Customer Reviews

Cheeky Monkey Pac Back

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

We're getting ready to travel back to the UK with our son & his car seat this summer (07). Having taken a closer look at the alternatives (car seat carrier, bag etc.) we thought we would give this one a try.

We have a Britax Boulevard seat - certainly not the smallest seat around. It fits well into this carrier. The back padding is reasonable - the most important part being the hard board liner - does a great job of hiding the sharp and irregular edges of the seat.

The shoulder straps are quite nicely padded, plenty of slack on the straps to adjust them.

The waist/hip supports are not bad either.

The seat itself is held in place by one strap top to bottom, one side to side, once the seat is cinched in, the whole thing is reassuringly secure.

Once the seat is secured and you hoist the thing on your back, it feels solid. I get the impression this will NOT be sliding around my back or off my shoulder... which is what it's all about.

The fabric used in construction is also quite thick, the seams are strongly stitched - I would not worry about this falling apart in the middle of the airport. Will it last forever? I doubt it, but at this price I would not expect it to. It has a good few trips in it though.

Comes with a neat stowaway bag, which will make it a lot easier to deal with once we arrive.

UPDATE!
This worked like a charm... the security people were OK with it - because it is so simple, they had no questions.

it carried our britax boulevard seat with ease, the straps adjusted nicely, we even managed to pack in a blanket and diaper bag (which is very handy given the onboard bag allowance).

i did pop a seam on the shoulder strap when i picked the thing up - not a problem at the time because it's double stitched, but i will repair it before we use it again.

once onboard the plane, just dump the car seat in the plane seat and pop the buckle, the straps will tuck into whatever fold is free. This made it worth buying on its own! no need to unpack, or repack the seat - just untuck and buckle.

overall, I would say well worth it. For the first time (with child) traveler I really found this useful.

As very frequent (often long-distance) travelers, we routinely purchase airline tickets for our daughter so that she can travel safely and comfortably in her car seat on plane trips. We really pushed the size limits of the car seat that integrated into a stroller (the Graco travel system) for ease of use, but once she had finally made the dreaded transition into a larger seat, we tried practically every method for moving the seat, toddler, diaper bag, collapsible stroller, carry-on, etc., from our home to and through the airport without ending up completely exhausted and frustrated. Of all of the options that we tried, the Pac Back was the most consistently comfortable and convenient. I'm not very tall (5'5"), and find that I can manage to wear the Pac Back, stow loose and light objects (such as coats or stuffed animals) in the car seat itself, sling a diaper bag over one shoulder and a purse on the other, and still have enough mobility/agility to bend down and pick my daughter up or hold her hand. (Granted, I look like a Pac Animal, but that's a small price to pay for having free hands at key moments.) The strap system is intuitive to use and seems well-constructed. Compared to a car seat bag, the Pac Back is much more easily removed from the car seat once on the plane, and I have never had any trouble replacing the straps in a minute or two -- plenty of time to have the seat on my back by the time people start exiting the plane. The straps adjust easily enough that my taller husband and I can take turns carrying the seat when we travel together without spending a lot of time situating ourselves. The only drawbacks: you really have to pay attention while wearing what amounts to a giant rigid backpack that you don't bash someone or something while turning, and the straps may have to be removed to go through security IF the x-ray machine has an extremely small opening (only happened once or twice at regional airports). Overall, an amazingly simple but incredibly helpful product.

First, I found this product to be well-constructed and light weight.

Overall, a useful tool when traveling alone with my 2 year old girl. Compared with lugging our Brittax marathon monster of car seat around the airport- this product was highly helpful and worth its weight in gold.

I previously used the Go-go babyz travelmate stroller which I had borrowed. I will compare it below.

Here are my critical observations:

1) Carrying a heavy car seat on your back gets old no matter how well designed the instrument. The Go-go babyz stroller attachment is more useful in this regard- nothing to strap on your back.

2) Using the pac back means you will likely want to bring a stroller- one more piece of equipment to haul around. It also has to be checked immediately before before bordering the plane, so it may also be subject to damage by uncaring airline personnel. With the Go-go babyz, no checking. Also the Go-go babyz is the stoller.

3) The pack back is one piece, while the Go-go babz does have several parts which are loose when detached for installation into the airline seat. Here the pac back is definitely favorable.

4) Both the pack back and Go-go babyz must be detached from car seat. A big inconvience. It takes several minutes to attach both.

The biggest improvement to either device would be designing a way to leave it attached while in the air craft seat. The task of attaching either requires full attention to the task. This may make is difficult to keep track of a toddler if traveling alone, as I was with a 2 year old.

Final analysis Pac Back vs. Go-go babyz:Quite comparable, although I would prefer the Go-go babyz. My wife prefers the pac bak, although she has not traveled with it, or alone with an energetic toddler!

I used this on my recent trip from Alaska to New Zealand. The pack was extremely helpful in navigating through the airport as well as boarding the plane.

This product was a decent way for me to lug our gigantic carseat through the airports (although my wife was not able to carry it comfortably herself). Before we even got to the gate on our first trip, however, I noticed that the stitching at the top of the straps was coming apart. I am not satisfied with the quality, and this probably would not serve you well if you travel frequently with a carseat.

If you're flying with a car set this is the best product. You just snap it up and swing it onto your back. Your hands are free and the seat is up out of the way.

I used this on a long trip with multiple flights - I was alone with my young baby and this saved my having to lug, drag and fight my way down the aisles. I was stopped several times by parents, grandparents and flight attendants marveling at this smart design.

As long as we have a car seat, we'll travel with this. Finally one Monkey you don't mind being on your back!

The idea of tugging my daughter's car seat through an airport, especially with one stop along the way, led me to buy the Pac Back. I was truly excited about the product and on our trip out, had decided that it was well worth the money. However, at the beginning of our trip back, when I initially strapped the car seat back in, one of the waist straps wripped from the seam. I was able to fix the problem temporarily so that it still served its purpose. However, toward the end of our trip, the nylon shoulder straps literally ripped apart at the seams, and another waist strap ripped out making it unusable -- and this was from just picking it up to put it on my back (it's a very average-sized car seat.) Not only did we have to tote around the car seat, but we now had to carry with us the ripped pac back too.

I returned the item to Amazon without any problems, but was truly diappointed with the product. I probably would have tried to return it for a new one but my husband insisted on the refund. The concept really is a great one and hopefully I just received a defective product.

We used this when we traveled internationally with two toddlers. We carried on one bulky seat for our one-year-old to sit in on the flight, and we actually fought over carrying the Pac Back vs. carrying the backpack diaper bag, because this was more comfortable. It has been a durable product and well worth the money.

I had high hopes for the Cheeky Monkey Pac Back. I knew that it would help getting through the airport by making one less thing that I would have to carry. I did not realize how much of a difference it would make. I got several looks walking though the airport from other parents that were carrying their car seats by hand.

This item is worth every penny, is well made and fulfills every promise in its description. Loading and removing the car seat from the Pac Back is quick and simple. I am very happy with the purchase.

This was a huge disappointment. We have a Graco Nautilius toddler car seat and this product did not fit very well on it to begin with. We followed instructions very carefully, but the top strap kept sliding off no matter how snug we tried to make it. We were changing flights and the third time we attached the seat to this product, it broke! The seams that hold the arm straps and the straps where the seat is held are very weak. One of them completely fell apart, and this was a totally different strap from the one we kept readjusting, just in case you might think those events are related.
Overall, I regret ever buying this product and consider it a total waste of money.