This is a small update to my review of the original SafeGuard Go Anywhere Portable Child Restraint, now called the Safety 1st Hybrid Booster (the Safety 1st version has a few minor changes from the version in this review). Since that review, IMMI/SafeGuard has made some improvements. These include expanded weight ranges, improvements to the headrest pillow and a modified buckle system. There is also some additional guidance on installing the Go in a captain’s chair or other vehicle seat with a recline feature.
Review Introduction
The SafeGuard Go Hybrid Booster is a portable child restraint system. It combines the advantages of a 5-point harness with the portability of a booster. In some sense, it really is more similar to a travel harness system that converts into a backless booster. Using the harness front-facing, it is for children over 1 year, weight from 22 to 60 pounds and 31 to 52 inches tall. As a booster, it is rated for children over 3 years old, 40 to 100 pounds and 43 to 57 inches tall. To make it portable and light, the “Go” has no hard seatback shell. For that reason, the vehicle seat back or headrests must provide adequate head restraint for the child. More information can be found at the SafeGuard website.
Features and Advantages
5-point Harness to 60 pounds– Among the best features of the “Go” is the 5-point harness that is rated to 60 pounds. Some combination models have a 40 pound limit on their harness system. While most kids above 40 pounds can use a booster, some may not be mature enough to remain seated properly in a lap and shoulder belt. In other cases, parents may prefer to keep their child in a 5-point harness beyond 40 pounds because it may offer somewhat more protection in side impacts and rollovers than a 3-point lap and shoulder belt. After 60 pounds, the harness and backing are removed and the Go can be used as a belt positioning booster.
Adjustable Harness Height– There is no rethreading harness straps through slots on the “Go”. Simple adjusters are included on each shoulder strap. Before seating the child, you squeeze the adjuster and move it all the way up. Once the child is in, you lower it to a level right at their shoulders with a very easy adjustment. The top shoulder slot height is listed by Safeguard as 17″, similar to many other combination models. In practice, this can vary a little, depending on the vehicle and installation. That is because there is no rigid shell holding the shoulder straps fixed relative to the seat base. Using a tight LATCH installation, it is about 18″ in many vehicles. With a seatbelt installation in a vehicle with a low seat back, the shoulder guides may become a comfort issue closer to 17″ of seated shoulder height. A child will outgrow the harness by height if their shoulders are above the level of the top setting. This model should accommodate all but the tallest kids well beyond 40 pounds, though some will certainly be too tall before they are 60 pounds. The side head wings are also height adjustable. Though modest in size, they might offer some additional side impact protection.
Front Harness Adjusters– The Go has simple push-button adjustments at the hip on each side of the harness. They are similar to the type found on many carseat tether and lower anchor adjustments and are very easy to use. They work very smoothly and easily.
LATCH– The Go includes a flexible strap on each side of the base to attach to the lower anchors found in newer vehicles. An adjuster is included on each side to cinch the strap tightly. The “mini connector” attachments are among the nicer ones on the market, and much easier to attach and remove than some other basic types. Convenient slots on the underside of the front part of the seat are provided to store the LATCH attachments when not in use. The LATCH system is preferred instead of the seatbelt for installation when the harness is used. Though a seatbelt can be used instead of the lower anchors for installation, the top tether MUST be used at all times in harness mode. Unlike most other boosters and combination seats, the lower anchors can also be used in booster mode. This can help keep the booster in place while loading, unloading, during turns or when the booster is not occupied. Safeguard also allows the lower LATCH attachments to be used in center seating positions as long as they are designated to be a LATCH approved position by the vehicle manufacturer and the spacing between the lower anchors is 11-20 inches apart. SafeGuard does not issue a weight limit in the manual specific to the LATCH system on the Go. They approve the use of LATCH up to the maximum limits for the Go, due to its lightweight design and energy management features. They also advise that the vehicle manual should be consulted, and in the case of a discrepancy, the vehicle mfg’s instructions should be followed.
Lap Belt Installation– The Go can be installed in harness mode with a lap belt, provided the vehicle has a top tether anchor. Such anchors are standard on all vehicles since 2003 and most vehicles since 1989 can have a top tether anchor installed in one or more rear seating positions. With its 60 pound harness limit, this is a good option for many kids above 40 pounds who need to be seated in a position that only has a lap belt. Keep in mind that some types of lap belt systems will not work with the Go. Also, like any booster, the Go must have both a lap and shoulder belt when used in booster mode.
