Bruce,

  The top tether strap is only for use in a rear-facing infant seat
application, to limit the seat's forward motion in a crash; it wouldn't
limit sideways motion at all, no matter which direction it's mounted.
  The best way to get a tight-fitting seat belt is to place your knee into
the seat while cinching the belt as tight as possible.  If you have to
pre-tighten the belt, then latch it in, due the belt's routing inside the
carseat, you still will need to press your weight on your knee into the seat
to compress the vehicle's seat foam enough to get the belt to latch very
tightly.  This trick was shown to me years ago, and it makes a huge
difference.
Keep those kids safe!
Mike B.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Todd" <beeceetee@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 10:25 AM
Subject: Convertible car seat for Vanagon - Canadian Safety Standards

> I'm hoping the list can help me purchase the appropriate car seat for my
> toddler who has outgrown her rear facing infant seat.  I drive a 86 Westy
> Syncro with the current seat locked by the lap belt to the back bench
> seat -
> it seems pretty secure.
>
> The convertible seats, which are for children weighing between 22 to 65
> lbs
> (depending on the make) are more difficult to anchor securely and appear
> to
> be designed for more modern vehicles with latching systems and tether
> points.
>
> Last week we took our first camping trip and I swapped the car seat from
> our
> other vehicle, which is a convertible style seat, and fiddled around with
> it
> to get it to fit.  It ended up facing the rear and being relatively snug
> from front to back but not to my liking in terms of side to side movement.
> Part of the reason for this is it is difficult to cinch the lap belt super
> tight because of how the belt travels underneath the child seat.  The
> model
> of this seat, which is highly recommended, is a Sunshine Kids Radian - it
> fits quite well in our Honda CRV.
>
> When checking to see whether the seat fit any better frontward facing, I
> was
> disappointed to see that it didn't and was not very snug at all -
> especially
> from side to side.  I'm guessing this is the purpose of the top tether on
> the seat - to help stabilize the seat.  Obviously I would like to find a
> seat that fits front or rear facing and works to the specifications it is
> designed for.
>
> Anyway, I open this non-mechanical topic up to wise members of the Vanagon
> list.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Bruce Todd
> Vancouver