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Britax Marathon Review
When our daughter turned a year old we made the big purchase of a new convertible car seat for her. I had done a lot of research (I’m a little obsessed with researching baby gear!) so I pretty much knew I wanted a Britax. We took her over to our local Babies R Us to try out the different models to see which one suited us and her best. We settled on the Britax Marathon as it offered all the padding she would want, plus all the features we were looking for. After some careful online searching I found it for a great price and ordered it. It arrived about a week before her birthday. We tried it out inside first to see what she thought of it and to make sure the straps were in the right spot before we installed it in the car. As you can see it was a big hit!
Loving her new Britax seat.
A few of the features I particularly liked in the Britax Marathon were the HUGS shoulder pads that keep the straps from rubbing on her neck, the LATCH connector system, the multiple recline positions (especially since our daughter is still rear-facing), and that the harness was supposed to be easy to adjust. What ultimately lead to our purchase of the Britax Marathon was Britax’s unmet safety, but all the extra features were an added bonus.
We installed the seat in the rear-facing position as our daughter was not yet 20lbs (still isn’t actually). The recommendation is that a child remain rear-facing until they are at least 20lbs and one year of age (although extended rear-facing is highly recommended). Our daughter will remain rear-facing until she reaches the seat weight/height limits for rear-facing.
My husband did the honors of installing the seat. He was already pretty familiar with how the LATCH system works from installing our infant seat previously, so the installation went pretty smoothly. The manual that comes with the seat has great directions and illustrations for installing the seat with or without the LATCH system. I just have to add that I love the LATCH system, it makes installing any car seat so much easier!
The seat does come with a Versa-Tether, which is supposed to be used (according to Britax’s recommendations) at all times. However, unless you have floor connectors for the Versa-Tether (which we did not) it has to go around the top of the seat so it can attached to the anchors behind the rear head-rests, and would make it very difficult to get the child in and out of the seat. We opted not to use the Versa-Tether for this reason. However, if you do have the floor connectors, I would definitely use the system for the added safety. After the seat was installed we felt it was secure enough that we were OK not using the Versa-Tether. I will go ahead and use it when we finally turn the seat around to the forward-facing position.
The harness adjustment turned out not to be as easy as I had originally thought now that the seat is installed in the car. I have had to adjust the straps once since we installed the seat and it probably took me about 20 minutes. I am hoping that next time will be a little easier now that I am familiar with the set up. I found the straps were very hard to get out of the clip, especially since I didn’t have much room to work with. Perhaps now that I have manipulated the straps a bit they’ll be a little more pliable next time.
One of my favorite features of this car seat is the velcro used to hold the harness out of the way when you are getting your child in and out of the seat. It is one of the things I always complained about with our infant seat (Chicco Cortina Travel System). it was always such a pain to have to fish the straps out from under her. With the velcro on the straps and on the seat side you just undo the straps, stick them to the sides of the seat and you’re all set. Putting her in the seat is a breeze. I love not having to fish the straps out from under her any more, and she does too!
I don’t think there is really anything I don’t like about this seat, other than I wish it was a little easier to adjust the harness height. The Britax seats are a little pricier than the other options on the market, but as with everything in life you have to pay a little extra for the added safety and the name. I am happy with our purchase and our daughter is safe and comfy in her Britax seat.
If you’re in the market for a Britax Marathon, Amazon has their Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat
on sale right now.
FYI: The chest clip on your daughter is way too low. It should be at nipple/armpit height.
Also, you do not have to have floor connectors to use the versa-tether in the rear facing position. You silply use the D-ring connector strap that came with the seat. This can be attached to any metal post(like the one supporting the front seats) that is bolted to the car frame.
Thanks Sharol, this was just a fun trial inside, the chest clip is in the correct position in the car.
Thanks for the tip on the versa-tether!
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We have the Britax Boulevard and we find that the crotch strap is way too short or too close to the back of this seat. Do any of you find this to be true too?
Debbie,
I haven’t noticed that with our seat.
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Great, thanks for sharing this blog.Thanks Again. Really Cool.
I purchased the britax marathon and the crotch strap is way to short on this carseat as well. there is no way my daughter will make it to 70 lbs(max weight) in this carseat. plus, the over-the-shoulder strap is way too flimsy. it can easily slip out of the ring or even come through to the seat also, they say there are 3 reclining positions but positions 1 and 2 are virtually the same.
Great article very well researched. I do agree with mike that the straps are too short. But in my point of view all the safety features of this car seat makes up for it’s flaws. Thanks for this great article keep up the great work!!
Any recommendations on loosening the straps we just bought it, they loosed once, but got too loose. We tightened them back a little, but now they’re too tight, and we can’t get them any looser, and we can’t use the seat until they fit.
Scott,
Mine is almost 4 years old, I’m pretty sure the newest model changed the way the straps are loosened, but on mine there is a latch on the front of the seat that you have to loosen in order to pull the straps through a bit. Once the straps are in the desired position you tighten the latch back down.