I have been so looking forward to Tristan growing out of his bucket seat so that I could pick out a convertible seat for him. I’d been drooling over the Radian XTSL for a while now, and I finally got my hands on one! Thad’s parents and my mom pitched in to help us get the seat for Tristan for Christmas. I also found a great deal- $84 off the normal price of the seat! What’s so awesome about the XTSL?
*It rear-faces to 45 pounds- the highest rear-facing limit in the US. (Young children are 500% safer when riding rear facing- and the AAP now recommends keeping children rear facing to the limits of their convertible seats.)
*It has a tall shell. High rear facing limits aren’t really that useful if the seat has a short shell and the child outgrows it by height too early.
*Steel frame. Pretty sweet. This thing feels indestructible.
*Very narrow. This is one of the narrowest convertible seats out there (the narrowest? not sure.) This isn’t a safety feature, but does make it easier to install next to other seats.
*Low profile. A lot of convertible seats(like Hayden’s Boulevard) have a tall base. The Radian doesn’t have a base at all, which can make it easier to get the kid in and out of the car. Some people theorize that it’s safer as well because the seat acts more like an actual part of the car.
*Headwings. We can’t know for sure if seats with headwings are safer or not(because there haven’t been any studies done), but they sure seem safer to me!
Here he is one last time in his Chicco Keyfit 22. This was the same seat Hayden rode in, and we really loved it. Very user friendly and it seemed comfy for the kids too.
He wasn’t quite 22 pounds yet, but you can see here he just barely has one inch of seat shell above his head, which means the seat is nearly outgrown by height.
So even though I knew I wanted the XTSL, I still agonized over the decision. I spent hours researching car seats, reading reviews, finding deals, and reading real life perspectives from CPSTs on car-seat.org. The XTSL is a great seat, but it can be hard to install rear-facing in some cars. But eventually I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t give it a try, so I went ahead and ordered the seat. I waited on pins and needles for the UPS truck to get here. I tracked it several times to see how far away it was. I even saw the UPS truck drive up and opened the door for the driver before he even had a chance to knock. I was just a little excited, to say the least.
So finally it was here. The Radian XTSL. The car seat of my dreams(well besides the Britax Multi Tech, which isn’t even available in the US-lol).
I couldn’t wait to get it open.
I spread out all the extra parts and went searching for the manual(which ended up being attached to the back of the seat- it took me forever to find it).
The seat comes folded in the box. It can fold in half, which is supposed to make storage and travel easier. It’s funny though, because the seat weighs like 500 pounds- definitely not the easiest thing to lug around- folded or not. But it should be staying in the car, so I don’t really see that being a problem.
Here’s Hayden giving it a try:
And Tristan:(yes, the harness straps are much too high for him- I was just trying him in it straight out of the box and hadn’t adjusted anything yet)
And despite the reputation of being hard to install, the XTSL actually installed very easily in our Dodge Nitro! Took me about 5 minutes to do it the first time. Not bad! And the best part is that it puzzles nicely next to Hayden’s Boulevard, which means we now have an empty passenger seat in the back! Awesome!
He loves it- can’t you tell?
Seriously though, I think he’s quite comfy in it. It does have memory foam in the seat bottom.
He did check it out the next time we got in the car. Smart boy knew he had an awesome new seat!
