One of the questions that gets asked often in CSFTL is "how do I do a seat belt install for the Chicco NextFit?" Now, I'll admit, there is a small learning curve with the NextFit seat belt install, as opposed to the LATCH install. However, once I figured it out, I actually find the seat belt install to be consistently easier and tighter than the LATCH install.
So, how do I do it?
So far, I have only attempted a rear-facing install of the NextFit, so please keep in mind that when I say "belt path" I mean the rear-facing belt path.
In a nutshell, what I usually do is sit/stand/kneel (whatever is appropriate, given the car I'm in) on the side of the NextFit opposite the seat belt, so that the buckle is next to my knee. Pull the seat belt out enough to feed it through the seat, but I don't pull it all the way. I don't want to lock the belt! Gently lifting the seat fabric that will be under the child's legs up just a little, I feed the seat belt through the belt path. I usually end up doing a pull/feed, pull/feed repeat until I can buckle the seat belt. Then I lean over the seat, resting just enough of my weight on the seat to compress it into the vehicle's seat, open the lock off, feed the shoulder belt through the lock off, and close and lock the lock off. Just the act of leaning over the seat usually puts enough pressure on the seat to compress it, and that is what gets a nice tight install. I don't put my entire body weight into the NextFit, just enough to push it down slightly into the car. Sometimes I'll need to lean/unlock/tighten/lock once more, especially on leather seats, but that's usually about it.
<One day I'll have a video of how I do a seat belt install...stay tuned!>
In a nutshell, what I usually do is sit/stand/kneel (whatever is appropriate, given the car I'm in) on the side of the NextFit opposite the seat belt, so that the buckle is next to my knee. Pull the seat belt out enough to feed it through the seat, but I don't pull it all the way. I don't want to lock the belt! Gently lifting the seat fabric that will be under the child's legs up just a little, I feed the seat belt through the belt path. I usually end up doing a pull/feed, pull/feed repeat until I can buckle the seat belt. Then I lean over the seat, resting just enough of my weight on the seat to compress it into the vehicle's seat, open the lock off, feed the shoulder belt through the lock off, and close and lock the lock off. Just the act of leaning over the seat usually puts enough pressure on the seat to compress it, and that is what gets a nice tight install. I don't put my entire body weight into the NextFit, just enough to push it down slightly into the car. Sometimes I'll need to lean/unlock/tighten/lock once more, especially on leather seats, but that's usually about it.
<One day I'll have a video of how I do a seat belt install...stay tuned!>
Huh? I'm Lost!
No worries! If I had read that paragraph when I first tried to do a seat belt install, I would have been lost too. Fortunately, I found more than a few resources to help teach me how to do a seat belt install, and I'm about to share them with you.
First and foremost: read the manual! All of it! I actually found most of the manual to be very easy to understand. Of course, the hardest parts for me to figure out were the seat belt installation instructions and the section on removing the cover (what elastic tabs?). However, reading the manual front to back is always the first step when you get a car seat, and even if you don't fully understand everything on the first pass, it will eventually start to make sense. This is especially true if you can find good resources to explain the bits and pieces that you don't fully understand. Review those sources, then go back and reread that section of the manual. I bet it will make more sense!
You can find a PDF copy of the NextFit manual here: http://www.chiccousa.com/nextfit/installation.aspx. The rear facing install is covered in depth on pages 38-55, with specific lap-shoulder belt instructions on pages 46-50. I'm not saying you can get by with *only* reading those pages, but this does give you a point to look closer while learning the seat belt install.
Insert Belt A through Slot B...
The Chicco website I linked right up there ^ has a LOT of videos for the NextFit, and I highly recommend you watch all of them at some point or another. Some are exclusive to the Zip, some are exclusive to the older-style NextFit (if your shoulder pads are NOT velcro, you may be especially interested in the video "Installing the shoulder pad replacement kit"...but the reason why is a blog article for another day). For now though, I want you to focus on the video "Installing with the vehicle belt (video only demonstrates in forward facing mode)".
"What?" you ask. "I thought we were doing a rear-facing install?" We are, but this is the only video that Chicco has released for a seat belt install, and it has a great shot of the forward facing lock off. The rear facing lock off will operate in exactly the same way, and can I be honest? It was the lock off's that were initially causing me trouble, so this was a great place for me to have started.
Expose the Belt Path
YouTube to the rescue! I wasn't satisfied with the Chicco video, because I still wasn't sure how to route the seat belt through the rear-facing belt path. Fortunately, CPST Meg Collins did a pair of videos on the NextFit. A short review (this is where I learned she's a CPST) and a wonderful video detailing how to do both a LATCH install and then a seat belt install. The whole video is great if you're still learning about the NextFit, but if you want to skip straight to the seat belt install, you'll want to jump to the 3:47 mark. She shows how to lift up the seat fabric to expose the belt path so you can actually see what you're doing.
Now, as I said, her entire video is a great review of the NextFit, but I feel I must add this disclaimer. In both videos, she has the NextFit on a chair while she talks about it. I would recommend never placing the NextFit on anything except the floor, especially if you're testing it out with a little. One time, my little guy thought it would be fun to play mountain goat around and on the NextFit and it tipped right over. Fortunately, it was sitting in the middle of the living room floor. You can imagine the tears if it had been up on the fireplace hearth, or on the couch...and then once I finally calmed down, I would still have to calm *him* down and dry *his* tears too!
