Rear-facing Tether (Britax, Combi Coccoro, Sunshine Kids Radian)
This video, courtesy of Britax, shows how to secure the rear-facing tether. It first shows how to use the tether connector strap to create a rear-facing tether anchor – and then demonstrates how to connect your child’s car seat’s tether strap to the tether connector strap. The tether connector strap typically gets wrapped around the seat TRACK of the front seat. Most seat tracks have a cosmetic plastic casing on them, that gets in the way of wrapping the tether connector strap. In most cases you can easily (well, you might have to pull pretty hard, but it is definitely doable) remove the plastic casing (they did in the video below) and you will get a much better fit with the tether connector strap. When the tether connector strap is removed (i.e. when the child goes forward-facing) you can then snap the plastic casing back on.
Note: The video shows two ways of tethering – Australian & Swedish style. Britax seats allow for either method to be used. The Combi Coccoro and all versions of the Sunshine Kids Radian ONLY allow for the Swedish method.
If you have a Combi Coccoro, you can get a rear-facing tether kit (i.e. a tether connector strap) by contacting their customer service department at customerservice@combiusa.com or calling 1-800-992-6624. Rear-facing tethering is not discussed in the Coccoro manual (it will appear in the manuals starting soon), but in 2011 Combi retroactively allowed rear-facing tethering on ALL Combi Coccoros (regardless of whether it is a new or older one).
If you have a Britax seat and lost your tether connector strap, you can order one from Britax ($5) (plus shipping).
Doesn’t Combi only allow the older Britax D-Rings to be used? Not the new ones.
CPSreview – The following is from Vera Fullaway (a CPS Instructor and Combi’s CPS advocate & outreach program coordinator): “We have the IMMI connector straps on order. We did not test with the AMSAFE or Sunshine Kids versions, but are confident that they, too would work.”
Britax now uses AMSAFE connector straps – the older Britax connector straps were made by IMMI.
Thanks!!
What are the Pros/Cons of installing a rear facing car seat European style with the belt wrapped around the back of the seat as compared to the belt path with both lap and shoulder??
Kristen – There are ZERO cons. The pros are: 1. it gives a more secure installation in a wider variety of vehicles than the standard “american” routing path (where the shoulder belt simply rests against the back of the vehicle seat, 2. It prevents the car seat from reclining any further – and the more upright the rear-facing car seat stays, the better, as the back of the car seat can do the most to absorb the impact the more upright it is (the more reclined the back gets, the more the forces get loaded on the child’s neck and shoulders). The shoulder belt behind the back works like an Australian style tether and 3. By virtue of using up most of the seat belt webbing just to get the car seat buckled in, you have less to do to get the car seat tight.
Nearly EVERY infant carrier in Europe routes the belt this way (and they typically do not use bases – so this is how they transport their infants and young toddlers) – and it works very well.
I have an Evenflo Triumph, purchased new in 2008. Can it be tethered in the rear facing position? I assume not, as it wasn’t listed, but just want to be sure!
Thanks!
Cortney – the ONLY seats that may be tethered rear-facing are those listed above: 1. ALL Sunshine Kids Radian seats (65, 80, XT, 65SL, 80SL, XTSL), 2. ALL Combi Coccoros (retroactive change by Combi to allow for this – it is not yet in their manuals, but is approved for ALL Coccoros), and 3. ALL Britax convertible seats (i.e. those that go rear-facing & forward facing)
I’m curious as to why it is only the Sunshine Kids Radian, the Combi and the Britax seats? Why can’t other rear facing car seats be tethered?
Other car seats were not designed to use the tether and have not been crash tested with the tether either. Using a rear-facing tether on a seat that does not approve of this could cause significant harm to the child as the seat may break since it was not designed to withstand the forces the rear-facing tether exerts on the seat.
Thanks for this – it is very timely for us and so much more helpful than trying to figure it out from written instructions. Just wondering, are there any sharp edges of the seat rail that could cut into the tether?
I typically don’t encounter any sharp edges – but if you did, you would not want to place the strap near/around them as they could cut the strap.