# Four Carseats in a Ford Freestar - Possible?



## pampered_mom (Mar 27, 2006)

We have a Ford Freestar. The owner's manual shows four locations for LATCH: front passenger, two in the middle bench, and one in the rear bench. I'd rather not put a carseat in the front passenger seat (even though the air bag would automatically be shut off b/c it wouldn't be enough to trigger the weight sensor in the seat.

...but I'm wondering if I could install two carseats on the back bench with the seat belt instead of using LATCH. I already have to install one of them with the seatbelt b/c my ds is heavier than the weight limit. The back bench has three seatbelts and looks wide enough for me to install a carseat on each side of the back bench. There is only one top tether point on the back bench and it's below the middle seat. Aside from talking about LATCH there's no discussion in the owner's manual as to whether this is possible.

We're going to be babysitting for some friends of ours on a semi-regular basis and I'd like to be able to go somewhere to run errands or what have you, but don't want to have to take two cars.

TIA!


----------



## mama2soren (Feb 12, 2009)

I would do a seatbelt install in the 3rd row hands down over a LATCH install in the front seat.

What seats are you working with? Many car seats install very easily with the seatbelt. Will the child you're babysitting be RF or FF? If FF, I'd definitely look into seeing if you can have another tether anchor or two retrofitted in the 3rd row. Someone here might know, and/or you can call Ford. It's often very inexpensive, if not free, to have tether anchors retrofitted.


----------



## chickabiddy (Jan 30, 2004)

With rare exceptions -- and AFAIK the Freestar is not one of them -- vehicles that are factory-equipped with tether anchors cannot have additional anchors added. Try to arrange seats so that rear-facing children or boostered children are in the seats without tether anchors.


----------



## bobandjess99 (Aug 1, 2005)

I can get 5 carseats in a freestar if i have to lol.
You can always install using the seatbelt. LATCH is not better, it's just different, and was supposeds to "simplify" the process.
The only thing is that its always best to put forward facing children in places where their seat can be top tethered. This creates a lot of unhappiness in parents, because generally it means you need to put your older, FFing kids in that middle row closest to you, and the rearfacing babies in the back where there aren't top tethers. Most parents dislike this, but it is the safest way to do it.


----------



## maddybu123 (Aug 3, 2010)

Hi everyone, I am a new member just joined the community
to share my knowledge with others.


----------



## Charrey (Jul 27, 2010)

I drive a Ford Freestar and you can easily fit four carseats into the vehicle. It's just hard to maneuver into the back to get an infant out.


----------

