Small Wife vs Modern Car Seats

[hazmat]

Ford has the adjustable pedals. I have them in my F150 supercrew (4 real doors, stubby 5' bed). She (5'2" 105#) can comfortable drive the "Big Red Truck". Actually I think she really gets a kick out of being "Big Truck Girl" /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif Her car is a Honda Civic.

The pedals are also available on Ford's other full size trucks (150-350) and Explorer, Expedition, & Excursion. I didn't see them listed on the minivan.

They are a good safety feature as they get smaller drivers away from the airbag.

 

[JackIL]

Harv,
My wife is small too (5' 1", 85#) and has had the same problem with seats and pedals for years. Our solution has been to only drive vehicles with power seats that have a multitude of adjustments including "tilt." She operates with the seat tilted fully counterclockwise (viewed when opening the driver door), almost all the way forward, and partially elevated vertically. I use entirely different settings. So far this has worked for us in Volvos, Jeep Grand Cherokees, Tahoes, and Cateras.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Harv, I have to say that I've seen about every option I could have (and have) tried to accomodate undersized drivers over the years already mentioned here.

I think I've used each of them over the years and don't know that any one is better than another all the time. It depends on the driver and the intended use of the vehicle.

If it's going to be hers exclusively, changing the seat or adding pedal extensions will be fine. If someone else will be driving it part of the time those become cumbersome. A seat wedge to bring her up and forward is much handier for someone to add and remove when drivers change.

If you can do it, take whatever vehicle you like best to the auto upholstery shop and ask them to work with your wife to fit cushioning under and behind her until she's comfortable then have her take it on an extended drive. If she likes it they can keep the configuration of padding they put together, upholster it and you have your cushions.

Good luck with this. I know it's not easy. I hope this helps.

 

[Harv]

Wow! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif Never disappointed at the response from this board.

Y'all have already given me new food for thought, but let's see if I can synch up with some of your replies:

First off, let me point out that although this is technically to be my wife's car, I will most certainly be driving it on a semi-regular basis. It's gotta work for both of us.

Built-in adjustments

Every model we have looked at appears to have lots of seat adjustment latitude, but it's not quite enough for the wife. The one we're focusing on right now has an 8-way power seat, and of course we adjusted it to the max during our tests.

Swapping the whole seat

We are considering this, especially since the car we have now is a potential donor. The question I have is about the wiring. I've never removed a power seat before, so I have no idea what the issues are. Are they pretty self-contained? Is it just a matter of applying volts to a pair of wires?

Add-on Cushions

My wife went to a shop that specializes in seat cushions for people with back problems and picked up a couple that would boost her rear, but she said it only helped a little. I suppose we could work with the upholsterer to fashion something more suited to my wife's specific problem, and now that I've heard some of your comments, we might just do that, at least on an experimental basis.

Pedal Modifiers

I thought that would make it inconvenient for me, but maybe there's enough seat adjustment to work for both of us. That concept is new to me.

Modifying The Seat Mounting Brackets

I had considered this in terms of lowering the front, but it does make more sense to raise the back. Duh!

I never claimed to be a genius.

Trimming The Foam From The Bottom

I believe that would most definitely require modifying the wire supports, but I'll take another look at that possibiliy next time I'm talking to an upholsterer.

Thanks for the input, guys. It's almost fun to share such problems on TBN.

 

[Ozarker]

Have you considered just having the seat so that she can sit comfortably and see where she is going and adding hand controls?

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Harv,

From the Ford website:
"Power Adjustable Accelerator and Brake Pedals provide greater comfort and convenience for drivers of virtually any height by allowing the driver to move the pedals closer or farther away from them, depending on the length of the driver’s legs and where the driver feels most comfortable. "
Sounds like they're easily adjustable for either driver. With 8-way power seats this may solve the problem?

By the way, I also have a wife who is 5'0", 100#. Are we living in a parallel universe of some kind (check profile for property description)? Me in the real world (Texas) and you in bizarro land (California)/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif. Just kidding - some of my favorite cousins live in the bay area.

 

[hazmat]

<font color=blue>Sounds like they're easily adjustable for either driver. With 8-way power seats this may solve the problem?</font color=blue>

Unless he doesn't want a Ford truck or suv. They're not available (to my knowledge) in Ford cars. Also not available from other manufacturers.

 

[Golfgar4]

If memory serves correctly, and there's NO guarantee of that, I remember seeing a Ford commercial showing the adjustable pedals in one of their cars. Seems to me it was a Tauris.

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Hazmat,

The first time I saw these was on a Mercury Sable, so I imagine they might be available on other cars, also.

My wife uses pedal extenders on her Mazda B4000 pickup now, and when it's time to trade, we'll be looking for adjustable pedals. Sometimes this kind of feature can be the decision maker when deciding between different models (although we're not as ****-ytical about it as Harv). /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[hazmat]

I stand corrected/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif. Let me revise my statement.

"Unless he doesn't want to buy a ford/mercury"

Heres a link <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mercuryvehicles.com/vehicles/sable/fe_int_adjpedals.asp> Mercury adjustable pedals </A>

No mention of them on Ford's web site for the taurus (doesn't mean they don't exist)