redbelt_tsd's Full Review: Sunshine Kids Radian Granite Convertible Car Seat
I ordered this direct from Sunshine Kids with the intention of using it for my oldest son (5yo, 43" & 40lbs) in my husband's work/pool vehicles (typically a Ford Escape or F-150). Since I also have two younger children in harnessed carseats whatever fit the bill was needed to be very narrow to work in a 3 across scenario. My son had been riding in a Graco UltraCargo, but has outgrown the harness by weight. I am also a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician so I have worked with a multitude of carseats, and have taken the national standardized test to be able to instruct other parents on the proper installation of their carseats.
Cosmetics -
The seat is cosmetically appealing. I purchased the "Granite" which is grey/black. The fabric quality is very nice, and has a micro-suede feel to it. There is velcro on the sides of the cover, and it's thick, stiff velcro, not chintzy cheap stuff.
Hardware -
The chestclip is very easy to use. Might even be the easiest one that I've ever used, extremely user friendly. The straps are middle of the road in twisty-ness, not as non-twist as Britax, not as twist-prone as Cosco. They are softer than the Britax ones, so I would fathom a guess that this may contribute toward the small twist factor. The buckle is easy to work. The buckle tounges fit well into the buckle recepticle, however the slot where the harness feeds through seems to be a smidge smaller than the width of the harness strap so it has a tendancy to "fold" a smidge at that spot. If not consistantly checked and reflattened, this appears that it could create a permanent fold. The recline mechanisim for forward facing is easy to use, and well labelled. The LATCH strap has the nicer "Britax" style clips that release with the push of a button. These store on the back of the seat by clipping into a designated storage area that is well labelled. (Yaay! No more chicken straps to keep them from flapping in the breeze!) The v-shaped tether anchor has easy to use components, and again has a storage area on the back of the seat. The rear-facing foot detatches, and I fear that it will get lost by many parents as it will be separated from the carseat itself while it is in use in the forward facing position. The rear-facing foot is easy to attach, and well labelled on how to install. The foot tends to get "stuck" when you try to remove it, and you may have to wiggle it and play with it to get the section that clips on to the forward facing recline bar to release. The splitter plate for the harness is a newer style, both shoulder straps slide into one slot, I'm not fond of this one. I prefer the traditional triangle shaped splitter plate with separate slots for each strap, as with the square shaped one, it makes it difficult to cram both straps into the slot...and if you move kids around between seats as much as I do, that needs to be easy to do.
Ease of Use - Folding
The seat is very easy to fold. There are two latches on the back/bottom curve of the carseat that you flip forward, and then push on the base of the carseat to fold. Secure the fold by velcroing the red strap around the obvious gold colored metal bar (since the seat arrives folded, this is seen when taken out of the box). To unfold, unvelcro the red strap, and push down on the seat bottom until a distinct "CLICK" is heard.
Ease of Use - Forward Facing
This seat is easy to adjust the harness in the top slot. All slots are reinforced, so you can use any slot for forward facing. HOWEVER, when I used the middle slot (top rear-facing slot, 3rd from the bottom) in the forward facing position it made it nearly impossible to adjust the harness. The splitter plate would get "stuck" going around the bend of the seat in the back. I had to reach my hand between the top of the vehicle seat and under the bottom of the Radian and PULL the harness adjuster strap down to make it around the "bend". This was not an easy adjust, and I would NOT want to do this everytime I used the seat.
Ease of Use - Rear Facing
This seat is not easy to adjust the harness in the rear-facing positions. Again, the splitter plate gets caught around the bend of the carseat and you must pull the shoulder straps down at the exposed back of the carseat, and then pull the harness adjuster strap by the childs feet to get a good adjustment. While not as difficult to adjust as the above described scenario, it still is not a smooth "1-pull" adjustment and could easily get tiresome. (For the other Techs reading this, it reminds me of adjusting the Graco ComfortSport in the rear-facing position...only worse.)
Installation - LATCH
I have only had the chance to install this seat in one LATCH equipped vehicle, a 2008 Ford Escape. (No, that is not a typo, my hubby is a vehicle engineer on the Escape program and he can bring the pre-production vehicles home on occasion. ;-) ) It installed well in the rear-facing position with the LATCH system in the center of the vehicle. It installed rock solid in the forward facing position with the LATCH system in the center of the vehicle. I did not get a chance to use the tether as I was not going to use the carseat, I was just trying installations, and it was about 10 degrees outside!! However, this is the only Non-Britax seat that allows for rear-facing use of the tether which adds a big plus for stability and safety.
Installation - Seatbelt Rear-Facing
I have tried three installations rear-facing with the seatbelt. 1999 Chevy Suburban 3rd Row center, lap-belt only & 2nd row driver's outboard, lap/shoulder belt and 2008 Ford Escape center. In the Suburban 3rd row center I could not get an acceptable installation. As tight as I could get it the seat would still move more than the acceptable 1" at the beltpath. In the Suburban 2nd row outboard I did get an acceptable installation, it was very difficult and I had to twist the buckle stalk to make it fit. In the Escape I did get an acceptable inatallation with the seatbelt but it again was difficult, and the crotch strap kept getting in the way of feeding the vehicle belt through the beltpath considerbly adding to the frustration level.
