Great for larger baby

When our little boy showed signs of outgrowing his infant car seat before he was 6 months old, I started looking for a new travel system that could accommodate a larger baby. The standard ones are for a baby up to 20 or 22 pounds. At that time there were only a few infant car seats available that would hold a baby over 22 pounds; these were designed to accommodate a baby up to 35 pounds in the rear-facing position. The seat with this travel system was one of them. It fit into our car better than the others, although a rear-facing seat that large doesn't easily fit into a mid-size sedan. Not if you want to get other people into the car, that is. ;-)

Before our son was born, I remember looking at the Eddie Bauer travel system that was available at that time. I liked it, and might have purchased it, except I couldn't lift the stroller. It was really heavy. Whoever designed it obviously hadn't considered whether the average woman would be able to lift it into a car.

Several months later, when our son was getting too big for his standard infant seat, we looked again and found this travel system available in the aluminum frame. The aluminum made all the difference. I could now lift the stroller into my car without any trouble.

This stroller folds in the middle so it ends up standing on its wheels, which I really like. The only thing I don't like about how it folds is that it doesn't snap into a closed position. It kind of compresses accordion-style, but the closure is loose, and while it won't open on you, it will shift around a bit while you're trying to get it into your car. With a bit of practice I was able to get a comfortable grip for loading and unloading it.

Overall, the stroller is great. I had no trouble with it, and liked the various features, including the parent tray with cup holders, the child tray with a cup holder that also holds a juice box, the harness system, the adjustment on the seat back, etc. Lots of good features. I did notice that it didn't push as well as my son got closer to 30 pounds. With the infant seat on it, and him in it at 28 pounds, it was top heavy, would rock from side to side, and was hard to steer and push. (we only used the rear-facing seat until he reached his 1st birthday). It was easier to handle and push with him in the stroller seat, but still not optimal. I found myself using my jogging stroller most of the time once he got to 30 pounds.

I'm bringing this up because, if the car seat in the travel system can handle an infant up to 35 pounds, the companion stroller should be stable and easy to push and steer with a 35 pound baby in it, or in the car seat on it.

About the car seat, it worked great. You definitely need to use it with the base. I found it snapped into the base pretty easily. The seat straps held my (not so) little boy very securely.

The one thing I didn't like about the car seat was the canopy. The stroller has a canopy with a round edge that's pretty stable. The canopy on the car seat has a square edge, and the braces that hold it up kept coming apart so the whole thing was often falling to pieces. Particularly with an active baby playing with it, it often would be turned inside-out, back to front, with parts of the support ribs pulled out. Considering the quality and sturdiness of the rest of the ensemble, I was surprised at the lack of quality in the car seat canopy.

Some people have commented in their reviews on how the car seat is heavy and difficult to use as a carrier. This is because it is designed for a larger infant, and therefore must be larger and heavier. When my baby got to be more than 20 pounds, I wasn't about to tote him around in a carrier. But I did like the ability to transfer him from the car to the stroller without taking him out of his seat. And no, this seat doesn't fit across a shopping cart like the standard size ones do. But you can put it in the main basket of a shopping cart. Or you can put the car seat on the stroller and stuff your groceries into the stroller basket. Or, if you're buying lots of groceries, you can push your cart with one hand and pull the stroller with the baby with the other.

If you have BBS (big baby syndrome) this travel system is just what you need.