Clek Fllo question

[Susie]

DS is 3.5 and rides in my car in a FFing Clek Fllo.  It's starting to feel like he's maxing out the harness volume, and it's getting tougher to buckle him.  The max length of the harness doesn't feel like it gives me all that much room to maneuver to get him in anymore, and the crotch buckle feels way too close, he sometimes complains of pinching when I'm buckling him.  Unfortunately it doesn't adjust outward any further.

The seat is rated for 30-49 in. and 22-65 lb in FFing mode, which he isn't close to exceeding.  He's probably about 36" tall, ish, and 30-some lbs.  The harness and buckle set up seems so out of sync with the published ranges.  Am I doing something wrong/is there some adjustment to be made, or is it just time to move him from a convertible to a FFing-only seat?  

We've gotten almost 3 years out of the Fllo, but I admit for the price and the published height/weight ranges, I was hoping to use it for longer.

[momin2013]

I didn’t have that seat, but is the crotch buckle on the furthest slot? I’m also seeing that you can buy a longer crotch buckle strap through their replacement parts store?

[Susie]

Jan 26, 2023 9:54:57 GMT -5 momin2013 said:

I didn’t have that seat, but is the crotch buckle on the furthest slot? I’m also seeing that you can buy a longer crotch buckle strap through their replacement parts store?

It is.  It's like I need another, further out slot, but there isn't another one.

I see the adjustable crotch strap in the replacement parts store, and it says that all seats shipped after 2014 have it.  I should look at ours again to see if there's some adjustability that I have missed.  We would have bought it in spring 2020, as he was about to turn 1 and was outgrowing the infant seat.

[janegold]

We transitioned my son out of the Fllo right around the same age, and for the same reason, although he was over 40" by that time. I seem to remember the length of the shoulder straps feeling okay but also thinking the crotch strap seemed too tight.

My 2.5 year old DD is currently in it (RF) and is around the same size as your son, and it's also getting difficult, although I think we have one more length adjustment we can make.

[Saudade]

We had that seat for DS3 and had that same issue. He complained nonstop about how much it hurt his penis. I don't have a solution. The seat became our backup seat and I switched to a diono.

[cricketwife]

We have a Foonf and we are theoretically still using it, but my 6 year old is very slight and only 43 pounds. It's in our 2nd car and he complains HORRIBLY when he has to ride in that car because he hates the seat. So sad for such a $$$ seat, but I've gotten 8 years out of mine between two kids, so I'm okay with that. (There were two accidents so I kept getting newer seats in that time period so it's not expired.)
Over the years, I've had to deal with their customer service several times and I've always found them to be amazingly helpful, so I would give them a call and see if they can help at all.

[Susie]

I'll do some looking this weekend, but sounds like we are not the only ones with this issue.  Bummer, because I've actually really liked the seat until this point.

DD is 7 and is itching to move from harness to HBB.  She's very comfortably within height and weight range to either harness or HBB.  Maybe we'll just buy her a HBB for my car and hand her MyFit seat down to DS.  

[icedcoffee]

Jan 27, 2023 9:27:20 GMT -5 Susie said:

DD is 7 and is itching to move from harness to HBB. 

I'm having paralysis by analysis about whether I should move my 6 year old from harness to seatbelt.  He has about 3 inches until we NEED to.  He can buckle the harness himself but not reliably to not have a twisted strap and I am just OVER untwisting the damn things.

And my 3.5 year old just asked to move FF and it might be nice to not have his muddy shoes all over my leather seats.  

But again...paralysis by analysis.

[Susie]

icedcoffee, I hear that. We only moved DS from RF to FF in the Clek a few months ago. He was definitely >3. He was happy RFing, but he kept hitting his head on the sloping door frame in my Jetta, trying to get in and out of the RFing seat.

DD can do the harness herself, but I suspect she exaggerates how long it takes for dramatic effect. It takes forever and I am pretty over it. She's 48", 48 lb., and in 2nd grade. Her seat (Chicco MyFit) would allow her to harness up to 54" tall and 65 lb., but that could be like 4th? 5th? grade for her, lol. I feel like at some point I need to make the decision to relent on harnessing even though I don't "have" to. I'm running out of steam on insisting on the harness.