(Although that’s not an adjustment you’ll have to make often, doing it on the Rava is far more pleasant than on most seats.) However, the Rava has a few flaws. For one, though the system enables you to get a secure seat belt install without breaking a sweat, it doesn’t have a seat belt lock-off, so the seat belt can continually slide through the router. Over time, we found that because the seat belt wasn’t locked off, the car seat didn’t stay totally in place; it started to rotate, and we needed to reinstall it to make it straight again. The Rava does have a high rear-facing weight limit of 50 pounds—and an adjustable footrest that adds 2 inches of legroom in the rear-facing position. But in practice, we didn’t find that the extension panel added much room, especially compared with the panel on the Graco Extend2Fit Convertible.
The manual states that the panel must be in position 2-4 for a child over 40 pounds. When CSFTL asked Graco if this is absolutely required, since the seat is far more compact without it, they stated that it’s not misuse to keep the panel tucked away. There are two cupholders with this seat, and both are required to be assembled when the seat is bought. They click in with ease provided they are in the correct direction. How many recline positions does the SlimFit R44 car seat have?
Even though she is over the weight limit for rear facing, I put her in to show that children very likely WILL get to the full 50 pounds rear facing in this seat. Even tall children, like the 6 year old doll, have allowed us to see that this seat is tall enough to last rear facing. When in the car with the extender fully out, she was quite comfortable and enjoyed the seat quite a lot. She asked to go for a ride in it, though I had to turn her down because she’s over the weight limit.
So if you’re getting this seat, a darker shade may be a better bet. The Graco Extend2Fit Convertible has a lot going for it, including pretty easy installation, thoughtful features, and great value for the price. But most importantly, this seat excels graco convertible car seat at keeping your kid comfortable while they ride rear-facing—the safest position for a young child—for longer. Many large toddlers and preschoolers struggle to stay rear-facing in their car seats because at a certain point they start to feel squashed.
There are a few third-party websites that claim to offer objective crash test data that compares car seats. But we at Safe in the Seat ignore that data for a few big reasons. First of all, third-party car seat crash tests don’t actually give us meaningful data! Car seat manufacturers crash-test their products hundreds, even upwards of a thousand times. They crash test the finished product in every single installation configuration using every applicable-sized crash test dummy, not to mention a whole lot of testing at each stage of the development process too.
Even though the fabric isn’t as stain resistant as we’d like (consider going with a dark color), the cover is machine washable. As the name implies, a convertible car seat is designed to evolve as your child grows. Once you transition to the convertible seat, you’ll start out with a baby or toddler sitting in it rear-facing and eventually end up with a much bigger kid riding in it forward-facing. Whatever seat you choose, we’ve also included plenty graco car seat of helpful tips on how to navigate the road ahead. The term convertible refers to the fact that this type of car seat can be installed either rear-facing or forward-facing, whereas infant seats are meant to be installed facing the rear only. Although the laws vary, many states require that a kid remain in a car seat with a five-point harness—which all infant seats and convertible seats have—until they’re at least 40 pounds or 4 years old.