I NEED to Figure a Way to Get More Front Seat Leg Room

[msmitka]

Still lovin' the Yaris, now with a whopping 600 miles on it, but I have to say:
I'm no young guy (53). I've been buying cars all my life. But, somehow, on the test drive I missed the fact that it would be nice to have that extra 2" of rear-ward seat travel. Now, that's not to say my legs/knees are hitting the steering wheel, but it's close, and quite frankly, it's my screw-up entirely for paying more attention to headroom than to leg room. In any case, I guess there are two solutions:

1) Finding a shop that will move the entire rail/seat system back a few inches.
2) Replacing the front seats with something that sits lower, and perhaps differently on the rails.

So, having read a few threads, I haven't really hit upon a "this worked perfectly" solution. Any recommendations? Does anyone know a shop here in Southeastern PA that would be capable of doing such a thing at a reasonable price? (moving the seat/rails).

Any other solutions are welcome as well.

Thanks folks!

Mark

[2+2]

I had the same problem when I first bought the car and found that leaning the seat back just one click made all the difference in the world. Maybe you're taller than me though and need a more radical fix. I'm 6'2" and if I were any taller I'd definitely have a problem.

[Yaris Hilton]

I'm 6'3" with a 34" inseam, and was able to find a position that works. Don't lean the seat back, that puts your legs forward and crowds them. Get the seat in its lowest position (which is still quite high) and sit up nearly as straight as you can without putting your head against the ceiling, with the steering wheel all the way up. Sort of the minivan driving position. Works for me. I wish the ceiling was as high as the Echo's!

[2+2]

I'm 6'3" with a 34" inseam, and was able to find a position that works. Don't lean the seat back, that puts your legs forward and crowds them. Get the seat in its lowest position (which is still quite high) and sit up nearly as straight as you can without putting your head against the ceiling, with the steering wheel all the way up. Sort of the minivan driving position. Works for me. I wish the ceiling was as high as the Echo's!

The seat height is adjustable in the sedan buy I don't think it is in the lb. I hear what you're saying about putting the seat back should give less room for the legs but I've found exactly 1 click back actually helps. Maybe my expanding gut has something to do with it. lol I feel less crowded that way and I've always preferred car seats in the fully upright position.

[msmitka]

Thanks very much. I'll check out the seat after work, but I don't believe I can adjust the height in the LB. If I can, I think it's "problem solved". And yes, my ever expanding gut, also isn't helping the situation. :)

[msmitka]

I'm between 6'2 and 6'3. I confirmed that unfortunately, there's no seat height adjustment in my LB, and the seat back angle doesn't really seem to make a difference. Geez, 2 more inches is all it would take to make it perfect. Nobody to blame but myself on this one though. :(

[Wattz]

My problem is that if I scoot the seat back to get the leg room, I find myself leaning forward to shift gears. My commute is 1 hour and 15 minutes so leaning the seat back slightly is crucial to keeping my back comfortable.

Either the seat needs to be lower or the shifter needs to be offset.

[2006fronty]

I'm 6'8" and fit alright. My knees do come pretty close to the dash though.

[msmitka]

My issue isn't so much legroom per se, although I'd like more, it's the near lack of clearance between the steering wheel and the area of my legs above the knees. So actually, my issue could be solved by another "up" position of the steering column too, but it's at it's max.

[Kal-El]

I'm 6'8" and fit alright. My knees do come pretty close to the dash though.

6'8"?? Wow.

I'm 6'1" and have way more room than I need. My seat is set about 3 clicks from the back (partly because I drive a stick and sitting closer is usually needed to fully engage the clutch comfortably).

[2006fronty]

6'8"?? Wow.

I'm 6'1" and have way more room than I need. My seat is set about 3 clicks from the back (partly because I drive a stick and sitting closer is usually needed to fully engage the clutch comfortably).

Haha, that's why I drive my Tundra more than the Yaris. I have the seat all the way back and reclined with a gangster lean lol. My Yaris is an AT so I don't have to worry about shifting.

[auxmike]

My problem is that if I scoot the seat back to get the leg room, I find myself leaning forward to shift gears. My commute is 1 hour and 15 minutes so leaning the seat back slightly is crucial to keeping my back comfortable.

