Britax Frontier

Read This Before You Buy Britax Frontier 85

The Britax Frontier 85 Combination Booster Seat is wonderful. This car seat has a bunch of extra features, such as added EPS foam to protect baby’s head in a side-impact crash. There’s a removable infant pillow so that babies fit more securely in the seat. A belly pad and padded harness also add comfort. The Britax 85 is one of most wanted and requested gift for your beloved kids.

What is the driving comfort with your child be your wish ?

Britax Frontier 85 is the solution for you for your comfort in driving

The Britax 85 combination harness 2 booster boasts best in class forward-facing five-point harnessed weight capacity up to 85 pounds with an industry-leading 20″ shoulder harness height. The seat also serves as a vehicle belt-positioning booster up to 120 pounds. Featuring true side impact protection with one-hand adjustable harness height system, versa-tether and engineered energy management zones, the frontier is designed to be the safest high capacity seat in the industry. Loaded with comfort and convenience features, such as comfort foam, integrated cup holders and fixed armrests, the frontier is the ideal seat for the child graduating from their convertible car seat without compromising safety.

Consider the opinion of someone who is always faithful wearing Britax Frontier 85 :

We replaced our Britax Wizard (like Boulevard) with this seat, as my 6 y.o. DD is 48.5″ and the max ht for the Wizard is 49″. In addition, convertible car seats tend to raise kids up high, so that her feet were dangling quite a ways up from the floor. She was also ready for some “big girl” features, like the cup holder. My only concern with the new Frontier was that the back sits up straighter and I was worried she may not be able to fall asleep like she used to in the Wizard – it’s a rare occurrence these days but when needed, it’s NEEDED! I was also worried I might not be able to install it myself but figured I could seek out help if not.

First of all, the packaging was a breeze to open. Always a nice feature! I took the seat out and had my DD sit in it inside the house so I could adjust the crotch-buckle and wing height before installing. Both were easy to do (although I DO prefer the dial-adjuster on our old Wizard, especially for making adjustments once the seat is installed – more on that later). I then moved the seat out to our Toyota 4Runner and installed it myself, in about 10-mins, in the back, center position. It probably would have taken me less time if our center belt was easier to tighten, but that’s no fault of the seat. And it actually makes for a tighter fit – when I try, I can’t budge the seat. The seat does seem to be a tad wider than our old seat, although I didn’t take any measurements, but previously, I could fit 2 booster seats on either side of our seat and now I seem to only be able to fit one. Since we only have one child, this isn’t much of an issue except when asked to carpool more than one child. It may also just be the way I’ve got it installed, or possibly the boosters I’m using (Compass, high-back boosters). Maybe something like a Graco backless would fit fine but I haven’t tried yet. The rear-tether strap was also easy to adjust and tighten .

With installation out of the way, we went to comfort. DD immediately loved the seat, but I know her and the newness of something can influence her liking it so I waited until she’d ridden in it more often before making a final determination on the comfort. For one, the cup holders are nice and don’t really get in the way of anything. I guess having retractable ones would be a good idea but maybe they’d then have to be moved within the seat, making them not as desirable – I don’t know. But for us, they work as is and well.

As for ease, she is easily able to do and undo her buckles by herself, just as in her old Wizard. I will say, I felt the crotch-strap adjuster in the Wizard was easier to use and access than the Frontier, but it’s not like it’s difficult on the Frontier – just different and if I had to pick one over the other I’d pick the Wizard. Not one that by using this Frontier, your child will be able to freely move, but still gated. This was never an issue for us and in fact I’d often ask DD to help pull up on the lever if she was too tight so I could properly pull the straps out from the front seat. This really isn’t an option anymore but not really a problem either. Possibly because it’s summer and she’s not wearing any layers but come fall, winter and spring where the number of layers she wears varies from car-ride to car-ride, it could become a bit more annoying. It is actually easier to use the lever now than before, but it’s just a bit tougher to access as it’s under the seat-cover and there’s no access slot like in the old Wizard. This is minor though, really.

Another, less minor but still relatively small issue is with the wing-adjustment. Our Wizard has a dial feature that, while slower to move up and down than the Frontier, was placed on the side of the head rest, making access to it easy. On the Frontier, the adjustment is a squeeze-and-pull from the back, which is fine when the seat is out of its packaging, or when the wings are adjusted so high up that there’s plenty of space for your hand, but when the seat is installed and the wings are still low enough that there’s little space between the car seat and the seat of your vehicle, it makes it a tight squeeze to fit your hand in and adjust the wings. I had to actually undo the tether strap and seatbelt to loosen the car seat away from the vehicle seat to adjust the wings up. Now that I have though, it’s at a height where I can better fit my hand back there to adjust when I need to. I’d say this is the only thing I really don’t like about the seat but again, it may have been a necessary change, especially since this seat converts to a booster and a much higher wing-elevation. And if so, well then it’s certainly a trade-off I’m willing to live with.