pedal extensions

Discussion on Advanced and Defensive Driving.

Postby chrisl » Tue Apr 21, 2015 3:02 pm


Garrison wrote:My wife is 5'2" and wears size 4. She has to make sure that her heel position is well into the foot-well. To start operating the pedals, she has to consciously bend back her toes to get the maximum height from heel on the floor to the pedal. Placing the heels towards the seat would result in not enough length in her foot to operate the whole pedal travel.

More for further purpose rather than immediately remedies - have you tried Japanese cars?

My wife has difficulties across all our European cars from Mondeos Mark 1 and 3s through to Mercedes S-Class. Ergonomically not only pedals but the ranges of adjustment on steering, side mirrors, interior mirrors, steering to seat to mirrors relationships, angle of attack on the pedals, etc. She is more comfortable with our MR2 or Mazda RX8 or even Nissan Maxima QX (an exec-sized car).

We also find that the Japanese version of the same chassis to be ergonomically very different. We had a Mazda 6 MPS and she found the seat, steering and mirrors relationships and adjustments much better than our three Mondeo Mark 3 Ghia Xs. For example,
1) her knees are very much touching the steering column on the Mondeos whereas there are a few inches of gap under the steering column in the Mazda 6,
2) the passenger side mirror would be at the end of the adjustment range for her in the Mondeos whereas there are still plenty of mirror travel in the Mazda 6, and
3) the door tweeter speaker partly block the side mirrors in her driving position in the Mondeo but the Mazda 6 side mirrors are placed further rearward and out/away from the A-pillars as not to partly obstruct if you have your seat forward.

Lastly, our Smart Roadster Coupe pedals are all floor-hinged and the current Smart city car's pedals are also floor hinged.

http://www.theonecar.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/smart-roadster-67.jpg

Hope this helps.



Thank you Garrison, that is very helpful indeed. I have shown my wife and she is going to see if she can do the same.

We'll certainly consider a Japanese car in the future. I've had Nissans in the past and been very happy with them.
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Postby petes » Wed May 13, 2015 2:36 pm


I saw Warwick Davis on an episode of Top Gear. He use a couple of Pringle tubes attached to the pedals with gaffer tape. I'm guessing you're after a more elegant solution than that!
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Postby Pontoneer » Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:35 am


StressedDave wrote:You'll be lucky - whilst you can get cars with floor hinged accelerators, I'm not aware (this side of a classic 911) of any with wholly floor hinged pedals outside real exotica.


Any Mercedes has the organ pedal type accelerator , and before anyone remarks on expense , last year I bought an excellent little 190E for £250 . My old Ponton ( 1957 ) had brake and clutch hinged from below but , conversely , accelerator from above ! Aircooled Beetles have all three pedals hinged from below and are very easy to drive .

Instead of trying to extend the pedals , which might make the car undriveable for anyone else , what about special footwear to extend her feet ? Something akin to platform soled shoes might work ?
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Postby jcochrane » Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:10 am


StressedDave wrote:You'll be lucky - whilst you can get cars with floor hinged accelerators, I'm not aware (this side of a classic 911) of any with wholly floor hinged pedals outside real exotica.


I found adapting to the idea of pointing the toes to depress the clutch on these old 911s very strange at first.
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Postby revian » Sat Aug 08, 2015 8:05 pm


jcochrane wrote:
StressedDave wrote:You'll be lucky - whilst you can get cars with floor hinged accelerators, I'm not aware (this side of a classic 911) of any with wholly floor hinged pedals outside real exotica.


I found adapting to the idea of pointing the toes to depress the clutch on these old 911s very strange at first.

How does pointing the toes help? Is it the weight of the mortar mix? Artificially 'heavy footed'?
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Postby Mr Cholmondeley-Warner » Wed Aug 12, 2015 1:13 pm


StressedDave wrote:After a few hours you start to wonder why all cars aren't like this.

If you can last that long without severe backache! Personally I wonder why any cars are like that, but it's part of the folklore, so has to be accepted and worked at :evil:

PS one of you'll have to show me the pointy toes bit sometime.
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Postby dvenman » Wed Aug 12, 2015 2:48 pm


And he's needing a hairdresser less and less :D

And in case anyone wonders why I'm taking the mickey, I can't take any credit for the colour but I had a Boxster before him, so I reckon he got the idea off me !
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Postby Mr Cholmondeley-Warner » Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:11 pm


dvenman wrote:I had a Boxster before him, so I reckon he got the idea off me !

And you're gradually learning to drive it (when it's not broken) :P
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