Buckle crunch and seat fitting questions...

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

Have recently bought 'new' car. DS is 13mo and around 10.5 kg. His car seat is a Britax First Class Plus which fitted RF in the old car, but in the new one the buckle of the seat belt rests on the car seat when RF. That's buckle crunch, isn't it? Is there anything to be done about it or is it insurmountable?

Seat is now fitted FF (had to use suggested alternative belt routing due to same problem with usual routing) whilst I try and work out what to do about it. Cannot, absolutely cannot, afford new car seat atm, and can probably never afford an ERF seat. Kiddy car seats are looking like best contender right now but still, we can't afford it yet. Just cleaned ourselves out buying current car (and that was only £400).

How do you find out what seats fit what cars - I saw the Observer article/campaign the other week that said a lot of staff claiming to be able to fit seats werent doing it correctly - so where do you go to find out? Who do you ask?

[thisisyesterday]

it doesn't matter if the buckle just rests flat on the side of the seat

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

Does it not? From reading this I was getting the impression that if the buckle was resting on the frame it was unsafe

I wish there was somewhere you could take it and get it checked and KNOW they knew what they were on about.

[KittyWalker]

Do you live anywhere near Peterborough as Kiddicare were very good when we visited their showroom.

[SecretNutellaFix]

can you take a series of photos and upload them? we could take a good look at them and see if we can help out that way?

[TruthSweet]

It's only buckle crunch if the buckle is only resting partly on the frame or the clasp/buckle is resting on the frame like <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=buckle+crunch&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1024&bih=485&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=6BlBauN1O-1w6M:&imgrefurl=www.securatot.co.uk/rear-facing-car-seat-fitting-tips&docid=JxhvXqhP7QwMBM&w=410&h=211&ei=8XqITqe5BsKa8QPJ66BV&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=93&vpy=168&dur=107&hovh=161&hovw=313&tx=178&ty=75&page=1&tbnh=113&tbnw=219&start=0&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">this, or <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=buckle+crunch&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1024&bih=485&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=63cEvyPOlRdYEM:&imgrefurl=www.childcarseats.org.uk/choosing/fitting.htm&docid=xSJSAapPtMWIqM&w=200&h=176&ei=8XqITqe5BsKa8QPJ66BV&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=378&vpy=179&dur=3695&hovh=140&hovw=160&tx=99&ty=111&page=1&tbnh=139&tbnw=158&start=0&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0" rel="nofollow noindex" target="blank">this or <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=buckle+crunch&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1024&bih=485&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=6etFbo26vSqdFM:&imgrefurl=community.babycentre.co.uk/post/a7107615/citroen_saxo-_group_1_car_seat&docid=Mb72-gqHiT9F_M&w=1024&h=768&ei=8XqITqe5BsKa8QPJ66BV&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=303&vpy=179&dur=1624&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=140&ty=170&page=1&tbnh=132&tbnw=187&start=0&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">this.

If you have a fabric buckle stalk you can twist it a couple of times to shorten it before buckling it. Perhaps that might help?

[justforinfo]

I tend to suggest customers go to the dealership and see if they can have a shorter buckles installed, I'm not sure about twisting the fabric of the buckle as you'd not know how it'd react in a crash?

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

None of those links work TruthSweet - just take me to google images search page.

The buckle stalks are very long in this car. Even twisted twice, the buckle still rests on the frame of the seat. The car is 16 years old - would a dealership still be interested do you think?

[justforinfo]

I'm not sure if they'd do it but may be worth a shot? Failing that see if you can purchase a buckle that is shorter to have fitted (although not all buckles fit the seat belt clips??!) Also, it's not ideal either but can you turn the airbag off if it has one and fit the First Class RF in the front seat pushed right back?
Admittedly I have tried this in quite a few customers cars when this has been an issue and although the seat fits it reduces visibility! It was fine in a V.Old Ford Sierra in the front and my nissan Micra :)

[TruthSweet]

Sorry QofFE I'll try and link to the images another way.

[TruthSweet]

www.securatot.co.uk/rear-facing-car-seat-fitting-tips

www.childcarseats.org.uk/choosing/fitting.htm

[lenats31]

I like the description of buckle crunch on the Carseatinfo site. But the rest of what is onthere is nonsense incl. that most Scandinavian drive big cars. I and some of the car seat companies often find that small cars have just as much room or even more room for rearfacing seats than big cars. I live in Scandinavia and hav ebeen to Sweden several times. I have an idea what people here drive. I have seen a rearfacing seat that had been involved in a severe rearend accident (90 km/h). The 3 year-old in it walked away with just a small bruise on his forehead that he got from som debris. He was in the rear centre seat.