short driver problems (vertically challanged)

LOL, good posts! There was a really old dump truck on base that I had to drive a few times with no air seat. You could adjust it front to back well enough but not up and down, so every time I got in this truck my heels would not reack the floor. The lock for the rocker (front to back) on the seat was broken and every time I would give it a little gas the seat would rock back, foot lets off the gas, seat rocks forward and foot gets on the gas, over and over again. truck was jumping forward over and over, I had to laugh at myself. If you could see it you would laugh too. I did end up going to the store and got a float cushion to put behind my back. It really helped get me forward enough to get my heels on the floorboard. One of the loaders and a grader there werent set for someone short either, I took that float seat with me in all the equipment that I didnt fit in. I got teased a bit, untill the guys needed someone to crawl in small spaces to fix or retrieve something.

 

I forgot, I also went out and got some of that foam matt stuff and sewed together a cover for it and made myself a handy lil booster seat, it goes everywhere with me in my pickup, and when I drive my husbands pickup I use it in there too, otherwise I wouldnt be able to see over the dash.
I am not the type that has a complex about my height, in fact it comes in handy sometimes, if I fall Im closer to the ground and it takes less time to get back on my feet.

 

"and in the event of a water landing........"

 

There is a guy I know who I don't even think he makes it to 5 foot, but his truck is altered.

 

Interesting problem. I'd never even thought about it. But if the booster works, then it looks like you have found the solution to the problem. FWIW, my wife uses a booster cushion in everything she drives. Not that she is all that short, it is just what she is comfortable with. . .

Not to throw stones at you here, but I really wonder how your hips and back is going to be in say 10-15 years. There is a very good reason for having that air ride suspension.

But then, "each to their own."

 

I'm at the other end of the spectrum, 6ft 4 in. Back when I was 21 I had both knees crushed with both caps split in two. Luckily I didn't develop any problems much from that other than the fact that my knees/legs stiffen up on me when I stay in one position too long.

Thus I tend to move the seat around; sometimes closer, sometimes further back, sometimes up or down. For the sake of my back I tend to leave the seatback in a straight position and occasionally use the armrests for support when I'm getting tired.

Lumbar supports don't work real well after a year or so and International rates only slightly behind Mack for poor seat design. You'll find most company trucks have poor to average seats, especially if your truck had previously been driven by a hugely overweight moose.

Last year I had a bad back episode. Don't really know why but 2 discs slid sideways. Very painful; I could only drive for an hour and have to lay down for two. As luck would have it Love's was having a sale that included one of those heat/vibrator massage seats. Believe it or not, the thing worked and got me home. Chiropractor fixed the discs but that seat is still in my truck. It helps.

Driving trucks is one of the hardest jobs there is on back health. But nothing will take you out of the truck faster. Check with your Chiro or Doc and get a copy of the exercise chart for back and neck. Easy to do in your bunk at days end and will take any stiffness away before you sleep. A few minutes per day will save you alot of hurt further along that road.

 

Well I'm only 5' 7 and I learned to drive in a Freightliner FLD and in that for me anyway I had the seat all the way up and forward with my knees up against the dash worked great for me. They also had a 1991 Volvo which even with the seat all the way forward I couldn't get the clutch all the way to the floor because the seat didn't go as far forward as the Freightliners did, but I could still drive it just fine.

And my dad is 5' 5 and he's a trucker too and he hasn't had any problems. We have a driver where I work whose 5' 2 and he drives just fine.

American Trucker

 

I know how it feel's. Just posted about the 2 disc's I had slip before catching your post. I stayed laid up for almost a month before I was able to to start moving around again afterward's. I need to see a chiropractor something serious but I can't afford it. I've heard some guy's with major back problems say they've went in in major pain and come out feeling like a brand new man and because of the change in posture it also make's a change in the way your voice sound's. The curve in my spine found on x-ray was discovered on accident being it was not the reason I was in the ER in the first place.

Pardone me for slightly hi-jacking the thread, still somewhat on topic I do believe. One thing I can say to anyone is avoid any truck that has vinal seat's. It's take's an act of congress to do 200 miles without wanting to jump up while going down the road because they are so hard and uncomfortable. I had a FL Century at FFE with vinal seat's and it wasn't much differance than having your ### strapped to a rock on stone wheel's and no suspention.

 

Our Volvo's at work have such a range of adjustment I would think even a midget could drive them.