Ok Cool I think my wife and I are going to one of the R'Us stores on thursday. I hope they will let us test them. I will keep you up to date with what we find out.

 

 

FYI the top hook is not used if you are using the truck seatbelt to secure the child seat. the only time it is used id if you are using the clip in anchors (latch lower anchors tether something ...)

 

Well we went to babies are us last night. It fits. It is tight but it fits.


By the way. How can you deal with 2wd in Norther IL??? I couldn't get anywhere without 4X4 here in PA in the winter. Just a week or two I was driving through 1 foot deep snow coming home from work.

 

Hahaha Im 23 but I am NOT a millennial!!! I swear half the time I feel more like the guys from Grumby Old Men movie. I find myself saying "back in my day..." (see beginning of thread lol) I go to the beach or even when I was in college and get frustrated with the "kids" smoking weed, drinking, yelling, and men kissing men. Then the stinking socialists riding in the WAAAMBULANCE because they have a liberal arts degree and cant get a job and asking Bernie to pay for it. I guess it comes from growing up on a farm where the radio played Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, And Shawn Hanity lol.

 

Laws.... While many of them are born of tragedy - for the most part, they are guidelines if you need to look something up. If you ask "What are the safest child seat configurations possible?", there's a law to be found. Will you get pulled over for having a car seat that's not quite legal? I've never heard of it. If, heaven forbid, there is an incident related to the car seat - that's the only time one might be liable in a poor choice of car seats.

I have first-hand knowledge (family member in a situation) that last scenario doesn't typically invite scrutiny from law enforcement. A decent car seat in a reasonable configuration is considered "due diligence", but a visit to the law pamphlet is still in order. You want your family safe, but not in a bubble.

I've had no issue with getting my grandchildren's car seats in the extended cab... and I ride the seat all the way back. I just tilt my backrest forward until I can steer with my teeth. I'm kidding about that last part... I can just touch the wheel with my nose.

 

"They are really more like guidelines" One of the all time great movie quotes. lol

I agree. In many cases the spirit of the law is more important than the letter.

 

Unfortunately the letter of the law is what any zealous prosecuting attorney will follow. The car seat we have for our grandson requires the use of the tether when mounted in the forward facing position. Even though I can disable the pass air bag, the shape of the front seat prevents the tether from properly holding the seat in position, and the backseat is a non-starter. The built-in hooks and the lapbelt pass through the same location on the carseat, so that's irrelevant. Generally, I don't get stopped while driving ever, but if I were stopped for anything, and the officer had any knowledge of the older extended cab trucks, he'd probably have a good idea just peering thru the window that the seat wasn't properly installed. And so my grandson doesn't ride in my truck at all.

Now I know I can get it in the TR6, but my family will never believe that little thing is safe for anybody.

 

Older vehicles are typically grandfathered in, or we could never drive a '57 Chevy without breaking the law. It would be weird if a cop pulled somebody over because they were driving with a child in a car seat in a 1964 Mustang... because it has no tether strap. At least they won't have to worry about an air bag on the passenger side.

 

I don't think that a '57 Chevy even came with seat belts, but I am not sure when that became Federal law. Just remember having to install after market stuff in the first couple of cars that I owned.

 

The 57 Chevy and it's OE equipment are grandfathered, but car seats and child safety laws are what they are. It is absolutely illegal to put a child in a completely stock 57 Chevy, as it did not have seat belts, and there's no way to properly install the required car seat. And you can get hammered for it. I was stopped once because a cop thought I had a kid in my 49 Chevy.

 

'57s and '49s aside... what about '64s with seat belts and '00s with shoulder straps and no tethers?

 

As hydroman said, you can buy approved seat belts for older cars, I wonder if there are approved aftermarket kits for installing car seats, the latch rings and such. I had thought about putting a strap behind the seat back cushion on my truck for this reason, but I was overruled by Mom

 

As long as whatever child safety device you're using is properly installed, I'd say you're good. Of course, should anything happen and it's later determined that those 53 year old seat belts and mounting hardware are decayed or rusted, you can get in trouble anyway.

 

I don't know how "official" this is, but this site says that all forward facing car seats require the tether. And since it implies that the tether anchors can be retrofitted, I would think if you mounted any tether anchor in your truck, you'd be fine. The site says all cars since MY1999 have them, my e99 truck doesn't have tether anchors anywhere. I know the newer trucks do, can anyone verify they existed in any of the versions of our body style trucks? If so then that anchor system could presumably fit into our trucks.