# Britax Chaperone today's install with photos-experts,please help,is this ok?



## ILoveMySofie (May 28, 2005)

This afternoon dh and I took the Britax Chaperone to the car to install for the first time. Wow that is one long car seat. I tried moving the base around after he installed it, the first time I wasnt satisfied so I asked him to tighten as much as he could, and the second time I was really happy how solid it felt. We used latch.
However, the overhang seems pretty bad to me. I cant imagine that this could be ok, but maybe Im wrong? I took some pictures, they are below. Sorry there are no pictures with the actual seat on, I didnt realize until after that I had only snapped pics of the base, but the point was to show the overhang and you can see it this way better anyway. The seat itself, when snapped into base is not touching the front seat (though I did have to move the front seat up some in order for it to not touch).

(Also, we are going to install the Chaperone in the middle rather than on the side where it is on the pictures, but today we just tried on the side because DD1s booster has a protective pad underneath that we need to trim as it gets in the way. The seat of our car is the same in the middle as it is on the sides, meaning it wont help any further with the overhang).

I so so wanted the Chaperone to work







...is it totally hopeless?

Britax Chaperone in Honda Pilot

photo 2

photo 3

THANK YOU SO MUCH, don't know what I would do without your trusty advice!


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## an_aurora (Jun 2, 2006)

It looks close to me. Here's a discussion about the overhang.

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.p...haperone+pilot


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## ILoveMySofie (May 28, 2005)

thanks very much, just read through that. I have to admit I am no less confused, and will be reading over it again tomorrow when I am not as tired, and will have dh read it too.

One thing I read confused me in particular..can someone explain what this means

_"Most cars don't allow you to use outboard LATCH in the center. Both the car and the car seat manufacturer have to explicitly allow it."._
(there isnt a dumb enough faced smilie to portray me here now).


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## DahliaRW (Apr 16, 2005)

If your car has dedicated latch anchors in the middle, you can use them. But you cannot use the latch anchors from the outboard seat for the install in the middle. That's because latch anchors are pairs, anchored to the car. So in most cars it's:

x______x x_______x

In cars with 3 sets it's:

x_____x x_____x x_____x

If that makes sense.


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## ~Amy~ (Jun 7, 2009)

I am not comfortable with that much overhang. I'd say it's between 25-30% overhang. 20% is the max allowed. Can you get between the front seat & the base & really push it back into the vehicle seat? You might be able to get it in with less overhang, but as it is now, I'd say it's too much.


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## ILoveMySofie (May 28, 2005)

DH and I will do another install today...

measuring the base i get 22.5" and the overhang in our case falls just a touch under the 80/20% acceptable (as I understand) guideline. So going to do our best today to lessen the overhang by pushing the base into seat while installing. I really hope we can make it work, I like how solid this seat feels in the car.

thanks again for your help!


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## an_aurora (Jun 2, 2006)

I hope it works!


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## ~Amy~ (Jun 7, 2009)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *an_aurora* 
I hope it works!

Me too! Good luck!


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## BellaClaudia (Aug 1, 2008)

If you are in US drive by any police station, every police station has
somebody who does seat inspections and assist in correct instalation
of the seats. It is free and nice. they are really good.

It is amazing how many things one can ommit and althogh it looks great
to someone who is not experienced the expert might beg to differ as actually
statistic shows that close to 90% carseats are installed incorrectly








or something like that.. red it somwhere a while ago

good luck


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## ILoveMySofie (May 28, 2005)

aw, thanks everyone for the good vibes!

We finally got around to this today and installed the seat again and I am happy to report that pushing the base into the car's seat made a huge difference, both in the amount of overhang and the install itself- much more of a rock solid install, the base does not move side to side almost at all







Super rock solid.
The overhang is definitely smaller now..i have between 4.5 and 5 inches of it. I wish I could say firmly that its 4.5" but its very hard to say that totally for sure given that the edge of the car's seat is soft and rounded, and the base of the Chaperone is rounded also.
The seat also is great in the middle (we tried on side last time, because middle was occupied with a seat protector which we finally trimmed today), anyway, love it in the middle , it doesnt even come close to mine and dh's front seats and I can easily peek over my shoulder inside the Chaperone.

Personally, I feel comfortable with the install, but do like the idea of a police station check, and will keep that in mind to do in the near future.

I forgot to take a picture-will do once we install the seat in the car for good, and will post my review of actually using the seat.

THANKS ALL!


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## chickabiddy (Jan 30, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *BellaClaudia* 
If you are in US drive by any police station, every police station has
somebody who does seat inspections and assist in correct instalation
of the seats. It is free and nice. they are really good.

This is absolutely not true. Not every police station in the US is staffed by certified child passenger safety technicians.


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## Anastasiya (Jun 13, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *chickabiddy* 
This is absolutely not true. Not every police station in the US is staffed by certified child passenger safety technicians.

I agree. I have heard waaay too many stories about visits to police and fire stations ending up in poorly installed seats, or bad advice given.


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## triscuitsmom (Jan 11, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Anastasiya* 
I agree. I have heard waaay too many stories about visits to police and fire stations ending up in poorly installed seats, or bad advice given.

Yeah I agree. I think the police and fire station checks are actully pretty risky for the average parent who doesn't know to question credentials. Among the gems from the police in this area have been:

-keeping a child rearfacing over 1 year of age is illegal (the worst part is that the child they insisted on turning was only 18lbs and the law here actually says 20lbs at least to forward face)
-they sent a friend of mine away from a check with her rear facing seat installed through the forward facing belt path and told her she had it wrong when she came in when she questioned it
-I was told by a police family member who had taken the carseat training that having my at the time 2 year old rearfacing was dangerous. Thankfully she was willing to hear me and learn about the benefits of extended rear facing. She also let me teach her about rear acing tethers despite being told they were never safe in class (and I understand almost all seats are not designed to tether rearfacing but no matter what the seat shouldn't reading the manual be of the utmost importance?)


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## ILoveMySofie (May 28, 2005)

Im going to stop by Beverly Hills police station LMAO...i figured they HAVE TO know what they are talking about...and i definitely can, do and will question EVERYthing...lol Ill be their worst nightmare.

but on a more serious note, id be surprised if they didnt have good staff on hand at the station where im planning to stop by. Itll be interesting to see what I come back with-Ill definitely report back here.


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## chickabiddy (Jan 30, 2004)

Not all police officers are trained as CPSTs. Officers can be excellent officers and still not have the faintest idea what to do with a carseat. Child passenger safety training is not taught at the police academy. It is a separate course, taught by SafeKids instructors, that some officers choose (or are ordered to) attend.

If you want your seat inspected, find a CPST. That CPST may be a police officer, a firefighter, a nurse, or "just" a mom who cares. But don't assume that a police officer knows anything about carseats.

ETA: The CPST search engine lists no CPSTs in Beverly Hills, CA. Not all CPSTs are listed, but police officers usually are listed at their station.
https://ssl13.cyzap.net/dzapps/dbzap...AFEKIDSCERTSQL


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