Question for those who own a Britax convertable car seat?
Friday, February 12th, 2010 at
10:12 pm
I just bought a Britax Marathon, and i’m confused on how to use the versa-tether. I do not have LATCH in my car, but i was told that the versa-tether can be used either way. I am installing it rear facing, with the vehicle seat belt and the tether. What do i loop the connector strap onto? I want to attach it to the groud, not the v shape above the car seat. Is anyone familiar with how to do this? Please help me! 
capeko71 – wow thank you so much, you knew exactly what i was talking about! great information!
Tagged with: britax marathon • car seat • google • groud • latch • script type • seat belt • shape • text javascript • vehicle seat
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Actually – Britax (and Radian) are the two car seats that you can use the top tether rear facing.
For britax – the seat should have come with what we call a "d-ring" strap – probably attached to the tether strap. Basically, it’s a strap, with a loop in it at one end and the other end has a metal ring or square with a hole in it. You take this peice, and you attach it to some part of the car that’s a non-moving part in front of the seat…
Hard to explain – here’s a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2upADev-UrM
and another one to see the whole set up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuZQp_xij_w
If you have a question on where exactly to attach this too, go to http://www.car-seat.org and post the make and model of your car.
If for some reason you don’t have this d-ring strap, contact britax – you can buy them from the individually.
You can also go to http://www.seatcheck.org to see a car seat tech near you.
And to the other person who responded – every car that has LATCH does have a top tether strap – but there are cars between ’98 and 2002 that have top tether installed (at least 2 locations) but might not have latch. Then there are more cars pre-98 that you can actually have a top tether installed (generally free of charge). LATCH in general you cannot have retrofitted, but tether can.
Tether for rear facing, prevents the seat from rebounding (but is only allowed with a britax or radian… don’t use it with any other seat rear facing!). Tether for forward facing prevents head movement forward.
It’ll only work if you’ve got something on the floor to connect it onto. Which, if you don’t have the LATCH system in your car, you probably don’t have anything the versa tether can be used with, since it’s part of the LATCH system (lower anchors and TETHER child harness sytem). You’re going to need to use the seat belt with the rear facing belt path, as well as a locking clip, which you’ll need to purchase separately.