest dvd players on the frontside of the headrests. I have the built-in Dvd player for the front facing kids… but there’s not much relaxing in big carseats!
She was right at 40 lbs at that time, so she doesn’t ride in them because I already had a Graco Nautilus for her (which I also Love!)
The cup holders are great, and are usually full of toys!
and one always has a drink…’til it’s thrown into the floor by the kids.
We also have camera’s facing the rear facing toddlers, with monitors on my dash… so for those who want to keep an eye on their little ones.. you still can “even rear facing”.
Our only dislike with the My Rides is that the 2 yr old could unfasten BOTH the chest clip AND the crotch Buckle.
The newer crotch Buckle style has solved that problem!
It just came out this year, and is flat..rather than the indented one that our Houdini could press down on and pop it open.
Wish it would fit them taller than 49″… but I think the 2 yr old will be able to fit in it ’til he is 4.
He has a LONG way to grow before he’ll get to the top of the seat.
I think the BEST feature of Rear facing is that when kids go to sleep, their heads don’t bobble so much, and look so uncomfortable.
Hope this helps everyone!
Blessings!
Interesting post , I’m going to spend more time reading about this subject
Hello I just wanted to stop and say thanks for a great review! I just purchased this seat for my 11 month old as an extra for my husbands truck and since this will be our sixth seat attempt in this vehicle (the seat belts in this truck are just strange) I am hoping it will work! Anyway, for those of you who are searching for a seat that rear faces longer the Sunshine Kids Radian (xtsl,80sl,and 65sl)are great seats. This is what we have in my car (the xtsl)and they are wonderful! Rear facing to 45 lbs. and forward facing in harness to 80 lbs. unless its the 65sl then it holds up to 65 lbs.front and 40 lbs. rear facing. There is a good recline rear facing but this seat is much more upright forward facing for those kiddos who prefer it. It is a pricey seat but very well built and I have had great luck with the install both rear and forward using the latch or the seat belt. Anyway, just wanted to share!
I didn’t read all the comments, but did anyone mention the super twisty straps? My daughter’s MyRide’s straps twist right at where the crotch buckles are. It’s HORRIBLE to untwist them… 🙁
@Andrea, unfortunately Graco requires the cushion to come out once the child moves up into the 3rd slots. Some kids don’t have a problem with the padding in a carseat; hopefully your ds is one of them. 🙂
Thank you for the wonderful review! I have this car seat and love it except for the lack of padding once you remove the infant padding. It seems so hard and uncomfortable without it. Now that my son has grown I have to go up a knotch and I have to remove the extra paddig to do so. Does Graco make extra padding for toddlers?
As long as the carseat moves less than 1″ at the beltpath, it’s a secure installation. The top of the carseat moves because there’s nothing there anchoring it to the vehicle (only Britax and Sunshine Kids convertible seats can use their tethers rear-facing).