Pollensa increasing drivers leg room.

I wish that I had taken more care when I test drove this vehicle because I would have thought twice about buying it.  Now I find that the accelerator pedal is so close to the brake pedal that my foot catches under it.  Who on earth designed this vehicle?

Hi there,

I've just taken a look at a Pollensa at the following site:

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The vehicle seems to be a standard Peugeot so I would guess that the pedals are standard; however, as your complain is about the proximity of the accelerator to the brake, is it possible to "bend" or otherwise re-locate the accelerator pedal outwards?

Alternatively, why don't you fit a "cruise control" and then you only bother with the accelerator when you are in town!

The seating in the one I have looked at only has the "backwards and forwards" and "recline" adjustments.

I agree with you that, from the photographs, the "recline" function would hit the back of the dining table seat and is therefore ineffective if this can't be removed when driving.  However, if the seat was replaced with one that offers a "tilt" function (i.e. one that alters the angle of the seat) then it should be possible to "tilt" the seat so that the front of the seat rises and the back of the seat falls and thereby extends the leg room.  (Not easy to describe but I use this function on "Petal" on every long trip that we do as it makes the shape of the seat almost the same as a deckchair.)

With regard to wishing that you had thought twice before buying take solace from the thought that at least you don't have to explain it to my better half; who would sooner see me drive in absolute agony than spend whatever money it would take to rectify the problem!

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Aren't people different?

The only complaints I've heard about that generation of the Boxer's driving seat (and several times at that) is that it's too high and that short people can't reach the pedals.

There is an optional seat available to help those short people and it may be that yours has one fitted - its worth investigating. I'm 5' 6" but have proportionally long legs and have driven the sister van, the Pescara, with no problem at all. A friend who is much taller than me had another Pescara for several years and never expressed concern about the driving position.

Peter

I'm a trifle under six feet and have driven all sorts from a Comet Tank to a Mini Minor. My current cars are a Skoda Fabia and a Mercedes 190. I have had no trouble with any of these vehicles including an elderly Commer Caravanette, a Glendale on a Talbot base, an Autotrail Apache and a Hymer 544. I am well aware that I should have tried a longer drive but I didn’t.
I think that the way out of my problem will be to cut the board away behind the driver’s seat and fit a pair of hinges to the rear of it so that it tips backwards when driving. A set of brackets can be fitted to the front of the board so that when the vehicle is static bolts can be slid down making it as it was prior to being worked on. As far as I’m concerned it is a design fault showing the same lack of thought put into the shortage of space between the Accelerator and Brake. I got over that by wearing a small pair of shoes rather than my boots.

Had exactly the same problem with our Pollensa. I thought up a mod but took it to Auto-Sleepers to do the job properly so the trim etc was all matched up with original materials. I'll post a couple of pics tomorrow, basically it meant cutting off the wooden bulkhead panel behind the seat, re-attaching it along the bottom with a piano hinge, and adding a retaining strip and simple sliding barrel bolt on the vertical parts.
Now when I drive, we remove the rear-facing seat back and lay it on the seat, release the bolt and hinge the panel back. This allows the driver's seat to slide back the full designed amount of travel and also there is now no limit on the recline angle. As a six-footer, I can drive with no problem. When Mrs B drives (which is actually most of the time) or when we're sited, then the rear facing seat is reassembled as normal.  

That seems just what I need but carpentry to me is based on six inch nails so it would have to be somewhere like Auto-Sleeper.

Sorry for delayed response, been catching up after returning from trip to France.

I have posted phtographs showing the modification here:

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Although initially I was going to do this myself as a DIY project, I decided to let Auto-Sleepers do it as the 'van was going in for some other work anyway, just after we had bought it secondhand from a dealer about eight years or so ago. They were able to do a much tidier job than I could have, since they had access to original materials such as the matching carpet-type covering. When I explained what was required, they commented that this was an excellent modification, as they had had feedback from others about the poor driving position problem for taller drivers.

It really makes a huge difference, adding several inches travel even if the seat back is only reclined slightly. As a six-footer with long legs I have always prefered a deep recline when driving; without this mod, I would have found it very uncomfortable, not to say unsafe, to drive for anything other than short periods.

Many thanks for the photographs which reinforce my view that I will not risk doing it myself any more than I would attempt to cook.

rogerblack wrote:
I have posted phtographs showing the modification here:

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Thanks for posting the photographs Roger. I now see exactly how the different layout of the Pollensa to the Pescara caused the restriction to seat movement in the Pollensa.

Peter

Peter Brown wrote:

rogerblack wrote:
I have posted phtographs showing the modification here:

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Thanks for posting the photographs Roger.  I now see exactly how the different layout of the Pollensa to the Pescara caused the restriction to seat movement in the Pollensa.

Peter

Hi, Peter

Our previous van was a Herald Castile and had the exact same layout (long side facing seat one side, forward and rear facing dinette seats the other) - only symmetrically opposite. Hence there was no problem driving it - the driver's seat was in front of the long side facing bench seat which had no bulkhead panel, so there was no restriction on its movement. When we changed to the Pollensa, it quickly became apparent that I would struggle to drive it, so a solution had to be found.

One of the reasons we have since held on to the Pollensa for so long is that we haven't seen any current model with the same layout, which suits us ideally. Plus I've added lots of gizmos to meet our particular needs, so as long as it remains reliable, fingersx:  we'll be keeping it - outdated colour scheme and all!  

I have posted phtographs showing the modification here:

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 Roger - I've only just joined the forum and you have immediately solved a problem for us!  Thank you
Mrs Mertz

mrsmertz wrote:I have posted phtographs showing the modification here:

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 Roger - I've only just joined the forum and you have immediately solved a problem for us!  Thank you
Mrs Mertz

 Welcome and thanks for the thanks, Mrs Mertz!  Glad our mod is of benefit to others.