Submarine clip between the legs? Isn't that the red clip that goes at the point where the seat belt clips in? (yes now I am truly confused lol)
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Submarine clip between the legs? Isn't that the red clip that goes at the point where the seat belt clips in? (yes now I am truly confused lol)
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Yeah it is hun, as far as I can tell it hooks the lap part between their legs as you do it up - some have it some don't!
I just did some googling Tan and it seems to indicate there is the attachment between the legs or in the case of the infa-secure we have it's the little 'handles' (as I call it) that the seat belt is threaded through with the clip.
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DD is 3.5 nearly, 21kgs and 110cms and she still fits in the Maxi AHR. The straps are in the highest holes and are still ok and the headrest is nearly up as far as it can go but not totally. I'm going to keep her in till she is just to big. I guess you have to then use a seat with the lap belt and anti submarine clip?
the radian is Rear facing up to 4 years or 45lbs. Australia has no seat on the market comparable. Most are maximum 12kg RF which a lot of babes seem to reach by 12-18m:
Latch/isofix has recently been approved but the gist is that it will take 12 months to draft the legislation etc so although its coming its still illegal to import.
thanks! i just looked up latch installation and the video (though american) sais latch has been standard since '03 in new model cars. mine is '01 so i would imagine it doesn't have it but i will check everntually. The company car is '11 but there is no guarantee it has it either, i am just really hoping. i feel really uncomfortable about turning DD FF now that i have done more research.:
Apparently isofix will be legalized early next year here
The Radian allows the RF - there are NO seats on the Australian market that allow such extended RF.
It is also steel framed, something else I haven't found in any Australian seat (someone correct me if I am wrong, but I haven't been able to find one).
The Radian can also be fitted with the anchor strap and 3 point belt, just like any Australian seat. You can look up online if your car has LATCH/ISOFIX, but most new cars do, certainly models sold overseas do like most European brands. You can also call the dealership and ask them. You don't need it for a Radian though.
The Radian is around $300 depending on retailer, plus anywhere between $160-$200 to ship it.
Thanks so much for posting this thread Tanstar! Little bit off topic but we just installed DS's booster using a H harness.. I had NO idea they are not recommended. I was like "I want him to be really safe" and the lady in the shop sold us a H harness. I just looked on the website for the brand and even it says "DO NOT use when a lap sash belt is available" Ekk! It is being removed from the seat today.
That's ok Hun! We have learnt heaps too and are getting closer to what we want! RF doesn't affect us as DD is nearly 5 and DS will be 4 in Oct, but lots if food for thought.
the radian also allows you to continue using the 5 point harness to a higher weight. i don't want ds1 to be rear facing, but i would like him to be in a steel framed seat with 5 point harness. i feel this would be safer than a badly sitting adult seat belt on the maxi rider itms?
jakabella- your dd's weight is too high for the 5 point harness in the maxi rider.
I am an importer. One Radian XTSL and a Britax Max-Way arriving next week hopefully. It is not illegal to import a seat, it is illegal to use it. Consequences for using an imported seat are points off your license and a fine if the police officer knows what they're looking at when you are pulled over. Some insurance companies won't replace the seat due to theft or damage, some don't ask about what seat or where it came from they just send a cheque. Some people have had success getting extra insurance for their imported seat. Some people worry about medical insurance in the event of an accident. There is no straight yes or no answer for this, not that I or others, who have done a lot of looking can find. No one has been denied medical cover after an accident when they have misused an Australian approved seat, so I can't see why it would be different for an imported seat *but this is my personal conclusion when it comes to medical cover*
If you have a small car and are looking at a Radian for extended rear-facing It is a huge seat, very good seat, but huge and this is why we're getting the Max-way it's more compact and will allow us to have front passengers over 5"3 :)
I get so excited when I see all these awesome parents talking about car seat safety! :D
Like a pp mentioned the Radian will allow you to harness forward-facing up to 36kgs rear-facing to 20kgs so it will keep your LO harnessed for la long time.
Willow - the medical insurance would be my biggest concern. TBH I couldn't care less about losing some points or even copping a fine if a policeman by some miracle knew that my kids' carseats weren't approved, but it would worry me enormously that God forbid we were in a horrible accident and my girls were injured that we wouldn't have their medical costs taken care of. You would hope that the right thing is done, but we all know how insurance companies love those loopholes.
