Final B Dual questions

[Murtette]

So, having dismissed the B Dual as DD looked uncomfortable in it and thinking I was going for a P&T Explorer, I tried her in a B Dual again today & she seemed fine and the lower seat looks so much more spacious that I've now veered back towards the B Dual. The guy in the showroom tried to be helpful but was getting all of his information from the Britax catalogue so I was hoping Tiggy or one of you other experts would know the answers. I'm thinking of getting the 2012 model (MIL is paying :-) )

• can I adjust the hood height on this model?

• do anyone have a problem with the basket not having a back to it? I had a vision of things falling out of it when I didn't have the back seat on.

• do Britax do footmuffs? I haven't been able to find any. Any suggestions as to what footmuffs are compatible? Do I finally have an excuse to get a buggysnuggle?

• I know I can use a cabriofix with oyster adaptors. Does anyone know if that set up works on both seats or only on the top seat?

• is the bottom seat really suitable for a newborn without the soft cot thing? DC2 is due in 6 weeks so hopefully it will be quite warm meaning I can get away without it but the seat didn't look long enought IYSWIM to last six months or so

• does it matter which child goes in front? I know with the P&T Explorer it says the heavier child should always go in front but, once DC2 is able to go in the front seat, I think I would prefer him/her in there and then DD can just hop in & out of the back seat

• is the "rear" child able to get in & out of the back seat easily? It was quite a wriggle to get DD in that seat today and that was without a baby in the front seat.

Thanks!

In order:
-Yes
-I rarely use it as a single but there's been no problem, probably because you don't need to pile things up as it's so big.
-Yes, they do. Here for example
-No, you can't put one in the lower position
-It is definitely suitable from newborn, but you may find that the baby's legs flop between 3 and 6 months without a soft coccoon. Gracos and Petite Star Zia coccons fit too.
-It doesn't matter for tipping reasons.
-It can be a bit difficult during a tantrum, but on the whole it's fine.

Gold star to Hypatia :)

I agree that a newborn would be fine at first, but as the baby gets bigger you will need something to support their legs.

I had no problem putting either child in the lower seat. You can also load up the lower seat, and then put the upper seat on top after. But the B-Dual is one of the easiest seats to access TBH.

Enjoy!!

Here's a soft carrycot in red

and one in sand

If you're buying I store, get the best prices on the Internet and try to get them to do you a special bundle deal.

Brilliant! Thank you, especially Hypatia. I think I'd got confused between the soft carrycot & footmuff. It seemed a bit of an oversight for Britax to not do one.

Now, these really are my final, final questions!

• where do you put all of your stuff when you're using a tandem? I'm used to slinging my changing bag over the handle bar but won't it just whack the child in the rear seat in the face if I do that?

• if your front DC sits with their feet on the seat (which is what my DD immediately did and, from Best Buggy, what I think Tiggy's daughter does), how do you stop the seat getting filthy? That bit of the seat is the same fabric as the rest of the seat rather than something which you could wipe or brush down easily;

• how wide is it? I know the measurements but can't envisage whether that will actually cause any problems in getting in & out or around shops. Given I'll also have a friend's BJCM double for walking to nursery or other occasions where I think there is enough "width", I am worried about having a wide tandem.

Thanks! Yes, I am overthinking this but I'd rather worry about doubles than what life is going to be like with two DC!

• The basket has great access from the front, sides and even just going throug the back. There is a lot of space taken up by the soft carrycot, but there'll still be room left. You can still put a changing bag on the handle, you just need to adjust your bag's strap so it either sits really high away from the baby or it sits low (which is easier when the seat's more upright for your toddler).

• Use a liner or footmuff and then just remove that for washing. I'm washing our B Dual's fabrics at the moment and needed a screwdriver to remove them so it's not something I'd do regularly. We've mainly had footmuffs on and just zip the top off when it's not needed.

• It's supposed to be 69cm with the mud/finger guards. We don't use the guards and it measures 67cm without them. That's compared to the BJCMD measuring 76cm wide.

BTW the reason we don't use the wheel guards is we find them unnecessary at the moment. The girls can't reach the wheels anyway and have never attempted to, and they have never had mud or anything splashed on them. Also, to get it into my mum's boot we need to remove one wheel, but you have to remove the guards to be ale to remove he wheel.

I have been testing my new B-Dual this week, with DS2, DC4 isn't due for another five weeks, so can answer some of your questions and will lurk for the one I don't know the answer to!

I bought a skip hop changing bag which clips on very close to the handle rather than just slinging the shoulder strap over. It doesn't seem to get in the way of the second seat, especially with the handle bar adjusted upwards.

Need an answer to this one!

