Hi,

I am currently awaiting the arrival of my first babe and trying to decide upon a carseat. We are trying to decide between the roundabout and the marathon. My question is in regards to when your child outgrew his/her seat. The marathon goes up to 65 lbs and 49 inches while the roundabout goes up to 40 lbs and 40 inches. So basically what I want to when did your child outgrow their seat, and what "made" them outgrow it, height or weight. Also for roundabout owners, what did you put your child in when they got past 40lbs/40 inches.
Thanks!

We have the marathon, mostly because of the height. Dd has always been tall (consistently 90th %tile for height, 50th %tile for weight) so I was concerned that she would get too tall for the other car seats (& not meet the weight to have her out of it) & I didn't want to buy another one.

I'm very happy with it. When she's done with it she'll go in a booster.

I would definitely go for the Marathon. Britax has the only other carseat options over 40 lbs. Once kids hit the 40 lb, 40'' mark you have to have a Britax or use a seatbelt booster. My ds outgrew the Roundabout before he was three. He has a Marathon now, and when he outgrows that he will have a Husky. I just don't see how it makes sense to take such little kids out of 5 point harnesses.

Are you planning on having any more kids? We move kid #2 into kid #1's RA. You could plan on doing that and then just going straight for a Husky (has new name but I don't remember it) when the RA is outgrown.

My ds1 outgrew the Roundabout in height when he was 3. I passed it down to ds2 and ds1 is now in a Marathon at 4+ years. He should be in it for a couple more years and then I will pass that down to ds2.

Go with the Marathon, it is well worth the extra price for the higher harnessed weight, a bigger seat and an extra set of harness slots.

Ds has not outgrown his seat yet but I chose the wizard. The height and weight are the same as the marathon but is has side impact protection. It is more expensive but I found it on the web for the same price as the roundabout with free shipping. Try googling britax on sale. Sorry to throw another seat into the mix but if price is a consideration this might be helpful.

I have a marathon for my very tall 2y8m old son. I love it and it gives him more growing room length wise (and weight wise). I started using it when he was very young, so it is very adaptable. I intend to use it as long as I can, then replace it with another Britax... but I felt it was going to be the best buy for my money.

Go bigger! We have the wizard and love it.

-Angela

We have (2) Marathon's one for each car. DD is 3.5yrs 37in 38lbs. She will be in this seat for a while. Very comfortable for long trips. Super easy to install (important for carpooling). And the straps are easy to adjust as well. All around a great seat.
Adia 4-3-2

we finally broke down and bought a britax (the marathon) for our third baby---and i can't believe we ever did without it. it's awesome! all three of mine could fit in it if we did strap adjustments (5, 2 and 13 mo)! i've never had a moment of displeasure with it :) i love the comfy cover--so soft. love the straps, buckle, tether, etc. i don't think you'll be disappointed either way you go. i really love the britax!

We have both. Dd1 'outgrew' the roundabout when dd2 -outgrew- the infant carseat. A couple of things to consider...

1) The width of your car.

I drive an old volvo wagon, and two marathons would be this/close in the back seat. There's a fold-down booster in the center of the backseat that we like to be able to access if we need to bring along a small friend. Couldn't do it with two of the wider carseats. Besides, with one roundabout and one marathon, the girls can reach just enough to hand each other things, but not to (physically) annoy each other or do violence. :thumb


2) Will you be having more children?

Pipelining is working for us...
infant carseat ---> roundabout ---> marathon
Won't need to buy a booster for another 2-3 years, and we saved $50 when we picked a roundabout with dd1.


If dd1 had been our one and only, then the marathon would have made the most sense.

HTH. :)

We bought the Roundabout when DS was a baby, so it's 4 years old right now. He outgrew it weight-wise when he was 2. He wasn't 40 lbs yet, he was 30, but he was still rear-facing, and the rearfacing limit on the Roundabout at that time was 30 lbs.

I wanted to keep him rear-facing, so we bought a Marathon which has a higher rear-facing limit, and put the Roundabout in MIL's car.

Now that we have another baby, 4 yo DS is still in the Marathon (forward facing now), and 7 mo DD is in the rearfacing Roundabout that we took back from MIL.

DS is hovering right at 40 lbs right now. I have no idea what we'll do when DD outgrows the rear-facing Roundabout, which will probably be the same time that DS did, at age 2, which means DS would be about 6. We'll probably get a Britax booster for DS and move the Marathon over for DD.