Just another one of those decisions for all us parents to try and balance what is safe enough while doing the very best we can IYKWIM. I don't think any of us are happy with going with a "yeah, it'll do" kind of approach. We have spent weeks discussing car seats for our growing family and its been really tough to come to a decision. Doesn't help when you get people making comments like "Why do you worry so much about it. When you were a baby we just put you in the bassinet on the back seat. You were lucky if we did the seat belt up around it"
I really hate those comments too! :wall: Yeah well we survived so why take advantage of all the safety improvements these days and just hope for the best :rolleyes::
Just on the loop hole thing with medical insurance(there are definitely plenty of them!) But the medical cover isn't through your car insurance. It's through your car rego. So your compulsory third party part, nothing to do with your car's cover, it's different. So if you want to check on it in that respect it's probably better to contact your states road user service, but I don't think they really have had to deal with that enquiry so it's hard to get a definite answer.
For us the benefit of the seat giving better protection and therefore less risk of serious injuries, or minor with extended rear-facing too won over the risk of more chance of injuries, major and minor forward-facing so we went with importing. By no means an easy decision either!! Kind of like you're damned if you do damned if you don't. With the medical side, I can't imagine the hospital waiting to give treatment after an accident to see what type of car seat the injured child was in. I would think that the treatment would be received, which is the most important thing. If for some reason after the fact, there was a dispute about cover of costs, I'd rather know I did what I thought was best with the seat and deal with paying off any costs for the rest of my life, rather than going with an Aussie seat forward-facing earlier than I was comfortable with, and having a seriously injured or worse, fatally injured child. So that's how I came to the decision to import. I don't push for anyone else to import, that's just why I did, and I completely understand why others don't. It's one of those really tough ones!
I was a bit horrified when I went car seat shopping for #3 the other day. Was at my 4th baby shop for the day (ummm, I did a bit of shopping!!!) and at each and every one when I mentioned my seat dilemma the response from all of them was along the lines of just squeeze the Meridian seat and it won't matter how squashed it all is because at six months then you turn it around facing forwards and its then a narrower fit!!! One especially safety conscious fellow suggested I put my DDs in the 3rd row of my car, with DD3 in a baby seat in the middle row. All our anchor points are in the car ceiling, and he didn't see what my issue was when I commented that the tether strap from DD3's car seat would be going right over the head/neck of one of her sisters in the back! They also all looked at me as if I was some kind of freak when I said no way in hell was I turning my tiny baby forward facing at six months of age.
That's a mentality I really just don't get.
I know Lulu they just don't know any better. I tell people to be very careful accepting advice about car seats from shop assistants. Even though some of them are ACRI accredited I've still heard some terrible and dangerous advice from baby stores. The law says forward0facing is ok at 6 months and a lot of people assume they know what's best, sadly they just don't always. I'm not a qualified installer or adviser, but I've done my own research and just because your baby can hold their head up doesn't mean they'll withstand the forces in an accident forward-facing, not to mention their organs, and damage from the harness even head clashes with other occupants if they're forward-facing, doesn't even need to be a high speed accident.
ggrrr still confused about what to do about this.....
its doing me head in every time i get into the car
Have a look at carseat dot se Ginger.
That's a good site! But they don't have a lot in the way of extended harnessing, they're more about extended rear-facing. I think they only have one seat that forward-faces with the harness, the Britax Two-way I think. They sell European seats and not many forward-face with harness. I just spoke them about this last week. Maybe Securatot in the UK might have more range for FF with harness. I'm not sure but could be worth a look.:
I felt the same for ages!! It's so frustrating.:
I just had a quick look. The Two-Way harnesses forward-facing to 25kgs, there are a couple of others on carseat dot se that FF with harness but only to 18kgs.
Me too hun, I thought this was going to be a helpful thread :rofl:................ Just jokes kids!! ;):
My problem is that with my anxiety if I imported one I would worry non-stop about the "legalities"so importing is really not an option at all for me, so I need to work out what is the safest seat/combination for us within Australian standards and at the moment I can't work that out. Posted on my FB book page and all mixed replies, especially around H harness, the INfa seat that has anti-submarine design as opposed to the anti-sub clip :doh: Arrghhh!