Padding and Comfort– The Go is fairly well padded on the base, with about three-quarters of an inch of foam padding under the cover. It seems very comfortable and my daughter has had no complaints. The new Go Hybrid Booster now incorporates the head pillow. The color on mine is Graphite Black. The material is reasonably soft on the edges, more durable in the middle. Harness strap comfort pads are not included, but the crotch strap has a nice, integrated belly pad. The improved buckle system is a major change. The buckle now has 2 additional positions and allows adjustment of the crotch strap length. The first position is roughly 2 inches less deep than the original version, while the 3rd position is about an inch farther.
Backless Booster Use– While many newer backless boosters omit this handy feature, the Go includes a shoulder belt adjustment strap. This guide strap loops through a slot in the base. When used, the free end of the strap is adjusted to pull the shoulder belt off the neck and on the center of the shoulder and chest. Some taller kids may not need it, depending on the vehicle. Otherwise, the Go converts to a very typical backless booster, but unlike many other models, you can use the lower LATCH attachments to keep it in place for loading, unloading and when it’s unoccupied. For what it’s worth, the IIHS rated it a best bet in their evaluation of fit. Kecia blogged on the IIHS testing a while back, and so did I.
Size, weight and Portability– The Go weighs little more than an ordinary backless booster. It also folds nearly as compact and fits into an included travel bag. It weighs close to 9 pounds with an extra pound or so for the bag. That makes it nice for travel and even for storing in a vehicle until it is needed. For tight spaces, the maximum width is almost 17” at the arms, a little narrower at the base. That is pretty typical for a booster but not ideal for a 3-across carseat setup in a narrow back seat. The width inside the arms is about 14”, tapering an inch or so at the back. The total depth is almost 17 inches, but the seating depth for the child varies from over 16” as a booster (or when installed with LATCH in harness mode) to under 14” if installed with the seatbelt in harness mode.
Side Airbag Placement– Many child restraint manufacturers still prohibit the use of some or all of their models next to any type of active airbag. This may be a problem in many newer vehicles with side airbags in the rear seat. Since side curtain airbags have proven to be very effective at reducing injuries, it is nice that SafeGuard permits it to be used in vehicles with side air bags. Parents must still check the vehicle owner’s manual to make sure that it doesn’t state otherwise. The Go is not to be used in the front seat when an active passenger frontal airbag is present. Kids 13 and under should always be in the back seat.
Misc– The Go has a very nice owner’s manual with clear line diagrams and explanations. In addition, an instructional mini-DVD is also included. Construction is solid. It’s made in the USA, too! A boost for the North American economy and no worries about toxic chemicals, quality or other potential issues with the ever increasing number of carseats made in the far east.
Installation
The Go is a reasonable option for older kids and a very good choice for travel and for bigger kids in vehicles with lap-only belts. It can be installed with LATCH, a lap belt or a lap/shoulder belt. Keep in mind that some seatbelt systems may be incompatible with the Go, and these are discussed in the manual. LATCH installation in our 2006 Odyssey was very easy. I had it installed correctly in just a couple of minutes. It installed well with the seatbelts in both our Odyssey and a 2000 Subaru Outback wagon, but it was definitely more difficult than using LATCH.
My son is almost 3.5 years old, weighs 37 pounds and is about 41″ tall. He fits well in the Go harness system. In my original review, my daughter was not yet six years old, under 43 pounds and almost 44” tall. She had an inch or so of room to go in the harness for shoulder height in our vehicle using seatbelts for installation. I estimated that 6-7 years and around 50 pounds may be the limit for many kids in the harness mode, but said that could vary a lot with the child, vehicle and installation. Indeed, my daughter is now over 8 years old, about 57 pounds and almost 51″ tall. As you can see, she’s close to the harness limit but does still fit in the harness (with a LATCH installation).
The official recommendation is that children should be in a booster until they are 8 years old, unless they are already 4′ 9″ tall. This is only a rough guideline and some state laws may have even stricter requirements. Because both kids and vehicles differ, the best way to know if your child is ready to move out of a booster is by fit. Children are not ready to move from a booster to a regular lap/shoulder seatbelt until:
1) They are tall enough so that their legs bend at the knees at the edge of the seat; and
2) They are mature enough to remain seated with their backs flat against the back of the seat and not slouch; and
3) The lap belt sits high on the thighs or low on the hips (NOT on their tummy!); and
4) The shoulder belt crosses the shoulder and chest (NOT on their arms or neck!); and
Each passenger must have their own lap AND shoulder belt and remain seated properly for the entire trip! Never allow children to share a seatbelt!
As this model does not have a shell, there is no recline adjustment. The vehicle seat back itself provides any recline for the child. A more upright seat is usually recommended for safety, and the vehicle seat back must lock into a position from upright to 30 degrees of recline from vertical. The manual clearly illustrates the limit for vehicle seat back recline. The top tether may need to be re-adjusted if the vehicle seat back is reclined or brought more upright.
