To remove any slack from the seat belt, you have to press down on the center of the Foonf while pulling on the belt. Then, as you’re holding the belt tight, you must close and latch a pair of belt lock-offs, two plastic tabs that fold down over the belt to cinch it into place. Though the process is fairly intuitive, it does require some force and coordination to get those tabs closed. In general, it would be helpful to have strong fingers and three arms during much of this installation process. As mentioned, the Boulevard is part of Britax’s family of ClickTight seats, along with two other, similar models—the base model Marathon ClickTight and the now retired Advocate ClickTight (still available at some retailers).
For all forward facing installations, the 4Ever’s base must be flat on the vehicle seat. That sometimes means there will be a gap between the back of the car seat and the vehicle seat back (especially in recline position 4!). This is completely fine as long as the 4Ever moves less than 1 inch at the belt path. To move them to the forward facing belt path, loosen the harness and extend the headrest all the way.
It’s easy to clean and keeps your child safe through all the ages and stages until they’re out of a car seat for good. The 4Ever lists a 57 inch maximum height in high back booster mode, but it’s unlikely that a child who is 57 inches tall would fit in the seat in that mode. At 48 inches tall and 47 pounds, she is one growth spurt away from outgrowing the 4ever in harness mode by standing height. She has used the 4ever on many long drives and finds it very comfortable. She has a love/hate relationship with the harness covers (can you guess what stage she was at here?) so we always keep them close by in the vehicle for the days when she wants to use them. We’ve installed the 4Ever forward facing at the required recline for a child who weighs less than 40 pounds.
But our testers didn’t think it was too heavy to carry comfortably, and we found it was easy to operate and to click in and out of its base. The seat can accommodate babies up to 32 inches or 35 pounds (this is the upper range of the category, and it’s likely more than most people end up needing). The only real drawback to the SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX is that we found its no-base, seat-belt-only install tricky to pull off; we had difficulty getting the seat in snugly (a common problem with infant seats that have an American belt-path configuration). Most people prefer to use the base with their infant seat anyway, so this may not be an issue for you.
There are four different settings on the panel, so it can be extended for a total of 5 inches of additional legroom when rear-facing. (The panel is not intended for forward-facing use.) It’s perfectly fine for a child’s legs to dangle over the side of a seat without a footrest—or to rest on the back of the vehicle seat. But many kids will likely appreciate the extra support this unique feature provides. (Depending on the age and size of the kids, we were able to try both forward- and rear-facing positions and LATCH and seat belt installations.) During this extended trial, we had the opportunity to assess functionality, adjustability, and ease of use.
The Graco 4Ever 4-in-1 has two cup holders which we used for water bottles. A typical disposable water cup fits in them, as well as most sippy cups. While baby bottles also fit, infants using the car seat will most likely not be able to reach the cup holders themselves. Once the child outgrows the harness, the 4Ever converts to a transitional booster seat that will last about another year or so. We’ve added a rolled up washcloth behind the crotch buckle to help with the fit — this is permitted by the manufacturer.
For forward-facing kids under 40 pounds, you must use recline 4 when installing the Extend2Fit. Frequently, this will cause the car seat to hang off of the vehicle seat more than is allowed. If you run into this issue, you can turn the child back rear-facing until they reach at least 40 pounds. Car seats and boosters provide protection for infants and children in a crash, yet car crashes are a leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 13. That’s why it’s so important to choose and use the right car seat correctly every time your child is in the car. Follow these important steps to choose the right seat, install it correctly and keep your child safe.
If you’re installing the Boulevard with the LATCH system (and again, we can’t think of a scenario where you would or should), the process is the same, but you use the included LATCH straps in place of the seat belts. The main selling point of an all-in-one is, of course, that you’ll have to buy only one seat—or at least that’s the hope. It would certainly be more environmentally friendly if you could actually manage to purchase a single seat rather than multiples.
Most vehicles and car seats are equipped to use the LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system for installation, in which the seat attaches to the steel frame of your vehicle via under-seat anchors that are designed specifically for this purpose. The Graco 4Ever 4-in-1 uses its own InRight LATCH system, meaning that the tethers from the car seat need only to be pushed down on the corresponding steel anchors—so graco turbobooster thankfully, there was no need to try and manipulate hooks with our fingers. And when we needed to remove the car seat for cleaning, disconnecting it was just as simple—all we had to do was push down on the red button and pull out the LATCH tethers. Regardless of whether a forward facing install uses the lower anchors or the vehicle seat belt, always attach the top tether to the tether connector on the vehicle.
(Although that’s not an adjustment you’ll have to make often, doing it on the Rava is far more pleasant than on most seats.) However, the Rava has a few flaws. For one, though the system enables you to get a secure seat belt install without breaking a sweat, it doesn’t have graco turbobooster a seat belt lock-off, so the seat belt can continually slide through the router. Over time, we found that because the seat belt wasn’t locked off, the car seat didn’t stay totally in place; it started to rotate, and we needed to reinstall it to make it straight again.