At 4 my DD1 is still only 16kg, so a harness til 25 kg will do her until she is at least 6. A 18kg limit would put her about 5.5 before she would go to a seat belt. She is super tall and went into a booster by 3 tjough as she was too tall for all the Australian seats.:
It would be illegal now to have a 3year old in a booster with adult belt as they are required to stay harnessed until 4. Australia needs to wake up and provide appropriate seats!:
I think you mentioned LATCH being brought in in an earlier post. ISOFIX is being written into the standards now. It should be ready to go 2013. But this doesn't mean European(ISOFIX) or US (LATCH) seats will be legal here then. All it means is Australian manufacturers can produce them and sell them to install with ISOFIX, it doesn't mean we'll get extended rear-facing seats. There is campaigning to have type D seats (to rear-face up to 4years) manufactured for sale in Australia and also to have international ERF seats approved for use here. But it is very slow going.
Australia is very stubborn when it comes to car seats it drives me nuts. It's a lot to with protecting the Australian market :shakehead: my opinion of most Australian car seat manufacturers is pretty low after having contact with them about this. With the exception of Safe n Sound, they are making all the right noises so far about making a decent seat but are restricted by design and testing requirements here :wall:
Oh and the FF harnessed weight limit on the European seats was more for Ginger, she's not looking to ERF she wants to extended harness. carseat dot se is great for ERF not so good for extended harnessing. The Radians are good for both :)
S&S are owned by Britax.. it in their interest 'cause then they can use the same seats they sell else where.
Ginger maybe ring somewhere like kidsNcars as they have an advisory servixe
A lot of the Britax seats sold in Europe are really good seats, but don't meet Australian Standards so can't be used with out being slightly altered. Some don't have a top tether or anti rebound bar which are both required here. Some do though but there can be other design issues. Getting a straight answer on what they are is another matter :wall: Some issues here are to with the weight of the dummy for testing, but I'm still waiting on what the exact issue with that is too. Some tether but not Aussie style over the top, but Swedish style, to the floor, Australia won't accept that either.:
Britax also lost a huge mount of sales when ISOFIX was introduced in the UK as Europe had seats ready to go that were legal in the UK. So SnS know what can happen here if they're not ready to go. I doubt that will happen as they seem to have some weight in they say so of things like introducing ISOFIX and type D seats. There is a committee that votes and 'apparently' SnS may have members on there...could help it to stay at there pace. Not really my idea of providing the best safety for kids, but rather protecting their pockets. But that's a whole other story lol
In regards to using an imported seat affecting medical insurance, surely you don't have to use your cover? Just go public? I doubt that they would refuse to treat your child because they were in an illegal seat.
Tbh, I am very happy with the maxi rider and meridian for my two. I don't know much about the isofix option but we were recently in the Uk and hired two car seats with the rental car. They were not isofix and I was so unhappy with them. We could not get a tight fit with the seat belt, so they moved constantly. Plus, dd had no issues undoing the harness herself. Yep, Isofix might be the better option, but I think the top tether and seatbelt is the next best thing as opposed to just a seatbelt install.
if you get it from NZ like we got our Radian, it only cost $18 to ship TWO Radians :):
We have our 4yo in a Maxirider. Not sure of her weight ..hasn't been weighed in a while! Just looking up the weight recommendations on the Maxirider and it doesn't seem to say?? It just goes by the height of the shoulder straps? Can someone link me to the weight recommendations?
We have our 6yr old in the HiLiner with the anti submarine clip. I'm happy with how the belt fits him in this seat. It's the positioning of the adult belt that is important, and I'm ok with how it fits him on his shoulder, and he is good at staying in his belt too, doesn't loosen it or take his arm out or anything. He'll probably be in this booster well after turning 7, he's still on the lowest setting LOL.
I seem to have mispalced the manual for our hipod senator and when looking up a manual online through their site it doesnt have a weight range listed for the harness anymore (is that right?) just height levels and once a certain height on the seat then you have to go up? So have inbuilt harnesses improved? Does the weight matter or only height on new seats? I think Im going to be doing a lot of rummaging through cars to find the original manual but now Im confused.
Car accidents seem to be treated differently. You are pretty much forced to put in a claim. When DH had an accident, we had to put in a TAC claim. Ambulance cover in Vic does not cover trips from a car accident, so it is put on a claim or get a bill. Then of course there are all the follow on medical expenses, some of which are not Medicare covered, like physio.:
About 6 months ago or so, the Standards were changed from weight to height. So none of the seats now will mention weights, but rather shoulder height from the base. (Hence my earlier reference to the Britax seat with the longest RF they offer being a 35 or 36 cm shoulder height.)
