Well, the Olympics are done and overall it was a memorable competition. The athletes were phenomenal and awe-inspiring. But you know what? CPS Techs and advocates can be phenomenal and awe-inspiring too. I mean c’mon – those curling “athletes” got nothing on us! Have they ever wrestled with a rear-facing Radian and a locking clip and won? Found a way to fit 3 seats side-by-side in a pre-LATCH Neon? Installed a Century SmartMove rear-facing in a mid 90’s Saturn? I think not.
So, what are your greatest Olympic-worthy carseat installation moments? You know what I’m talking about – those moments of sweet triumph when all your blood, sweat and tears (not to mention all your mad skills) pay off. Those moments when you smile, pat yourself on the back and think to yourself “Damn, I’m good”. 😉
Just received and installed our Frontier 85 and it’s awesome. Installed it in 5 minutes (latches and tether anchor). Sits at a slight angle in 5-point harness mode thanks to the attached bolster. Wrap the straps around the armrests if you have a problem with the straps getting twisted. Definitely worth $235!
The very idea of installing a rear facing Smart Move makes me break out in a cold sweat. I got a black eye once with a locking clip and a Smart Move.
RF ComfortSport in a 1989 BMW 3-series….i still have scars
Well, it was a two-man summer event, but the Nania Airway in the middle of a Prius/Echo with the seatbelt was gold medal worthy. Rethreading the harness of that seat in the back of a minivan is definitely good for a Silver.
Most everything else nowadays, I’d have to say I (and most experienced techs), make it look way easier than it really is…Like Shaun White on the half-pipe 😀
I know I’ve had a couple that have been really tough, sweat-inducing installs, but it’s been a few years since my general philosophy nowadays is if I have to spend more than 20 minutes installing a seat, it’s incompatible. One sticks out in particular for its grossness: no one, not even the big highway patrolman would touch the vehicle because they were afraid of what was in it. LOL! Back away, boys, let the mom in. 😀 I did it pretty quickly, lol. Folks, please clean up your vehicles before coming to an event ;).
Oh, there was the 2 Peg Perego infant buckets and rear-facing Boulevard in a Lexus SUV. I thought that one was pretty good.
The Peg in the Audi with the dratted impossible to compress seats.
And I have to say I am pretty proud of my own 3 acrosses. 3 rear-facing in my Corolla. 3 kids safely in my mom’s teeny-tiny Sentra. And so on, and so forth. 🙂
But what makes me happiest is even if it’s an easy install, when a parent comes in with a child totally, totally unsafe, and leaves with them perfectly safe.
Like the 2 Frontiers that came to me with unlocked seatbelts, loose harnesses, below the shoulders, untethered, and the recline foot in the wrong position. They left with both seats rock-solid, dad able to do it himself with no help or even talking through it, correctly installed and adjusted and used and temporarily tethered to unused rear seatbelts until they could get permanent tether anchors in. I don’t care if I wouldn’t “win the gold” for that– that’s what the “game” is about. 🙂
Some 80’s model chevy I think with non-locking lapbelts and a SSI and a BSC.
🙂
Marathon, Radian, Marathon in the back of the very narrow Ford Freestar… I actually had to first install each Marathon, check it was good, install the radian next to each, check it was good…
and then, to put all 3 in together, I put in the Marathon that had the seatbelt buckle next to the one used for the Radian (driver side)… as far over to the side as humanly possible, then the Radian… and then… (and this was the trickiest part and why it was ABSOLUTELY necessary to make sure I could fit either Marathon next to the Radian on either side FIRST… and that it would be independently solid)… I had to set the Marathon so that the top half was resting against the vehicle seatback… and the base was ON MY KNEES (I sat on a folded captain’s chair)… I think proceeded to feed the belt, buckle it (this was why it was sitting in that odd way)… then… pulling all possible slack out first… position the Marathon upright and turn it SIDEWAYS… to puzzle it next to the Radian… and ease the base in so that it pushed the buckle upright… (I couldn’t fit my hand in between the seats)
I then put my knee in it and pulled all the slack out of the lapbelt with my left hand, pushing it into the beltpath… then grabbing the shoulderbelt, pulling it all the way out, letting it retract, and getting all the slack out of the seatbelt.
Keep in mind when I did it with this Marathon and the Radian without the other Marathon, I did this same thing… to figure out how to fit it… (I’d put in the first two, remove the Marathon on driver’s side… shake the Radian… it was solid… then I had to figure out how to get the other Marathon in… which I did, this way… then remove the Radian, and find it was secure… then I knew I could start over.)
And, because of the year of the vehicle, all 3 were top tethered.
I then had room for the ss1 in the captain’s chair and my son’s booster in the other seat (I was babysitting and had one of my boys with me… took them to the children’s museum… my other boy stayed with the two teenagers who were happy to have a quiet house to themselves with another child only 4yrs younger to play video games with)
lol.. my friend thought I’d have to put someone in front… but I knew I could fit all 3 back there… and did this with her permission while the kids played in the backyard (I could see them through the fence)… when she got back, she was amazed and I did show her how I did it so she was able to do it herself.
Installing a Graco Comfort Sport. LMBO! Maybe we should try to get car seat installations included as an olympic sport.
While putting my RFing Britax in and out of the backseat of the lifted 2 door Jeep Wrangler while 38 weeks pregnant was, I’m sure, a great spectator sport for my neighbors- it wasn’t the hardest competition, just the most entertaining.
I really think switching out the center, FFing, harnessed seat in my husband’s GMC Sierra is the most frustrating and fingernail ripping car seat move I do somewhat regularly. It involves a TA burried behind the seat (and his junk) and uninstalling the other seat on the 60 split bench to unclip the stubborn RYS TA. Gr. Just thinking about it makes me wince.
Wrestling with a rear facing Radian and a locking clip has become second nature to me. The real challenge was hauling three kids, two Radians and a Britax Boulevard through an airport by myself, installing all three in two planes by myself while supervising my three children and climbing over other passengers because the airline would not allow us to preboard (a pox be upon you Southwest), and then installing all of those seats in my car in an airport parking garage at midnight because our flight was late, once again by myself (the kids dad was at least there to watch the kids at that point), two out of three installs with locking clips (may the inventor of the cheapo breakable lightweight locking latchplate break out in boils). I am the goddess of carseats. (A lay goddess who has not become a CPST.)
Not a CPST but I want to give a great big THANK YOU to all of you who are. Keep up the amazing work you do. 🙂
Regent, Marathon, Snugride 22, three across in a Volvo XC90 while 37 weeks pregnant.
Oh, and the Radian and True Fit, both rear facing, Radian middle and True Fit driver’s side, in my Xterra Saturday afternoon. We did it without uninstalling my True Fit (since it has lockoffs) and got a solid installation for each. In fact, my True Fit was more upright when I was done. Bonus! It took two of us to sit on the True Fit and buckle it back in. We needed the third seat open for an adult early the next morning (and Piper rode in that spot in her RSTV once as well).