Tall bloke vs Steering wheel

[Rayinsydney 21]

Hi,  Is anyone else a tall bloke?, and if so, how do you fit in...I have an XE wagon, and am normal height at 6"4 and just cant find an easy way in or out, seat is back as far as it goes, but the space between bottom of steering wheel and front of seat ain't much, getting in is quite the circus, any tips on whether the seat rails can be moved back or anything?, is not so bad once in ,  but would be nice to not crush my leg to do it, i have kinda skinny legs too!

[deankxf 20,288]

have a look to see if the seats have a spacer between the rails and the seat base. that's about 1/2 an inch black plastic spacer.

other than that with stock seats you'll have to modify the rails. 

recaros and other sports seats you sort of sit IN, but i don't know of any that are a direct fit other than the ESP Scheels which cost a fortune .

[dex 2,065]

Stock steering wheel also ,?

[Rayinsydney 21]

15 hours ago, dex said:

Stock steering wheel also ,?

Yes it is

[XCeed 205]

Would an XC GS/GXL steering wheel do the trick. As you can see, they are not round. The bottom half has a smaller radius allowing for more leg space.

 

 

The price people are asking might be cheaper/ less hassle than modifying your seats or buying new ones. This is on Marketplace in Adelaide for $550.

[deankxf 20,288]

23 minutes ago, XCeed said:

Would an XC GS/GXL steering wheel do the trick. As you can see, they are not round. The bottom half has a smaller radius allowing for more leg space.

 

 

The price people are asking might be cheaper/ less hassle than modifying your seats or buying new ones. This is on Marketplace in Adelaide for $550.

the XE/XF ones are similar not round shape also. (unless fairlane/ghia/ltd etc)

[XCeed 205]

4 hours ago, deankdx said:

the XE/XF ones are similar not round shape also

 

Well you learn something new every day. They are the same.

 

Well what about one of these:

 

Heaps of leg room underneath 

[deankxf 20,288]

18 minutes ago, XCeed said:

 

Well you learn something new every day. They are the same.

 

Well what about one of these:

(chain steering wheel)

Heaps of leg room underneath 

yeah i never knew the XC GXL wheel was oval, i had one once. (XC GS 6cyl, bought it and resold due to not liking it.. weirdo lol) 

[SPArKy_Dave 8,874]

On 1/27/2023 at 1:33 PM, Rayinsydney said:

Hi,  Is anyone else a tall bloke?, and if so, how do you fit in...I have an XE wagon, and am normal height at 6"4 and just cant find an easy way in or out,

 

On 1/27/2023 at 2:24 PM, deankdx said:

have a look to see if the seats have a spacer between the rails and the seat base. that's about 1/2 an inch black plastic spacer.

 

 

Good thing it's not an x-series ute or panelvan, as those have even less leg room!

 

If it was a bench seat wagon you may have more luck, as those have a very squishy base.

One tends to sink right into them.

 

Short of a bench seat, modified seat rails, or a super tiny sports steering wheel,

I can't imagine any other options.

To my knowledge, adjustable steering column's only became available, in the XF Fairmont era, onwards.

 

 

[deankxf 20,288]

8 hours ago, SPArKy_Dave said:

To my knowledge, adjustable steering column's only became available, in the XF Fairmont era, onwards.

they only go LOWER, be worse for tall people . 

 

 

[bear351c 10,270]

Yeah, not much you can do mate, other than getting a smaller wheel. Have you thought about ripping the seat out and getting it reupholsted with less foam.?  

[Rayinsydney 21]

1 hour ago, bear351c said:

Yeah, not much you can do mate, other than getting a smaller wheel. Have you thought about ripping the seat out and getting it reupholsted with less foam.?  

Spoke to my upholsterer on Friday who was doing a headlining for another of my cars, he reckons it’s pretty easy to drop the seat height , by taking foam out, also the rails can be modded with the correct engineering apparently, so it looks like a good project to sort out!

[deankxf 20,288]

1 hour ago, Rayinsydney said:

Spoke to my upholsterer on Friday who was doing a headlining for another of my cars, he reckons it’s pretty easy to drop the seat height , by taking foam out, also the rails can be modded with the correct engineering apparently, so it looks like a good project to sort out!

if he's happy to share the process and you are happy to show it, i think it would be good to see what's done and what the approximate cost is. 

very time consuming work doing seat trims/repairs/mods. the last quote i got was fairly extreme, so i ended up looking for and finding a good passenger seat and swapped the foam and trim over myself. 

[Rayinsydney 21]

An update , last night i took out the spacers from under the seat, this has definitely made a difference, as in the actual seating position when in is fine, and slightly easier to get in and out due to a bit of an increase in the gap between wheel and seat, so a win there.

The seat put up a fight to get out, and now seems to not slide back and forth so something else to look at,  the seat rails have some 'punches' that almost look like they are pilot holes to drill and tap and re-locate the rails backwards for more travel, so once the power steering gets put in soon, I'll check that out and see if it makes a difference.

 

With the extra gap I now have, I think that the PS install will make the flailing of arms much less effort, so may be all i need to do to get my wife driving it as well.

 

Will update when done, 

 

cheers, 

 

Ray.

[deankxf 20,288]

56 minutes ago, Rayinsydney said:

The seat put up a fight to get out, and now seems to not slide back and forth so something else to look at,  the seat rails have some 'punches' that almost look like they are pilot holes to drill and tap and re-locate the rails backwards for more travel, so once the power steering gets put in soon, I'll check that out and see if it makes a difference.

 

cool, let us know if there's a spot to relocate the mount point.(via drilling a new hole)
i didn't really think of this in the falcons, but had considered it in the gemini i have (drilling the holes in the seat further back, but it will put strain on the mounting, maybe add a 3rd bolt if you can on the rail to seat?) 

i think the ford rails are strong enough for this, (i've seen cracked ones, but i reckon that was due to work hardening, high kms cars ) plus the BUM part wouldn't be past the end of the rail, but you'd get a fair bit of leverage on the seat back pulling on the front mountings. 

 

 

[SPArKy_Dave 8,874]

15 hours ago, deankdx said:

 

i think the ford rails are strong enough for this, (i've seen cracked ones, but i reckon that was due to work hardening, high kms cars )

 

The bench seat, in my Green XE wagon would not slide at all, when I first bought it.

I found the seat rails were cracked, as you mentioned - which I reinforced via small welded gussets.

 

Even with the gussets, it still never been perfect.

[CHESTNUTXE 7,311]

The way i did the tall bloke thing with steering wheel thing is buy a set of scheel esp seats and fit them without the metal racks only cost you 5grand it did work tho.

[thorne 1,078]

Yep, 6'4" here and I've been wary of entering and exiting both my vehicles ever since I bought them.

 

With the panelvan, there's no issue with headroom at least: yay extended roof-line. Only problem is, I look out the windscreen mainly through the blue polarised strip across the top of it. My thighs - which are fairly muscular - only just fit under the steering wheel, which has been set upwards at its maximum setting and the seat rolled all the way back. If I sit relaxed, there's no issue, but if I tense up my thigh muscles, then they make contact with the underside of the steering wheel. It's an interesting way to see if I'm stressed while I'm behind the wheel.....although I must say, on the odd occasion when I need both hands off the wheel temporarily, it's an effective way to steer.

 

I have similar issues with the FGX, but that sits lower to the ground than the panelvan does, and because the A-frames are swept much further back, I have to remember to duck my head, or else it makes solid contact as I go to get inside it. Not a problem I have with the panelvan, as it still retains the X-series A-frames and there's no danger of knocking myself out! Thankfully the seats in the sedan appear to sit lower than the panelvan - and I can set them a little further back - but I only need to raise my knees about an inch before they hit the underside of the steering wheel.

[FORD_MAN 1,026]

My brothers XE Wagon has had the seat rails redrilled to mount the seat further back,