Joie tilt? (Or alternative…..?)

[ReeseWitherfork]

Joie tilt seems to tick all of my boxes, but it’s very cheap which makes me weary. Anyone have any experience of it or any idea why it comes up so much cheaper?

I only know the basics about car seats and get a bit lost when people talk about safety guidelines and national/international safety specifications.

@BertieBotts would love love love your advice if you’ve got a spare moment pretty please (sorry I know that’s a laughable concept).

Haha no it's OK :)

The Joie Tilt is quite a basic seat which is why it's cheap. It doesn't have a lot of safety, comfort or user-friendly features. For example, to change the height of the straps you have to manually unthread them, it isn't very padded, it's quite small, the rear facing mode has to be reclined and the seatbelt is in the way of the door to access the seat.

The main advantage of it is that it can rear face up to 18kg in theory, however the shell of it is quite short and advice seems to differ whether or not you can keep using it rear facing once the top of the child's head is higher than the top of the shell. If you can't or don't feel comfortable going over this, then it only tends to last until approx 90-95cm which is about 2.5 years old, much less time than most 18kg rear facing seats.

There is an alternative which is the Graco Extend LX R129 which is quite similar but has resolved this issue due to an inbuilt headrest, which is a better option than the Joie Tilt for most people, and about the same price. Unless you've found the Joie Tilt on offer for £50 somewhere I don't see any reason to choose the older Tilt over the newer Extend.

What are the boxes you're trying to tick? I can see if there's anything better for you.

Thank you!

The graco extend looks good on first glance. I’d not seen that one before, I’ll do a bit of reading.

The main box to tick is width, nothing over 43… but the narrower the better. RF for as long as possible is quite important to me too. And a good tilt is always preferable. It’s for 9kg onwards. 9th centile so should be able to get the most out of a seat that needs replacing, although obviously one that sees us through for as long as possible is always the preference! Isofix points. But won’t be removing in and out so I’m quite happy with a seatbelt option.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer, I really appreciate any help with these things because I do find myself in a rabbit hole. Plus we’re find money a bit tight these days so I feel more pressure not to make a mistake!

Narrow because it needs to fit on a plane seat or between two other car seats?

You could also consider the Axkid Move/Minikid. Although these are wider overall, they are quite narrow at the base which gives you a bit of leeway. Isofix points often means that a support leg is permitted. I'm curious at needing 43c width but having isofix access though?

If I could go back in time I’d buy an extended rear facing seat which means they can rear face up to 25kg. Most car seats will advertise as rear facing up to 18kg and say this is approximately age 4 but all children vary and I’d personally rear face as long as possible.

@BertieBotts I need one either side of a middle car seat. For my twins who are just coming up to 9kg. The baby seats they’re in are isofix and the biggest issue with that is that there’s no leeway; I suppose in theory a seatbelted seat could butt up to the door more, but there still isn’t much wiggle room. I think their baby ones are 41/42cm.

@Bumble84 Yeah I think any foresight with car seats is useful! Else you end up buying hundreds of the bloody things. They’re really diddy so I reckon I’ll hit the stage of wanting to flip them round before they are 18kg anyway.

I think the tilt is outgrown by height quickly because of a short shell. The steadi is supposed to be taller but mind the kids height and weight percentiles too.

Ah I see what you mean. OK so it's for a main use car seat for the outer side seats?

Do you have any Axkid retailers near you? I'd probably want to go and look - you can find the Joie belt fitted rear facing seats in any number of high street chain stores, and see the issue with the belt crossing the door. But the Axkid seats are harder to find to see in person. It might be worth checking.

Who's in the middle? Is a too-large rear facing seat going to cause an issue with strapping middle passenger in?

Have attached a few pics - the one showing two car seats from the back is comparing Britax Max Way (which is a similar type of seat to Axkid Move) and Joie Tilt side by side to show how much the angle differs - the Tilt therefore takes up more space.

The picture of the grey seat with red clip, seatbelt going across and black interior is Joie Tilt, to show you how the seatbelt might get in the way. It's also quite a good view showing how compact the Tilt is inside (not much leg space etc).

Then the picture of the grey seat with black headrest and blue clips is Axkid Move, to show where the seatbelt goes when it's installed.

Although these are pictures of the Tilt the Extend is very similar in these aspects.

Just realised I never came back to say thanks Bertie, really appreciate your expertise. I’ve got a shop near me listed on the axkid website so I’ve got a trip there on my to do list. The pictures are really helpful. Son is currently happy to climb into the middle seat via the front but he may begrudge doing that as he gets older; hadn’t considered the seatbelt placement in all of that. And hadn’t heard of axkid before. So yes, a big thank you!