[freshprinceofoc]

I have a 10 month old son who has been riding shotgun with me in his infant rear facing car seat. He is now big enough for a reg carseat that we use in my wifes car. Today I tried to put that carseat in the rear of my kingcab and it was not even close to fitting back there. The jumpseat has a metal latch for a car seat back there but it does not look like it will work. Does anyone have a carseat in the rear part of their kingcab? If so what brand? I would really like to drive my truck with my wife and son and she won't ride in the back. Although it would be hilarious.

 

[Clint]

If you search this site it has been discussed at length. It's not the safest place for him to be. I got rid of a king cab years ago when my son was born and all my trucks have been a crew cab since.
Congrats on the baby!
Can you turn the air bag off in your truck?

Clint

 

[toryroyce]

I have a 10 month old son who has been riding shotgun with me in his infant rear facing car seat. He is now big enough for a reg carseat that we use in my wifes car. Today I tried to put that carseat in the rear of my kingcab and it was not even close to fitting back there. The jumpseat has a metal latch for a car seat back there but it does not look like it will work. Does anyone have a carseat in the rear part of their kingcab? If so what brand? I would really like to drive my truck with my wife and son and she won't ride in the back. Although it would be hilarious.

Rear facing = no go. I've had my 2.5 year old in a fwd facing seat since he was 1, but even then it's tight. And forget about the front passenger, they'll be buried in the dash. Unfortunately KingCabs aren't real baby friendly.....

 

[domoMKIV]

Time to trade in for a CC.

 

[Clint]

Time to trade in for a CC.

This is a statement most don't want to hear but it's true.
Your son will only get biggger and be more confined back there. Even after a boster seat he's going to be kicking the seat back. I got rid of my king cab and had a mini van for three years until the 2000 crew cab Frontier was available just so my kids had room and were safe. A mom mobile isn't me if you knew me. Trading it in was a glorious day!

Clint

 

[Nissan4Life]

To bring this one back from the dead. I am a father of 2 and have a King Cab truck. Though the youngest (3 months) has never ridden in the truck I have a lot of experience with car seats and our trucks.

As in infant I found that I could easily carry just the baby and I . Baby in the passenger side extra cab, infant carrier, rear facing, no base, car seat extender flipped out, just the seat belt, shot gun seat all the forward or flipped down head rest off all the way forward.

Front facing. No latch system. Use seat belt. The anchor is a little tricky. The behind the head anchor is a pivot for the anchor strap. Put the anchor strap through it so that it is redirected to the floor between the two jump seats. Right between the two jump seat seat belts in the middle is the actual anchor. It is a small black steel loop. The shotgun seat still needs to be all the way forward or flipped down.

Now my oldest rides in a high back booster. With the booster someone can ride in the shot gun seat. Granted it is a bit forward, but not stuffed into the dash forward. I wanted a harnessed booster but those are too thick. in order to accommodate the harness straps the back of the booster needs to have molded sections and extra depth.

Technically you can have a car seat in the front seat. The seat has a weight sensor in it. If is senses weight and it is under 100lbs it will shut off the passenger side air bag. Place a back pack or your dog on the seat and you sill see that the no air bag light lights up.

I feel very good about having a car seat in the jump seat spot, especially with the front seat up. They are well protected.

Though a crew cab would be nice I just can deal with having one. First this is a truck and I need it for truck things. Like carrying a ton of stuff in the bed. Can't deal with a bed even smaller than the one I have now. 2nd I use this truck to off road. No locker option in the CC Long bed, and I doubt that behemoth of a truck will be able to get where I want it to go. I already have enough trouble with this current truck getting to places that a mini would have easily gone.

Instead we just bought a new RAV4 to haul the babies around in.

 

[Suzokie]

Technically you can have a car seat in the front seat. The seat has a weight sensor in it. If is senses weight and it is under 100lbs it will shut off the passenger side air bag. Place a back pack or your dog on the seat and you sill see that the no air bag light lights up.

I'll just comment: The below TV news story featured a 103 pound woman who was upset her 2011 Frontier passenger airbag was deactivated with her sitting in it. Nissan checked and rechecked the truck & deemed it fine. The news crew placed a 25 pound weight on her lap, the deact light was still lit. They added another 5 pounds and it finally went off. So in her case, easily 133 pounds was needed to enable the passenger airbag.

Call Kurtis: My Air Bag Is Off! CBS Sacramento

 

[ratman6161]

This is a statement most don't want to hear but it's true.
Your son will only get biggger and be more confined back there. Even after a boster seat he's going to be kicking the seat back. I got rid of my king cab and had a mini van for three years until the 2000 crew cab Frontier was available just so my kids had room and were safe. A mom mobile isn't me if you knew me. Trading it in was a glorious day!

Clint

Just say no to mini vans. Take your wife's car when Jr is coming along or get the wife the mini van. friend don't let friends (if they are men) drive mini vans:machinegunner:

 

[Clint]

Just say no to mini vans. Take your wife's car when Jr is coming along or get the wife the mini van. friend don't let friends (if they are men) drive mini vans:machinegunner:

Good one, I'm currently on my fourth crew cab Frontier and have the car in my avatar sitting in the garage for when I need to show my manliness (makes up for the minivan) my kids know I did it for them.

 

[89hardbody]

Time to trade in for a CC.

So true. I came from a Ranger x cab with side facing jump seats. Who the hell ever thought those up I'll never know. I moved to a Nissan crew too for that reason. I've always preferred x cabs but child safety MUST come first.

 

[D189379]

I have a rear facing car seat in mine but it makes the front seat useless. We take the wife's car when everyone goes somewhere together. I just bought a front facing one so I'll see if it frees up a bit more space. I doubt it but here's to hoping.

