Problem with safety seat attachment

I used to have a 2002 Tacoma Xtracab. When I would install a child (not infant) safety seat in the right rear seat, it was easy, because in addition to the seat belt, there was a provision for using the top strap on the safety seat. The top strap was passed through one OPEN metal loop, then attached to a second loop. Again, the first loop was open, so passing the top strap through it was easy. (And the open end of the loop was positioned so that as the belt was put under tension, including tension from an accident, the belt would move away from the open part of the loop-- no coming loose by accident.)

I just bought a (used) 2005 Tacoma Access Cab. It has a similar provision for installing a child safety seat in the right rear seat, but that first metal loop is CLOSED. And the buckle on the top strap of my child's safety seat is too large to pass through that loop.

I feel strongly that using the top strap increases the safety of the child. And I can use that top strap if I put the safety seat in the RIGHT FRONT seat of the truck. But then the top strap is attached at the RIGHT REAR seat position, and obviously, that decreases the utility of the truck.

Has anyone else encountered this problem, and does anyone know of a fix?

 

mine has two latch points. an upper one in the headrest is for when the seat is in the front. there is a lower one (down and off to the right) for when you are anchoring in the back

 

Pm tigerfan00 I'm pretty sure he's a licensed/or trained child seat installer..

 

I used a climbing clip to route the top strap, but I used the LATCH system as primary, and was not ever too worried about it. I also don't believe the instructions required the use of the top strap w/ the LATCH,

 

Brunes: By a "climbing clip", I presume you mean a carabiner-- is that correct? That seems like an easy solution. Thanks. And no, I wasn't figuring on using that IN PLACE OF the seat belt as the primary attachment, but only IN ADDITION TO the seat belt. Given a choice between one or the other, the seat belt alone would be the way to go, the top strap alone would (in my opinion) be dangerous. But I think that ADDING the top strap attachment to the seat belt attachment significantly improves the security (safety) of the set-up.