Baby Jogger City Mini, City Mini GT and Elite Hoods

This post was written to try and explain whether or not the Baby Jogger City Mini, Baby Jogger City Mini GT and Baby Jogger City Elite hoods can be interchanged. This was primarily requested because although the Baby Jogger City Mini GT seat is very tall, the rim on the hood sits low on the pushchair.

The first two photos show the front view and then the rear view of the hoods.

The black hood is a City Mini hood. The yellow one is the City Mini GT hood. The red hood is the Elite hood.

Although the yellow GT hood may look taller than the black City Mini hood, the rim at the front is actually half an inch lower than the City Mini hood. The red Elite hood is 2 inches higher than the GT hood at the front edge.

In comparison the BJCMGT has a 54cms tall seat, whereas the BJCM seat is 49.5cm and the Elite seat is 51cms tall. This is important in explaining these photos.

One important point to note is regarding the recline on these pushchairs. When the seats are reclined, the rear of the seat is covered by mesh. This has an additional weather protection cover which can be pulled over the mesh to provide weatherproofing and also darkness for a sleeping child.
If you look at the second photo of the rear of the hoods, this weather protection cover is only on the City Mini and the Elite hoods. It is not on the yellow  BJCMGT hood. Instead there is a yellow flap that is several inches deep at the rear of the hood.
The BJCMGT DOES have a weather protection cover BUT importantly it is already attached to the rear of the pushchair – see the third photo which is the BJCMGT with no hood on but shows the weather protection cover.

The other important point to note is shown in the fourth photo. This is the Baby Jogger City Elite. The Elite seat is 51cms tall and at the top of the seat there are several inches of bare metal before the black handle. This is where the Elite hood attaches. The next three photos show that although the Elite hood will fit into the hood sockets (all the hoods will fit into the hood sockets), because the BJCMGT seat is 3cms taller, the fabric comes right up to the BJCMGT handlebar, thus there is nowhere for the Elite hood to fasten on. So, yes, the Elite hood would fit onto the BJCMGT, it will not fasten at the top. Plus as the eighth photo shows that because the Elite seat is lower, you end up with a gap at the top of the handlebar which the weather protection cover does fill, however then you are left with two covers, one of which is just flapping. It could be rolled up, but you would then have the gap behind the hood. The ninth photo shows the Elite hood on the BJCMGT.

Conversely, if the BJCMGT hood is put onto the City Mini or the Elite the latter two pushchairs would be missing this weather protection flap. Having tried it, the BJCMGT hood doesn’t work well on the City Mini or the Elite. Plus given the BJCMGT hood has a lower rim, there really is no advantage to doing so.

The Baby Jogger City Mini and Elite hoods do swap reasonably well because there is space for the hoods to attach at the top of each pushchair, and also these two both have the weather protection cover. The last three photos show the Elite hood on the Baby Jogger City Mini which gives the benefit of additional hood height on the City Mini for a taller child.