This is also a handy link for king cab owners.

http://www.nissanusa.com/content/da...ugkids-english/Nissan_Frontier_KC_English.pdf

 

[nmum]

I can't remember if I already posted this, probably in another thread, but somewhere online it's posted that the King cabs are designed to have the passenger seat folded down if putting a rear facing baby seat in the back.

The crew cabs aren't that much better, but some of it might be due to my height. I don't think I'm tall, barely being 6'1, but there's virtually no room for passengers behind me and I tried playing around with my seat position to leave as much room as possible for a rear passenger and being comfortable to drive at the same time. I read somewhere(some else's post on another board, I think, so this may not be true) that to accommodate a child seat a car/truck needs about 36" legroom for the rear passenger seat and I think the Frontier crew cab has like 33-34".

I'm not really a truck guy and the thought has crossed my mind about trading it in for a more family friendly vehicle. But it's hard thinking about giving up that open bed. The thought of full size trucks has crossed my mind. But then I realized with the issues I have with the size of the Frontier(tight and crowded parking lots), would be even worse with a full size.

So I figured that we'll try to make do and worry about getting something more family friendly when there's absolutely no other way around it.

Also one of the things that Nissan4Life mentioned about not using a car seat base is a suggestion that I've heard before to try to maximize the room to fit a car seat in. So if anyone having issues with fitting a car seat into their truck may want to try using it without the base. The only potential issue is making sure that the car seat is properly installed everytime it's put back in.

 

[Nissan4Life]

I've always preferred x cabs but child safety MUST come first.

Why do you think a childs safety is compromised in a x cab.

Having dealt with car seats a lot, I feel that my kid is just as safe in my truck than he would be in a CC. The only draw back is additional adult passenger.

 

[Clint]

Why do you think a childs safety is compromised in a x cab.

Having dealt with car seats a lot, I feel that my kid is just as safe in my truck than he would be in a CC. The only draw back is additional adult passenger.

There have been studies stating that rear seat occupants in king cab trucks fair WORSE in the event of a crash. If the cab compresses there isn't the space like a crew cab to absorb the compression. I sold my 95 king cab in 97 because I couldn't get my daughter in the car seat back there and my son in front of her so I sucked it up and used a new 97 Quest as a business vehicle until the crew cabs came out in 2000.

Clint

 

[D189379]

There have been studies stating that rear seat occupants in king cab trucks fair WORSE in the event of a crash. If the cab compresses there isn't the space like a crew cab to absorb the compression. I sold my 95 king cab in 97 because I couldn't get my daughter in the car seat back there and my son in front of her so I sucked it up and used a new 97 Quest as a business vehicle until the crew cabs came out in 2000.

Clint

Would that not take a huge impact to crush the cab all the way into the back jumper seat?

This was a head on between a Dakota and a school bus. The back of the cab looks (relatively) fine. Obviously not the same truck, but similar size and weight.

http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/..._on_blackice.jpeg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpeg

 

[Sir Dave]

I hate to say this, but I upgraded my 3yo KC to CC for $7500 when mini-me went from rear-facing to front-facing.
I was probably being paranoid, but driving with the passenger seat down and the world exposed to the jump seat with the boy in it didn't seem safe. Passenger seat up didn't work from a visibility standpoint, mine.

I didn't see an option that made me feel comfortable.

 

[Cusser]

When looking for my first "small" Extra Cab truck in 1994 - so my kids could sit in the rear (one in a toddler seat), I discounted Nissan and Ford Ranger as the rear seats faced inward, didn't like that. That left Toyota 1989 and newer and Mazda 1986 and newer as the only options.

I ended up with a 1988 Mazda Cab Plus, which I still have. My kids are older now (they drove my 1998 Frontier for years), and my 2004 Frontier Extra Cab most likely will never hold a 3rd person.

 

[D189379]

I hate to say this, but I upgraded my 3yo KC to CC for $7500 when mini-me went from rear-facing to front-facing.
I was probably being paranoid, but driving with the passenger seat down and the world exposed to the jump seat with the boy in it didn't seem safe. Passenger seat up didn't work from a visibility standpoint, mine.

I didn't see an option that made me feel comfortable.

Are you supposed to keep the front seat folded down once you switch to forward facing?

Also, my passenger seat doesn't fold in half like I've seen in some pictures. It just moves forward all the way, with the seat leaning forward about 30 degrees.

 

[Sir Dave]

Hmmm. I haven't seen a KC that doesn't fold down. Are you powered in the passenger seat or manual?
I don't think you are supposed to fold it down with a child in the jump seat but it was the only way I could see out the right side passenger window.
I didn't like all of that open air that things could fly through in the event of an accident (glass, stuff from within the vehicle) so I took the hit and 'upgraded'. Other than a shorter bed I don't miss the KC. I find the CC is much more useful, passenger wise and especially car-seat wise.

 

[D189379]

Hmmm. I haven't seen a KC that doesn't fold down. Are you powered in the passenger seat or manual?
I don't think you are supposed to fold it down with a child in the jump seat but it was the only way I could see out the right side passenger window.
I didn't like all of that open air that things could fly through in the event of an accident (glass, stuff from within the vehicle) so I took the hit and 'upgraded'. Other than a shorter bed I don't miss the KC. I find the CC is much more useful, passenger wise and especially car-seat wise.

It's a manual seat. That's the same issue I have. I won't fold flat, so it blocks my view out the passenger window and the mirror.

I might look at a crew cab even though I don't really want to. Do you think there would be any issue having a couple kid seats? I have the driver seat all the way back, and I'm guessing worst case I'd have 1 forward and one rear facing seat, and then eventually both forward facing.