With the mud guards on it is 73 cm, mine is the 2011 one though, not sure if the 2012 is the same.
This grates with me as it means I could have had the Donkey after all, but never mind. It does feel wider than I am used to, I had a Cameleon before, but it still fits through everywhere I could with the Cam.

notso It says on their website it's 69cm wide, but I always thought it looked a lot wider with the mud guards. I'm glad you confirmed that. I've just measured it again and it's definitely 67cm without them so the guards really make a big difference. Ours is 2011 too, but they're supposed to have the same dimensions as the 2012 version.

I will hold my hands up and say I did use a Christmas Cracker tape measure to measure so it may not be the world most precise

Just a couple of quick questions ItsMyLastOne
I put the footmuff on this morning for DS and found it sagged down when I put him in it and it was hard to fasten the straps. is there a way of holding it up?
The straps are at the loosest so can't really do anything with those but I wouldn't be able to fasten them at all if he had had a thick coat on. He is only 15 months.
Also have bought the hard carry cot, it's not here yet but can it go in the lower position?
Finally I want to have DC3 facing me in the top seat and DC4 facing away in the lower seat, this doesn't seem to be an official position, but it seems doable until DC3's legs get longer. Is that right?

Sorry for hijack Murtette

The footmuffs we have are actually for the Britax B Lite so they're different. We've never had any problems with them sagging though. Sorry I can't help on that one.

The straps are tight, but children tend to grow more height wise and you'll probably find the straps don't get any tighter on your DS. the girls are 18 months and the straps still seem tight and in the depths of winter it was sometimes a small battle to get them strapped in, but they both still fit fine. It may well be possible to change the straps in the future if they're getting too tight.

The hard carrycot can only go on the top.

The problem with having the top seat parent facing is that you can't do it with the adapters which push the top seat away from bottom seat. The best thing to do is tilt the top seat's footrest up. We used it with the top seat parent facing until the girls were about 12 months maybe. We probably could have done it for longer though TBH.
It's very very tight at the bottom if you have a hard carrycot on top. Have a look here, it's the last photo.

Sorry notso I just re-read that and I didn't mean to sound like I think you don't know children grow more height wise, sorry. I just meant it's something you don't always think about, but I was told ages ago how their arms and legs grow more than their torso, and I've found that to be the case.

Thanks, and no need to apologise I got what you meant about the height.

I have had a fiddle and tightened the draw string on the hood bit of the footmuff which should hold it in place more. I guess I could look at clipping a universal harness on the D rings if DS gets chunkier.

Can't believe I have messed up with the hard carrycot, the ability to use it sold it to DH. He doesn't like the soft carrycot idea and I don't really want to fork out for it either on top of everything else.

Gah! why is this double lark so damn difficult!

I know!!! We're very likely to be buying a new icandy peach blossom soon and spending a bloody fortune to get almost everything we want out of a double.

I personally think using a soft carrycot at the bottom or just using the top seat is best for a new born. It's annoying that the hard carrycot doesn't work better. Have you tried putting it on (with the adapter things to give more space at the bottom) and putting your DS in the bottom seat to see how comfortable he seems? If he's smallish and/or doesn't mind being quite reclined then it may be ok.

The hard carrycot hasn't arrived yet. I got it on Ebay but it is unused so i suppose I can sell it on if it's no good. The soft carrycots seem so expensive for what appears to be a glorified footmuff though.

We were going to get the Peach Blossom 2 but DC4 is due in just under 5 weeks and DH and I wanted to have the pram ready.
My plan is to see how it goes with the B-Dual and if it doesn't work out sell it and my Cameleon to fund the PB2 when available or sell it and use the Cameleon/sling/buggy board/ and an extra single for when there is two adults.

The Graco soft carrycots work well too. here and are a lot cheaper. It's worth looking at them anyway.

Great thanks for that. I may be really cheeky and ask my friend if we can borrow their Graco one then.

Notso - I can get DD2 who is 110cm & 17kg (4.3y but has hypermobility so can get tired easily) in the bottom seat in a coat (not a puffer type though!) and the same in the top seat.

That's with the incredibly thick Britax cosy toes on the bottom seat and a Kaiser cosy toes on the top seat too! Not that either of the cosy toes do up at the feet for her but they kept her lap warm in the winter

I have a Graco soft carry cot from a friend for DC4 and it looks like it will fit well in the bottom (not tried it in the top seat yet).

I think I must be doing something wrong because the straps left big red marks on DS's shoulders and he was only wearing a long sleeved T-shirt .

Are the straps on the top slot and are they fully extended? Is he 'broad' as well as tall?

I have a 2010 Atomic Denim version so maybe they made the straps smaller on earlier/later versions? Or maybe I have just the right proportioned children for B-Dual straps!

Thank you for the continuing help. I need to go & re-measure the front door (I know we had room with spare for 69cm but I'm not sure how much spare room there was) and check out the straps on DD.