petal extenders

JoeR · Aug 11, 2005

My wife is having a difficult time reaching the pedals on the truck we just leased. Is there such a thing as pedal extenders that can be attached to the pedals, expecially the clutch, and where would you go about getting one?

I might be able to make something out of a block of wood, but not sure how to attach it so it wont be slipping off. Any ideas?

tazman · Aug 11, 2005

I'm probably going to be chastized here but....

"If you can't reach the controls...you can't drive the truck"

Why would you jeopordize you spouses safety and yours by adding something like that to the controls ????

Having said that....You can buy vehicles today that adjust the pedal distance by a gear/electric motor mechanism....perhaps truck companies will step up too......

Thanks for letting me offer an opinion.....

Frank in Pa...

"The Beast in the East"

NEVERHOME247 · Aug 11, 2005

May or may not solve your problem. But check the drivers seat where it mounts to the base. And you may be able to move the seat further forward on the base. If not you could move the whole base. But you would have to drill new holes. I would try that route first. Just my opinion. But extending the pedals is not a good idea.

simpleminded · Aug 12, 2005

Could always use a few bricks and a little duct tape lol

raceman · Aug 13, 2005

I had a very short driver in one of my trucks. Same problem.

Here is what we did. Cut a piece of 4x4 and with plastic ties and then duct tape placed the blocks on the pedals. Adjust your wood size to fit her needs. A mechanic saw this and told me it was not uncommon in the biz.

If you do it right, you will be mad when you decide to remove them because they are on there so well. I actually said a few bad words when trying to remove them.

Raceman
OTR O/O

redytrk · Aug 13, 2005

Found a site on Google that might help you.Maybe the models made for fork lifts would work.
http://www.ksginfo.org/othersrc.html#PedEx

JoeR · Aug 13, 2005

Finally a reasonable suggestion. thanks raceman. It was beginning to appear that most members on this site believed that short people had no business driving a truck. Moving past the condescending, self righteous drivel, I did come up with a safe solution that it similiar to what you suggested.

I took a small block of wood, and from the hardware store I got a couple of heavy duty 4" metal hose clamps. They look like the hose clamps that hold your radiator hose on. I put the clamps, or you could call them metal bands, around the wood and the clutch pedal and tightened them down. They are on there so tight and secure that they made indentations in the wood. They dont budge, they are totally safe, and my wife in now comfortable driving the truck. She could drive it before, but had to practically slide off the seat to get the pedal all the way to the floor. The set up I have now is much safer.

I talked with a lady on another site, and she had done something similar. It is nice to hear that this is a common solution to a common problem.

One word of caution. They make a quick disconnect clamp. You DO NOT want this clamp. Get something similar to the one that is holding your radiator hose on. The 4" heavy duty clamps I got at the hardware store sold for only $1.50 each. You can probably get a small piece of 2x4 for free or real cheap. Take one or two pieces of 2x4, about 4 to 6 inches long, the metal bands, a few minutes of work and less than 5 bucks out of pocket, and you have a safe, reliable fix to this problem.

So, if you or someone you know is having difficulty reaching the clutch or brake pedals, here is someone offering you a genuine solution. I thought that is one of the reasons this site existed, to help each other. Rest assured, if you go this route, you will not be endangering yourselves, your spouses or the entire motoring public.

greg334 · Aug 13, 2005

Joer

I have to add something about this.

I used to arrange new car purchases for people, some who were elderly and I had to add pedal extentsions on the cars for the 4'8" ladies.

The one thing that is really needed is some sort of surface that will prevent boots or shoes to slip off. just a rough wood surface will not be safe if it is worn or polished and duct tape for get about that. If you are inspected in some states, it may not pass as safe. What I did was to add a sticky backed gripping surface to the pedal extentsions. You know some of these ladies had shoes that were polished hard soles and they would be so slick and slide off of the rubber pedals. I used a 3M product that was made for wing walking and rather cheap and avalible in different widths. it was like coated sand paper and very water and oil proof. they make simular sticky tstuff out there, but i found that this had some sort of rubber coating that really worked well.