My Personal Hangup
The only thing lacking from her video (in my opinion, anyway) was showing how the seat belt routes over the crotch buckle, and how to thread the crotch buckle correctly through the seat fabric. From my own personal experience, I can tell you it's very important to make sure that a) the seat belt does not sit on top of the crotch strap and b) the crotch strap is threaded through the appropriate slot in the seat fabric when you put the seat fabric back into place. To that end, I present these pictures, taken in my 2008 Chevrolet Impala (with the car lights on and flash on my camera as needed).
To orient you to my car, here's a picture of the seat with the fabric down. Crotch strap is in the inner setting.
Here is the same angle with the seat fabric pulled away. See how the crotch strap is first laid so that it is flat against the seat before threading the seat belt through?
Slightly different angle, all I did was unlock the lock off and gently pulled the seat belt towards the feet part of the seat to show that it's not sitting on the strap at all.
And, for the finishing step, here's what the final install looks like, from the shoulder belt side. As the manual states, do NOT pull on the shoulder belt once the lock off is closed, as you may break the lock off.
Review Your Install
So now, let's review my first set of instructions:
In a nutshell, what I usually do is sit/stand/kneel (whatever is appropriate, given the car I'm in) on the side of the NextFit opposite the seat belt, so that the buckle is next to my knee. Pull the seat belt out enough to feed it through the seat, but I don't pull it all the way. I don't want to lock the belt! Gently lifting the seat fabric that will be under the child's legs up just a little, I feed the seat belt through the belt path. I usually end up doing a pull/feed, pull/feed repeat until I can buckle the seat belt. Then I lean over the seat, resting just enough of my weight on the seat to compress it into the vehicle's seat, open the lock off, feed the shoulder belt through the lock off, and close and lock the lock off. Just the act of leaning over the seat usually puts enough pressure on the seat to compress it, and that is what gets a nice tight install. I don't put my entire body weight into the NextFit, just enough to push it down slightly into the car. Sometimes I'll need to lean/unlock/tighten/lock once more, especially on leather seats, but that's usually about it.
It probably makes more sense now, doesn't it? So far, I have done this install in a 2008 Chevrolet Impala with cloth seats (middle seat), an Audi A8 with leather seats (middle seat), a 2012 Honda Odyssey EX-L with leather seats (2nd row middle seat), and a 2011 Honda Odyssey EX with cloth seats (2nd row middle seat) and I can pretty much do a seat belt install in less than a minute, regardless of the vehicle.
Wait! We're Almost Done
Just two things to finish up the install. First, testing for movement. Meg Collins shows one way of checking for movement, but it's even easier than that with the NextFit. You don't need to grab the top of the shell above the belt path and shove with all your might. All you really need to do is grasp the belt path (I usually grab at the lock off area on the side of the seat that does NOT have the shoulder belt) with my non-dominant hand and give the seat a firm shake back and forth, side to side. So long as there is less than an inch of movement at the belt path, I'm done! If there's still more movement than that, that's when I do the lean/unlock/tighten/lock and check for movement again. Don't believe me that this is how you check for movement? Check out this article from the pros.
Lock It Up?
At this point, you can pretty much call the install good and walk away. However, I like to do one more step at this point, but only if the shoulder belt locks. Back in the manual, on page 32 it says that if your seat belt has a switchable retractor, you may switch the seat belt to locked as an optional final step.
BUT...BUT...BUT, the manual also says don't pull on the seat belt once it's locked. What gives?
I take the statement "don't pull on the seat belt" to mean that you absolutely should NOT pull UP on the seat belt, as that would put force on the lock off (and possibly break it). However, the section about switching the shoulder belt to locked means that you can slowly pull DOWN on the shoulder belt to pull it all the way out of the retractor, then feed it back in as it retracts (you should hear it clicking) until all the slack is removed. Once the slack is out of the shoulder belt, don't touch it any more!
"Why," you ask, "would I lock the belt when the whole point of buying the NextFit was the lock off?" Good question. One word: strangulation. One day (before I locked the belt) I was driving along and heard my little guy in the back seat playing with the loose shoulder belt with his foot. This paranoid mama immediately thought of the articles she's read talking about kids who accidentally pulled a seat belt out all the way, got it wrapped around limbs and necks and were severely injured, maybe even killed, as the belt slowly tightened. As soon as I stopped the car at our destination, I locked that seat belt. I also carry seat belt cutters in the car with me, which I highly recommend to anyone.
Any Questions?
As I said, I'm not a tech, so I may not be the best person to review your install for you. If at all possible, I highly recommend setting up an appointment with a local CPST. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the seat belt install, anything about the NextFit, or really anything car seat related, I'd like to point you to the Facebook group Car Seats for the Littles. I know I've mentioned them before, but the wonderful techs and admins have taught me so much, I'm sure they can teach you a lot too :)
The views, instructions, and opinions in this blog are solely my own. I am not a CPST, I am not affiliated with CSFTL, nor am I a Chicco representative. No money was made from this article, and though I strive for accuracy in all things, any errors are my own.
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