Place the lower anchors through the forward facing belt path, and that’s it! The lower anchors won’t get lost or disconnected because the metal bar keeps them attached to the seat. If you undo one of those to lift the cover to expose the rear-facing belt path, it is impossible to reattach if the extender is retracted.
When the Extend2Fit is installed for a newborn, we find that most taller passengers could still fit in front of it. The same was true when the seat was installed with the panel fully out and the seat upright for an older child. With the panel stored and the seat installed fully upright, there was more than enough room for our taller test passenger front graco turbobooster passenger seat. For crumby messes, we use a handheld vacuum with a crevice tool; baby wipes work well for cleaning spills and debris that accumulates in the cup holders. If you’re looking for one car seat that will last through all your child’s ages and stages, the Graco 4Ever 4-in-1 Convertible Car Seat is prepped to grow with them for ten years.
Removing the harness pads allowed the chest clip to be placed at the proper level. They’re labeled on the bottom with an L or R to indicate on which side that particular cup holder belongs. To attach the cupholders, line up the grooves and tabs on the cup holder and seat and press down very firmly. You should hear an audible click to confirm that they’re attached. Although the manual says otherwise, Graco has assured us that the body support pad can be removed for babies under 25 pounds, as long as the child’s shoulders reach the bottom harness slots without the cushion. If you are expecting a smaller-than-average baby or a preemie, we would still recommend an infant seat instead, as that will have a better fit.
Unfortunately, the seat doesn’t come with a cupholder—c’mon, Clek—but you can purchase one for about $20. Although we enjoy the convenience of adjusting the harness and headrest as one unit, there’s a safety argument to be made for having the harness and headrest operate independently. According to pediatrician Alicia Baer of The Car Seat Lady website, with the Foonf, if the headrest were to come off in an accident, the harness system would still be intact. But with seats that have the headrest and harness as part of the same system, if something were to happen to one of the pieces in a collision, it would have an impact on the other. The Boulevard ClickTight does not have cupholders, which is a bit of a bummer.
Messes are going to happen, so we’ve made the seat pad and cupholders easy to remove and machine wash safe. Lifting the Velcro flap to undo the belt and unthread it is straightforward on the 4Ever and has no hiccups to hinder the process. We could remove it and reach the buckle to disconnect without getting in the car. We weren’t able to get a photo but a 17 month old CSFTL kiddo who weighs 23 pounds and is 35 inches tall reguarly rides happily and comfortably in this seat. Our preemie Huggable Images doll weighs 4 pounds and is 19 inches long. He just fits at the lowest harness setting with the body insert, and the harness is at his shoulders.
And unlike any other seat we tested, the 3QXT is so top-heavy that it can’t sit upright on its own. So if you need to uninstall it to change the SafeStop or to remove the seat cover, you have to prop it up against something. Additionally, the Radian 3QXT’s anti-rebound bar—an added safety feature that helps to prevent the seat from rebounding in an accident—was not fully flush to the seat. According to The Car Seat Lady’s Baer, that could pose a safety issue if a child rides with their feet tucked under the bar and then is in a crash. The Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) installation method should make it easier to install car seats correctly with fewer opportunities to make mistakes. For this reason, we recommend using the LATCH method whenever possible to increase the chances of installing a seat correctly.
When he was a little more than 2 years old, we moved it to the forward-facing position, still using the five-point harness. We like that he stayed in a familiar seat through that transition graco turbobooster and that we didn’t have to keep buying new gear and equipment as he grew. It is possible to buy European car seats, but remember that their safety standards are different.