What you are measuring is basically the height of the their shoulders from a seated base, rather than the weight of the child or the age.
Can you PM me where you got yours from Shant, pleasei!?:
I have no doubt that medical care at the time of the accident would just be a given. Its what might happen in relation to ongoing expenses that you may be looking at for years or even life. In some instances that would be something you would have to deal with, but God forbid you're looking at something like a child paralysed due to their injuries when you are looking at millions of dollars in care over that child's life.
Your claim for damages for injuries sustained by your child and ongoing treatment could be see you potentially looking at an apportionment of "contribution" or responsibility. For example, if you're not wearing a seat belt then your payout will be reduced by X%. The actual accident might have been in absolutely no way your fault, but you contributed to your injuries by your failure to wear a seatbelt. I have no idea if they would apply the same "logic" to using a carseat that while perfectly safe, is not an approved seat here, but that would be my concern.
I don't mean to discourage anyone from importing a car seat - as I've said previously I'm very torn on this myself - but its not just treatment at the time of the accident that may or may not be an issue.
I had a quick look at CTP insurance earlier and it was talking about lifetime care and support for bad injuries in an accident. It's that sort of thing that could be rejected in an insurance claim I guess? And yeah.. initial treatment can be within the hospital system, but there can be a lot of ongoing treatment that would be outside of the hospital and only partly covered by medicare, if at all. So it might not be something you can check with your insurer, as it could be the other person's insurance company that handles the claim.
I can't say I'm that up on safety standards and what is taken in to account. Is having a steel frame in the radian safe for other passengers? So many things can be dangerous in an accident, with projectiles, passengers impacting each other etc, it was just a thought.
The only thing I've really read up on is rear facing, and would love to see ERF being accessible here. It's certainly not against the law to rear face, it's just that we have no seats to do it!! So the idea of importing is very tempting for this alone. But we're hard pressed fitting 3 seats across the back as it is. No chance of fitting larger seats anyway :/
Good question about the safety of other passengers Liz! The steel frame is inside the car seat though, so reinforcing it. If you impacted with the seat in an accident it wouldn't be directly into the steel, otherwise the child in the seat would be at risk too. Around the frame is a plastic casing giving the shape of the seat along with EPS foam(energy absorbing) and the fabric cover and it's padding. The cover extends outside the seat to the sides. So I'd say impacting the outside of the seat would be a bit less padded than the inside IYKWIM but not hugely dangerous. I'd guess impacting the window or door could be more damaging, even a head clash with another passenger. But thanks for asking that. I'm going to do some enquiring. I'm still learning about passenger safety and it would be good to know if when seats are tested they are tested for safety of other passengers too. Although I doubt it apart from obvious things like sharp edges or protrusions etc.
The Radians are actually one of the slimmest seats on the market, and are marketed as a great seat for fitting 3 across in lots of cars. The Radian's size becomes an issue when rear-facing. The seats shell is very tall so when RFing it does take up a lot of space back to front. In smaller cars that will limit the room a front passenger has, and quite often means it's not able to be installed behind the driver.
You could be onto something there too with the ongoing insurance.
Thanks hun - can you link me or PM where you got this info from please? I am just looking at the current MR user guide on the Britax site and it says to use the seat as a Lap sash or H Harness from 14kgs... :o ETA: Just realised that is a minimum!:
At this stage we are going with either the S&S Hi-Liner or the Infa Vario Kid based on the teasing safety results. Still undecided about the H harness, am going to test a few out. As far as I can see is that they don't increase safety but are just as safe, so the question is why use one, and if used incorrectly then they decrease safety so still unsure. WOuld like to test it on the kids before we decide what to do. We need 3 seats all up as the MR we have will be ok we realised!
Just unsure what to do with my parents car - either swap cars with them, swap seats in and out all the time, or buy cheaper boosters for their car (which I don't really want to do but we can't afford 1k for 6 seats)
I got that from Britax. Had a lovely conversation with a rather rude woman there when I was researching bigger seats for DD2 about 5 months ago. She kept refusing to give the weight and age limits for the seats, would only give me the shoulder heights! lol Ended up speaking to her supervisor too. End result was that they were changing the guidelines from ages to height.: