Short Person Problems...

CK. for hard seat covers made to help people with bad backs,they are like a seat cush. that you can place things behind them to be closer to steering wheel but still sits like a car seat?

 

I know a team who has one very short (4' 9") person driving the truck, she had made pedal extensions to operate the truck because any adjusting of the seat would put her mirror view in jeopardy and could cause an accident.

I don't know how it was done other than the first set was clamped onto the pedals and made of wood to see if it would work, they had sheet rubber glued to both ends of it to prevent it from slipping.

 

I don't know about comfort, but since you mentioned car seats, my son has a high back booster seat by graco, and the back of that detaches to go to a normal booster...

 

I've seen some pretty good quality aftermarket pedal extensions out there. Those pedal extenders always remind me of that one car chase scene from Indian Jones.

 

You can get memory foam in smaller-than-full-bed sizes at kraft places like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc.
Also available in different thicknesses.

Mikeeee

 

There was a woman driver at the bus company where I worked, she could not get the seat adjusted in the new MCI buses that came in to replace older Gillig models. She refused to drive because she said it wasn't safe, even though management disagreed with her. They disciplined her, she reported them to the Federal Transit Authority, they came in and agreed with her that it was not safe. But nothing was ever done about it to accommodate her, and she ended up leaving on her own not long after that.

With a truck, at least you could do things like extend the pedals. With the bus, she had to be able to drive any bus in the fleet, not just one bus for her.

 

I know what you mean, the truck my wife loved almost required 911 to get me out after driving 600 miles. I will look into hard seat covers and yes I carry small pillows when I travel in some vehicles. I worked at a company with a short guy that bolted 2x4's on top of the pedals and his clutch was adjusted a little different. A good upholstery shop could probably recover the seat back with extra foam for a 150 bucks or so. Custom seats are surely expensive and I have no experience with them. If you are a very safe cautious dependable operator you are a large asset to any company you choose to work for regardless of your physical size. While you or the company may not be able to justify the cost of a custom seat ask for assistance. With a little experimenting with pedal heights ( they may not all be the same) , seat backs, bottoms, and tiltwheels (if available), you and your company should be comfortable.

 

I found cushions made of memory foam at Wal Mart that I use for back support outside of the truck. These cushions are intended for wooden kitchen chair bottoms. They are however, when used on your back and not your butt, tall enough to probably work. The cushions are about 1 inch thick, so you can use one or more cushions to give you the thickness behind your back that makes you comfortable. Being memory foam they are study enough to not wear out or squeeze down quickly.

You can probably make something cheaper by getting a memory foam sleeping pad from Wal Mart's camping section. Buy one 6 foot long sleeping pad, and cut it into the proper shape and one full-size sleeping pad can be cut into the proper shape for use behind your back, and the long length of the pad equals several layers of thickness, depending on how many you stack. Make a stack and put the stack into a pillow case.

 

Just recalled short guy also had a board bolted to floor behind throttle pedal and a fold out step bolted to left kick panel