Installation - Seatbelt Forward-Facing
I have tried several installations forward-facing with a vehicle belt in 3 different vehicles and have only had ONE acceptable installation. This acceptable installation was not in a typical seating position so I don't even count it. If you could get acceptable installations, this seat would be extremely valuable to familys who need to put 3 carseats across as it is very narrow, and would work well in that situation.
With this extremely poor performance issue I can not recommend this seat to anyone. In the Suburban... 3rd row outboard (lap/shoulder belt detachable for removeal of 3rd row), the combination of the placement of the belt path and the type of seatbelts made for an extremely loose unable to be remedied fit. The seat moved 4+ inches at the beltpath. 3rd row center (lap belt only), the position of the beltpath positioned the latchplate right at the corner of the beltpath and would not lay perpindicular to keep the vehicle belt locked. I could not get the latchplate into the beltpath, nor by twisting the belt stalk could I remedy the situation. At the best, the seat moved 6+ inches at the beltpath. 2nd row outboard (lap/shoulder belt) the position of the belt path, and the latchplate again came together at the corner of the belt path making the installation unacceptable. I could not twist the buckle stalk as it is shared on a cable with my daughter's carseat and it was trying to twist her buckle stalk as well. At the best, the seat moved 3+" at the beltpath, possibly more as my daughter's carseat was right next to it prohibiting me from trying to wiggle it further.
In the Escape... Center position with a lap shoulder belt. The fit on this one at first try appeared to be acceptable, however once I kept wiggling it started moving more, and more, and more until it was moving 6+" at the beltpath.
In the 1998 Mustang... due to a family emergency transportation situation, I installed this seat in the front seat of my husband's Mustang with the vehicle seat pushed all the way back. I did get an acceptable installation in this position, however it was difficult, and since this is not a typical installation this should not count as a good install. Also, after the seat had been installed overnight, the vehicle belt had managed to "fold" over in the beltpath so that it was not laying flat anymore and was essentially folded in half.
On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being "DO NOT BUY!" and 5 being "YOU GOTTA HAVE IT!" this seat would recieve a 2.
**IF** you can get a proper installation it could be a very nice seat, however with the severe installation issues and non-user friendly harness adjustments while using the rear-facing slots, I am compelled to not recommend this seat to everyone. This is definately not a seat for Joe & Jane Schmoe to walk in off the street and purchase. Jane would be pulling her hair out, and Joe would be peeved that he spent $200 on "THAT?!"
If you are considering purchasing one, make sure that you have a technician help you install (hopefully prior to purchasing) it to assure that it does fit your car and your child properly.
Here are a few pictures of my middle son (3 years old, 30lbs) and my daughter (16 months, 19lbs) using the seat in the rearfacing position. (You will need to copy/paste the link into a new browser window)
http://strollerfreak.itgo.com/carseats/ReideRFRadian1.jpg
http://strollerfreak.itgo.com/carseats/ReiganRFRadian2.jpg
(She was less than thrilled to be "modeling"...LOL)
Here are two pictures of my oldest son in the seat uninstalled so you can get an idea of how high the top slots are on it. He has a seated height (bum to shoulders) of 15" and has TONS of growing room in this seat if I could just get it to install in a vehicle!!
http://strollerfreak.itgo.com/carseats/ReillyRadian3.jpg
http://strollerfreak.itgo.com/carseats/ReillyRadian1.jpg
*** March 4, 2006 ***
Took the Radian to a used car dealership today to try an installation in a 2001 VW Passat for a friend who was considering purchasing a Radian and has a Passat. I finally had an acceptable installation with the vehicle belt!!! It was not easy like installing a Britax, but it was definately do-able.
When I installed the Radian in the passenger side outboard position, I had to work at getting a good installation; leveraging myself off the ceiling down into the carseat to push it down as hard as possible. I pulled the seatbelt down by the buckle while I was standing in the carseat to get as much play out of the seatbelt as possible. Checked for the 1" rule at the belt path, and I was very close. Got back into the seat, again leveraging myself off the ceiling and this time pulled with all my strength on the vehicle belt up by the retractor, getting 3-4 "clicks" out of the locking mechanisim in the retractor. This time when I got out of the seat, I had a very good installation, with the seat moving less than 1/4" side to side even on the vehicles leather seats.
Bad news was that again the center seating position was in compatible with the carseat, when installed as tightly as possible I still had more than 1" of movement at the beltpath in the forward facing position. I beleive a contributing factor to this poor fit was the vehicles headrests pushing the top of the Radian foward, away from the vehicle seat at the top. If the headrests were able to be removed, this may alleviate the compatibility issue.
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