Disadvantages
No Head Restraint– Perhaps the most important issue, this model lacks any type of head restraint. The manual is very clear about this. So, your vehicle MUST provide adequate protection. That means that the top of the vehicle seat must be at least as tall as the top of the child’s ears. If the vehicle seat has headrests, they must adjust high enough such that the top of the headrest is at least as tall as the top of the child’s ears. This really is more of a warning than a disadvantage, because that is how SafeGuard managed to make this seat so light and portable. Still, parents should understand that it is not like a typical child restraint with a hard plastic shell in back and so it may not be suitable for some vehicles.
Airplane Certification– Due to its unique portability, the harness system in the Go requires a top tether for use. That means it cannot be used on an airplane, since aircraft do not have these anchors. Like any other backless booster, it cannot be used on aircraft in this booster mode, either. On the other hand, it is a great travel choice and is small and light enough to be a carry-on in an overhead bin for use in a vehicle on your trip.
Seatbelt Installation Difficulty in Harness Mode– Installation is great with LATCH and should be relatively quick and easy in many newer vehicles. Using seatbelts for harness mode installation, you must route the belt through fabric loops that extend from the back of the base. This isn’t difficult, but it can be a challenge to install it tightly, especially to meet the requirement that the child restraint does not move more than one inch from side-to-side. This will vary greatly depending on the vehicle seat and seatbelts, of course. If you intend to use this model primarily in harness mode with seatbelt installation, you may wish to try it before buying it. At the very least, make sure you understand the retailer’s return policy in case there is an incompatibility issue.
Please note that in some vehicles, seatbelt installation has a tendency to pull the bottom of the backing forward and the top of the harness system downward if you follow the instruction steps in the manual (especially if you overtighten it). That means the seating depth and maximum shoulder height can be reduced a little compared to a LATCH installation, depending on your car. To get a tight seatbelt installation and still maintain the full harness shoulder height, I attached and tightened the top tether strap first, rather than last. This made it a little more difficult to install, but it worked better in our vehicles. Finally, the seatbelt routing must go in front of the armrests on the base. This can cause the seatbelt to push the backing around the child’s bottom forward in some vehicles. That effectively reduces the seat depth for the child at least a couple inches. Attaching and tightening the top tether before securing the seatbelt may help a little for this issue, also.
Fabric Care– The cover on the base, harness and headrest can be removed with average difficulty. It is machine washed in a cold, delicate cycle. It must be line dried. This is not uncommon among child restraints, but definitely not easy care.
Price– The
IMMI Go sells for around its $199 suggested retail price. It is comparable in price to various conventional child restraints that have harnesses with extended weight limits above 40 pounds.
Conclusion
The SafeGuard Go Hybrid Booster is a great choice for parents who want to keep their kids in a 5-point harness beyond 40 pounds. It is a good choice for many vehicles and seating positions that only have a lap belt (and top tether anchor), since boosters are not safe unless they have both lap AND shoulder belt. The Go is also a handy, light weight option for travel, for granparents, for carpools or for caregivers. Since it lacks a true shell, it’s not going to meet some people’s needs. It does fill a niche that might help many parents looking for an alternative to more conventional child restraint models or flimsy travel harness systems. As a bonus, once your child has outgrown the harness, you can still use it as a backless booster up to 100 pounds. Overall, highly recommended as a portable child restraint option and for an everyday child restraint system when used with the LATCH system, provided it fits your vehicle and you have adequate head restraint.
SafeGuard’s parent company, IMMI, has been a major manufacturer of child restraint components like harnesses, buckles and LATCH system attachments for decades. They are a supplier to many of the largest child restraint manufacturers in the world and also have manufactured specialty bus restraints and other transportation safety products for many years. SafeGuard also operates their own advanced crash testing facility. SafeGuard’s official webpage for the Go can be found at http://www.immigoseat.com/ .
Thank you for posting this! I was looking on the internet at these seats. I really wanted to see one, but really I wanted to know if it installed with a seat belt! Your blog was so helpful…now we are just keeping our eyes open on price so we can buy them for my husband’s car! We have Apex 65s in my car, but they are a very tight fit in a little car!
I need some advise and options,I live in Hong Kong and it is similar to NYC where we don’t have a car and basically we taxi everywhere. I have a 2year old who is around 24lbs, I currently use the sit’n’stroll everywhere when we are going in the taxi and it is useful on the flights back home on the plane. But it is getting too heavy for me to open and close it while she is in it and to take it around everywhere as it is quite bulky, I am looking for other options, I need the carseat to be installed very quickly in the taxi as they don’t wait here and they won’t take you if they realize it will take you a long time. I started looking at the Go, but believe it or not 90 seconds is too long for installation, and I need it to also work on the plane, do I understand correctly that if I use the CARES harness you can use it on the plane? Are there any other options for me? Thanks much!
