ADUK Archive

Just wondering if anyone here has experience of fitting pedal extensions? My wife is very short, just under 5ft, and has trouble reaching the pedals even with the seat all the way forward - we have a Clio and a Fiesta, so we're not talking big cars here. She cannot touch the floor with her right heel while operating the accelerator, leading to obvious difficulty in controlling the throttle. It also means she is a bit unstable in her seat and slips forward.

The extensions I've seen online look like they make the pedals even higher from the floor, and I'm not sure that will help a person with size 3 feet!

Thank you.

Pedal extensions work fine as long as they provide good friction with the driver's soles. It's not nice to slip off of a aluminum extension (which is devised to work with racing soles) when you have to stop quickly...

As for raising the floor, I have yet to come across a good solution other than racing floor pans which sometimes include an elevated area for the heel.

It's not easily removable and requires taking out the car mat, but it's also the only solution I trust to hold still in a collision.

Edit: Isn't your wife experiencing some other seating position related problems? With small drivers there is usually little distance between the driver and airbag, less view of the car's front corners, more difficulty reaching all parts of the steering wheel, etc...

Is the heel on floor issue because the pedals are hinged from above...
would it make a difference choosing a car where the pedals are hinged from the floor...?

Alasdair

Thank you for your very quick responses this morning.

StressedDave, you may well be right in that it is two separate issues. One of the difficulties is imagining the changed geometry in my head when adding extensions. I find it hard to think the extension isn't even further from the floor, so exacerbating the heel problem while potentially still allowing the seat to be positioned further back from the steering wheel, which is of course an advantage worth having in its own right. On the other hand, perhaps an extension that adds 3 inches to the pedal is going to affect any driver's ability to pivot on their heel...

Astraist, we're looking at a normal road car so will avoid aluminium extensions. The ones we've seen are rubber topped like the standard pedals. The other big difficulty with raising the floor is that it may then get into the realms of preventing me from driving the car myself. I'm not particularly tall, but the changes could alter the geometry for me making the steering wheel too far away. You are correct in your edit - there are other issues and it would be very nice to have a bit more space between her and the wheel in case of the airbag deploying.

Alasdair, you may have something there. The pedals are hinged from the top, and to be honest I'm not aware of any cars that are different from that. I've never driven any myself.

StressedDave wrote:wholly floor hinged pedals outside real exotica.

"Madam, are you sure this TVR Tuscan is the only car you'd consider?"

David

chrisl wrote:Alasdair, you may have something there. The pedals are hinged from the top, and to be honest I'm not aware of any cars that are different from that. I've never driven any myself.

Most (all?) BMWs, have a floor hinged accelerator. If you google it, comes up with some nice pictures to get an idea if it would be suitable. But buying a new car is a slightly more expensive option....Although slightly cheaper than a TVR

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.

Agreed - e.g. discussion on accelerators:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1185945

but nice excuse to buy something fancy!

Alasdair

You may be best to investigate a bespoke solution that involves lengthening the pedal shafts rather than (or as well as) raising the pedal sole. Of course this can only be done so far as it doesn't cause the pedals to foul on the floor ...

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.

Not 'wholly', but I think the accelerator on our Altera pivots from below.

chrisl wrote:The other big difficulty with raising the floor is that it may then get into the realms of preventing me from driving the car myself.[...]You are correct in your edit - there are other issues and it would be very nice to have a bit more space between her and the wheel in case of the airbag deploying.

I am happy to stand corrected.

For short drivers, there are removable false floors. Some sort of mounting is fixed to the floor but in by itself does not interfere with normal driving, but does allow to bolt-in the false floor.

There are also seat cushions which latch unto the seat and provide ample support in all direction, which is where most seat cushions otherwise fail.

Using both, as well as pedal extensions, allows even drivers under 4 feet to reach an ideal driving position, while still allowing them to share the car with taller drivers.

As for options built into the stock car, I would look not for floor mounted pedals (and if I did, I'd look for an HGV ), but rather for adjustable pedals.

IcedKiwi wrote:

chrisl wrote:Alasdair, you may have something there. The pedals are hinged from the top, and to be honest I'm not aware of any cars that are different from that. I've never driven any myself.

Most (all?) BMWs, have a floor hinged accelerator. If you google it, comes up with some nice pictures to get an idea if it would be suitable. But buying a new car is a slightly more expensive option....Although slightly cheaper than a TVR

Yes... My 318d has floor hinged accelerator..I'm not tall (5ft 5inches and a tad ) I have issues including with my seat squab not tilting. I could do with being able to drop the front a bit. If the adjustment overall suitable for me is moved even a small amount I have comfort problems on longer journeys. It took an absolute age to figure it out and I seriously wondered if I ever would. Should I ever be able to afford it... And should I ever get another BMW (unlikely on either count) I'd go for the much more adjustable (so called) sports seats.

Hope you can find a solution. For all the money poured into cars the seating seems the fag end of what's spent.

Ian

No help to the OP, but so far as I'm aware the norm for many years has been for the clutch and brake pedals to be pendant type, i.e. pivotted above, and although some throttle pedals may appear to be bottom hinged, the actual mechanism is hinged above, and a separate floor mounted flap bears on a roller at the bottom end of the arm. This has sometimes been described as an 'organ pedal' type throttle arrangement. The 3.8 Mark 2 Jaguar that I had from 1968 to 2000 had this, and it seemed to be a good arrangement in that it promoted steadier control of the throttle foot action.

I suppose one benefit of the pendant system is that it avoid the difficulty of sealing the holes in the floor where the pedal stems pass through. This might be OK when everything is new, but after a few years the sealing arrangements will fall into a state of disrepair and then you find yourself having to drive the car in wellies on wet days.

Our Yeti and the Citigo that I have driven both had the clutch and brake pedal hinged from above, but the accelerator pedal is hinged on the floor.

It seems to be a common feature on Skoda cars.

I may be wrong.

Thank you for all the responses. I've contacted one of the suppliers of pedal extensions and await their response to my questions. We are also considering changing our cars for something more suitable for my wife to drive. We're looking to drop from two cars to one anyway. Considering an automatic too although I'd like the option of a properly proportioned manual if possible.

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.