car seat opinions
Which convertible Car Seat is better. the First Years True Fit or the Radian Sunshine 65.?
I’m trying to decide which convertible car seat would be best for my son. I know they both have a forward facing weight limit of 65 lbs which is the highest i’ve been able to find. From what I can tell, they seem to be pretty evenly matched. Anyone who has experience with one or both of these car seats please give me your opinion thank you.
What is the age and weight of the child? The True Fit goes to 35 lbs rear facing, the Sunshine Kids Radian 65 goes to 40 lbs (manufactured after 09/08). Rear facing is five times safer and it’s recommended to rear face to the limits of the seat. So if your child is on the higher end of the growth curve weight-wise, they would benefit from the higher rear facing limit on the Radian. Both have tall shells, so they are comparable there.
Would you get the original True Fit or the True Fit Premiere? The TFP has an anti-rebound bar. This is an extra safety feature not available on most seats. The Radian can tether rear facing. These two featrues have similar functions. If it were between the original True Fit and the Radian, I would say the Radian is better because of the rebound protection being able to tether rear facing. But if you’d get the Premiere, they are even on that issue.
How many other car seats will be installed? If this is the only seat, it won’t matter. If you have other seats, the Radian is much narrower and does well on 3 across installs. The True Fit is pretty wide. The Radian has a steel-alloy frame which is pretty awesome. A Radian recently withstood 3 levels of parking garage collapsing on it. ( http://car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=90385 )
Do you have a store near you where you can try out seats that carries both? A lot of people have install issues with the Radian. I was unable to get a forward facing install that I was happy with in my car.
If I could afford it and it worked in my car, I would get a Radian. My preference would be the Radian XT SL – this one goes to 45 lbs rear facing, 80 lbs forward facing and has head wings for extra side impact protection. But the Radian 65 is still an awesome choice. The Radian and the True Fit Premiere are both on my list of top 3 favorite seats. Both are great choices, it just comes to personal preference.
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