The 4Ever Extend2Fit has a fabulous harness storage compartment for booster mode. The crotch buckle and harness go into a compartment in the back of the seat, meaning that the harness doesn’t have to be removed or undone at all for high back booster mode. He’s able to remove the optional harness strap covers himself so his mom has left them off the graco turbobooster seat for now. He uses the bottom insert because without it, he slumps considerably. The crotch buckle is in the outer slot and leaves a decent sized gap, so his have to be mindful to put his bum far back and really pull up all the slack at his hips. As your child gets older and taller, there will be less friction and it will be easier to use.
Both the NHTSA and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that a child ride rear-facing until they reach the height and weight limits of the seat—and we wanted those limits to be generous. Keeping a child rear-facing until they’re 4 years old is an ambitious and oft-cited benchmark; that would mean an average of about 35 inches tall and 40 pounds. The Graco Extend2Fit Convertible Car Seat grows with your child from rear-facing harness (4-50 lbs) to forward-facing harness (22-65 lbs). It features a 4-position extension panel that provides up to 5” of extra rear-facing legroom, allowing your child to safely ride rear-facing longer. Children are safer riding rear-facing and should ride rear-facing as long as possible, until they reach the maximum rear-facing height or weight rating for their car seat.
Also, the Foonf is expensive, which is why we’re recommending this seat with the full awareness that it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. We spoke with 10 experts on car seat safety, policy, and installation. We looked closely at the results of government testing conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency charged with road safety. All car seats sold in the US are self-certified by their manufacturers to pass the NHTSA’s strict standards (PDF) for safety testing.
Most of the seats are some variation or combination of snaps, elastic loops, and tucking in of fabric. None are overly challenging, but certainly, some are graco convertible car seat better than others. The easiest to remove include the Evenflo Tribute 5, Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Convertible, and the Safety 1st Grow and Go All-in-One.
The high back mode can accommodate a child with a torso height of up to 20.5″ if you remove the belt trainer and up to 19″ if you leave it in. The backless booster mode is very bulky and not our favorite of the modes. It’s very low profile and easy to carry around if they are carpooling. The cushions are flame resistant and contain no flame-retardant chemicals. It’s also Greenguard Gold certified, which means the materials have met some of the world’s most rigorous third-party chemical emissions standards and don’t contain any indoor air pollutants.