We use the Go daily in our new Prius, mostly because it doesn’t take up much space. It’s a decent seat, subject to my comments in the review. I think it would be fine for a child over 2 years old, who is also above 33 pounds. Below that weight, I would suggest you keep your child rear-facing in your convertible child seat.
As a side note, the Go is now being sold by Dorel under the Safety 1st brand. They purchased the rights to the Go Hybrid Booster from SafeGuard/IMMI.
is this car seat good for a 2 years old child?
We live in Manhattan with two kids and no car, and this seat is a dream come true. With practice, it installs in a taxi in about 90 seconds, and it works perfectly in rental cars for out-of-town jaunts. Doesn’t take up much closet space, either. I heartily recommend this seat for parents lucky enough not to own a car.
I’ve been using the original version of the GO (30-60#s harnessed) for my 5 1/2 year old 48# daughter for the past two weeks. Overall we really like it. Ideally, I wouldn’t recommend it as a primary seat, but I was suprised at how well it has worked out using it on a daily basis. I would be a little leary of using it outboard as a primary seat since the head protection is minimal, but I have been using it in the center seat and wouldn’t mind using it there until my daughter is too tall to use the harness. I have it installed with the seatbelt, and although it’s not easy as LATCH I got a great install. The LATCH install is simple and fast, so that would be much prefered for short trips or fast installs such as taxis.
My daughter is just over 42″ and still has around an inch of harnessed height- slightly more if installed in a vehicle with a taller seatback and LATCH. For comparison- she’s just over the second to the top slots on her Radian. There is no headrest in the center postion either, so when she outgrows the harneesed height she will probably be too tall to sit in the center postion without additional head support as well.
She’s able to buckle and unbuckle the seat just as easily as her Radian and the GO fits well in the center with three-seats across in my 07 Wrangler 4 door. On the first ride she complained about her head not being as comfy when she was resting, but has since decided it’s pretty comfortable.
We will most definately take this seat if we fly in the future to use at our desitination since she is old enough to sit in the airplane seat with just the belt. It will be nice not to have to worry about how to get a high-back booster to our destination safely, and had the added benefit of keeping her harnessed.
The GO also fit my 28# short son very well, although he is still below the weight limit on the original GO. (30#s) He still rides rear-facing, but since the seat fits him so well that once he is over 30#s I would be comfortable taking this seat for him in some situations where the size and weight would be helpful like taxi rides or such.
Another benefit-
For today’s carpool, I had to put in the 8th “PlusOne” seat in the 2nd row of our Honda minivan. That means no aisle for access to the third row. The flexible back of the Go allows you to fold the van’s captain’s chair forward enough to make access easier. With a regular child restraint, there is no way to do that and you better be thin if you are going to squeeze back there!
My nephew used it in his other-side aunt’s car when he was about 25 lbs. and it fit him great (sadly. If he didn’t fit so well in things like that maybe his mother would LISTEN TO ME about turning him back RF. *sigh* )
Anyway, I think if we travelled a lot we’d get 2 of these for my older kids, they would be a great investment for the convenience of having them, as Kecia says, for taxis, etc.
It’s great for travel. It’s decent for everyday use, but the compromise for light weight and portability is that it lacks a few things a conventional combination model at the same price point would have.
I think a CARES harness would fit nicely with the GO in the travel bag, too!
When we went to the Lifesavers conference in Chicago I brought the Go for use on the ground and a traditional carseat for the plane. DH thought I was crazy to bring two different CRs for one child but it really wasn’t a big deal to carry both since we’re used to flying with a carseat and the Go is so portable. The Go easily fit in the overhead storage compartment on the plane so I didn’t have to worry about it getting mauled as checked luggage. We knew we’d be traveling by taxi in Chicago and it’s much easier to lug the Go around town than it is to lug a conventional carseat.
I am looking for feedback on how easily it is to use the IMMI in taxi > did it take awhile to install? Did most taxis have latch system? where the drivers friendly enough? Was it a pain carrying around the go?… I am also wanting to travel in Chicago.
GREAT review.
Only one thing I would add… for people who buy it because they are frequent airplane travelers, if the child is under 40lbs, I would pair it with the purchase of a Cares harness for when the child is in the plane.
After 40lbs, though, almost every child can sit still and behave in the plane.
Otherwise, I’d bring a regular carseat.