New RideSafer Gen 5 buckle in 1 easy step:
- Tilt a touch and slide up or down.
This buckle was designed to be more intuitive and increase ease of use.
RideSafer Delight (Gen 4) buckle in 3 easy steps:
- Pinch together the webbing on the left side (when facing your child in the vest) where the circles and lines are to align the rings on the other side.
- Turn J-hook to 90 degree angle and clip onto the rings
- Release the pinch
The patented buckle on the RideSafer Delight travel vest is meant to be more difficult for those “Houdini” children who like to unbuckle themselves while traveling in a car.
Most of our customers have found that once they learn the trick shown above, they love the new buckle.
In our personal use with our youngest son, the Delight buckle takes just a few seconds to buckle and we’re able to unbuckle it one handed when needed — you know for those parental moments when you’re holding all kinds of stuff in your other hand.
Our travel vest is arriving today!! My son is 8 with Down Syndrome and he is a big Houdini in the car! I cannot wait to see if this will work! I will update soon.
Hi Genie. We look forward to hearing your feedback!
Is there an option to get a non-Houdini-proof buckle? My boys don’t unbuckle except at the end of the trip, and I’d like them to be self-sufficient at that point. Requiring me to do the unbuckling reduces the “less baby-ish” aspect of this vest.
At this point the only non-Houdini-proof option is the old model vests. We still have large size RideSafer 2 (with tether) and RideSafer 3 (with adjustability) available but we are sold out of small. I am also forwarding your comment to the manufacturer. UPDATE: WE ARE ALL SOLD OUT OF OLD MODELS NOW.
I can’t find the RideSafer 2 or 3 with the old buckle system on your site. Where can we find these?
We sold out of most colors and sizes before we even had RideSafer Delight inventory. We sold out of what little we had left about a month ago.
Teach them to unbuckle it….. my 6yo does it perfectly to drop off at school every morning. He’s also able to “klick” himself in.
I agree with Jennifer M. I want my kids to be able to get in and out of the vest on their own. Why have we gone backwards and made the vest harder to use?
I can only say the manufacturer’s intention is to continually improve the vest while keeping the safety benefits up and the cost down. I will relay your feedback to the manufacturer.
Teach them to unbuckle it….. my 6yo does it perfectly at school drop off every morning. He’s also able to “klick” himself in at pickup’s.
I would like to see a buckle option. My child does not unbuckle in the vehicle and I would like to have him unbuckle in case of an emergency.
Thank you for your feedback. I’ve forwarded it to the manufacturer.
Teach them to unbuckle it….. my 6yo does it perfectly at school drop off every morning. He’s also able to “klick” himself in at pickup’s.
Thank you Cloe for sharing that with other parents! Our 5 year old also unbuckles himself; hasn’t quite gotten down the buckling up part but I think that’s more lack of desire than ability! :-)
Me too!!! Who wants to buckle their child every time they get in and out of the car. We just received the houdini version and will be returning it. Very disappointed. May daughter was so looking forward to having a vest like her older brother.
I want to use this vest in a classic car equipped with lap belts only. (I will add an anchor point for the teather) My 6 y.o. does not need houdini buckles and this feature currently is the only reason i have not already ordered this vest. Please made traditional easy to use buckles an option!
At this point in time the manufacturer has no intention of bringing back any of the old style RideSafer vests or buckles.
We understand your concerns and that there have been several reviews (especially on Amazon) that parents don’t like the new buckle.
We’ve had many customers say it just took a little practice for them to be able to easily use the new buckle. Some mentioned with a little practice they have even taught their child how to do the new buckle. With just a little instruction, our 5yo is almost able to do the buckle himself. He was unable to unbuckle the old buckle at all because he just didn’t have the thumb strength to push the button.
My 2 almost 3 year old is able to get the 5 point harness undone and the car buckle that holds his carseat in and then he unbuckles his 4 year old brother. If he can already undo the 5 point harness how much of a chance is there that he won’t be able to undo this one. He watches everything we do and learns so quickly.
Karen, Smart kid! :-) The “trick” is to pinch the webbing together on the one side of the buckle to align the other side to release the J-hook. The pinch movement is slight and he may not notice what you are doing. I would recommend practicing without him there so you are not learning with him watching. And perhaps distracting him while you are un/buckling him.
Looks like we all have the same complaint about the new buckle. I hope that they can change that. I would also like to see instructions in the packaging.
It’s a bit challenging to have to have your phone or tablet near by to learn how to put it on. With that being said it is pretty self exsplained.
The manufacturer has told us he no intention of bringing back any of the old style RideSafer vests or buckles. Though we continue to send him feedback from our customers.
We understand there have been several reviews (especially on Amazon) that parents don’t like the new buckle. Please note the product is still rated at 4.6 out of 5 stars on our store which means more people love the vest than the those who rate it low because they dislike the buckle.
The manufacturer has made an improvement to the buckle by making it larger and easier for our adult fingers to squeeze (see video above). We can ship replacements as soon as we have them in stock.
We’ve had many customers say it just took a little practice for them to be able to easily use the new buckle. Some mentioned with a little practice they have even taught their child how to do the new buckle. With just a little instruction, our 5yo is almost able to do the buckle himself. He was unable to unbuckle the old buckle at all because he just didn’t have the thumb strength to push the button.