We have the Marathon. DD1 outgrew it heightwise at 3 1/2, so we just moved her into a booster. It says it goes up to 49 inches, however she is only 42-43 inches, but her shoulders were getting to be above the top harness slots. I think the 49 inches is an optimistic measurement..it depends on if their height is more in the legs or torso. My dd is short-legged and has a long torso, so she outgrew the Marathon at only 3 1/2. She is growing super fast, and is the size of most 6 year olds at age 3, so I am sure she would outgrew the husky, (which is only slighter taller I think) within several months anyway, so were weren't going to spend the money on a carseat which would only last a few months. She is WAY off the charts on both height and weight (43 inches and 56 pounds at age 3 1/2) and continues to grow at a super fast rate

DD2 is in the Marathon (rear-facing) and she is growing at a much slower rate (she is right about 50th percentile, so I am sure she will still be able to fit into it at age 5+ (however we wil have to replace it before then anyway, as it will be too old).

Ds started out in the roundabout and stayed there until dd needed to move up (from the carrier seat) when he was about 3yo and she was 6mo. We moved him into the Husky. IMO anyway you go with a Britax is a winner. :) :thumb

if you have any inkling that you will have tall kids - but the marathon. my dd grew out of the roundabout height-wise when she was 2. :irked:

My ds outgrew the graco seat we had in my car just after he turned 2. He was 40lbs and 37 inches.
We ended up getting a decathlon for my car (we already had a marathon in dh's car) because we are expecting a babe in May.
Come time, the babe will get the decathlon and ds will get a booster.

These are the only car seats ds will sit in. I took him carseat shopping and showed a bazillion models and asked him to sit in them and look at all the cool stuff they had.
The only one he sat in for more than 3 seconds was the marathon.

The do have a huge base though. If you have a tiny car, I would say make sure you go to the store and try the car seat in there before you buy it.

I'd go bigger too. We have the marathon and ds is 3 (and probably 35 pounds ish) and 37-38 inches tall and he fits fine. He has room to grow too! :thumb

My 5.5 year old (46" and 42 lbs) can still easily fit into a Marathon (or its cousins). He has probably another 3 inches of total height growth left which would probably be at least a year. He does carry his height in his legs though. Here (http://members.tripod.com/uccomama-ivil/id8.html) is a link to photos of my children in a Wizard and a Boulevard (same shell and harness height as the Marathon). The photo of my DD was taken last year just before she turned seven, and as you can see she still fit the seat.

Most children outgrow the 65# Britax seats between 5 and 7, it really depends on their body proportions, obviously longer torsoed kids don't make it as long. Very few kids (unless they are overweight) would max out the seats by weight before height. Here (http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/FFalbum.aspx) is a link to a page of older/bigger kids still in harnessed seats which also might be of help.

I would definitely go for a 65# Britax seat over the Roundabout, unless you really can't fit it in your car. My personal favorite is the Britax Boulevard because of the side impact protection.

Ds is 5 and we have the Marathon. We bought it when he was 2. He is 48 inches tall with long legs and only 40 lbs or so. I expect it to last until he is 6, if he doesn't grow too tall by then...

Our seat cover keeps sliding off, I think the elastic is going. We had some rough treatment of it in baggage on an ATA trip to Maui in May. The luggage conveyor ate my very sturdy bag but the carseat, although dirty, was ok. We used to put him in it on the plane but he's just too big now and can really kick the seat in front of him if he's in it.

It's been a great carseat!

My youngest ds is over 4 years old and still fits in his Roundabout. I am going to buy my dd a Roundabout also because she is smaller like her brother(both preemies). I would go with the Marathon if they were full term babies since they go higher weight and height. I plan to buy them both the Husky seat after they outgrow the Roundabout.

We made a mistake of buying the roundabout first. I ended up selling it and buying the marathon. Dd has always been big. At 2 1/2 shes 39 in and 38 lbs.She's weighed about the same for 8 months.She grew out of the infant seat at 4 months,so i'd say go bigger (unless dc is teeny tiny) Antways we love the Britax.Super comfy and cotton. The nylon seats do not breathe and are very very hot .Her infant seat was nylon and she was sweating all the time

marathon or wizard - we have the wizard and it's great

Another vote for the Marathon/Wizard here. We bought DD a Roundabout and it suited us well for a couple years, but she's almost outgrown the height at 2 1/2 yrs and is still only about 29lbs, so weight is not an issue. We just bought her a Marathon so we can pass the RA to the new babe due in Feb.

If you are planning another child fairly close in age then the RA might work for you as it did us (vs 2 marathons). But since the seats "expire" in 6 yrs, you can't hold onto to it forever.