Either the seat needs to be lower or the shifter needs to be offset.

...or you should have sprung for the auto.....:smile:
I don't deal with that particular problem. BUT, my knees do rub the lower part of the steering wheel getting in or out of the car.

[2+2]

Putting the seat back a click or two is enough for me to be comfortable around town, but yesterday I went for my first drive longer than 50 miles. 240 miles and then a short break and 240 miles back.

Mpg was excellent (42.5), steering is nutty quick at higher speeds but we already know that. For comfort I gotta tell ya, if I remember right my 1986 Tercel had this car beat. I was comfortable enough starting out yesterday morning but without being able to change positions now and again my butt took a beating. Should I rephrase that? lol

I too, would love to slide the seat back just a little, at least once in awhile on a trip.

[Yaris Hilton]

The Echo was more comfortable. I do OK in my Yaris, though.

[auxmike]

The Echo was kinda a dud here in the US since they only offered the 2 or 4 door sedans in the US market. Had the hatch been availible I think it would have done a lot better. I hardly ever see Echos in my area....

[Yaris Hilton]

Yeah, but I'm a sedan guy. Don't want a hatch.

[Kal-El]

The Echo was kinda a dud here in the US since they only offered the 2 or 4 door sedans in the US market. Had the hatch been availible I think it would have done a lot better. I hardly ever see Echos in my area....

It was mainly because it was ugly as sin. Besides, sedans do much better in the US.

[yaris prime]

Still lovin' the Yaris, now with a whopping 600 miles on it, but I have to say:
I'm no young guy (53). I've been buying cars all my life. But, somehow, on the test drive I missed the fact that it would be nice to have that extra 2" of rear-ward seat travel. Now, that's not to say my legs/knees are hitting the steering wheel, but it's close, and quite frankly, it's my screw-up entirely for paying more attention to headroom than to leg room. In any case, I guess there are two solutions:

1) Finding a shop that will move the entire rail/seat system back a few inches.
2) Replacing the front seats with something that sits lower, and perhaps differently on the rails.

So, having read a few threads, I haven't really hit upon a "this worked perfectly" solution. Any recommendations? Does anyone know a shop here in Southeastern PA that would be capable of doing such a thing at a reasonable price? (moving the seat/rails).

Any other solutions are welcome as well.

Thanks folks!

Mark

Try this mod...worked wonders for me and I'm 6'4". Amazing what a little bit will do.
http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9833&highlight=seat+bolts+washers

[yarrr]

I can't see the pictures and its waaaaay to long to read, but putting washers under your seat is not a great idea if that's what its about.

[padre1964]

loaded the pics for you. interesting mod. could you post a pic of the seat reinstalled in the full back position?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/4961525539_a865c1dd07.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4961525539/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/4961525917_39d0cfa5c4.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4961525917/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/4961526133_799324fd1c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4961526133/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/4961526413_de820a2747.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4961526413/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/4962121908_421bfb9a3b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4962121908/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4104/4961526923_dfbd076625.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4961526923/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/4962122310_502fa5d14a.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4962122310/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/4961527437_897e6c5028.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4961527437/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/4961527675_95337a3946.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4961527675/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/4962123116_79f57730a3.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4962123116/)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/4962123362_3761088253.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53642306@N05/4962123362/)

[fnkngrv]

Thank you Padre, for putting up the images for me.

Not sure why I was unable to add them to my post. I tried using the "insert lmage icon" in the "quick reply " text window. When the box pops up asking for the image url, I pasted the link that I grabbed from Flickr for each image. ( Using "grab link" from flickr's "share" drop-down menu... any idea what am I doing wrong? I will gladly post a picture of the seat in full-back position with the new brackets if I can only figure out how to post images correctly here.

I spent part of this afternoon driving around the neighborhood and making a few adjustments to get everything situated correctly.

I want to add a few notes/ caveats to my original post for anybody else who tries to fabricate their own brackets based on those adjustments....

1. If I had to do it over again, I would definitley make my bars longer, not cut them, and instead make a bend for the rear reinforcement 90 degree turn. I would not mess wity with epoxy and angle-irons if I had to start over from scratch. I would have been better off adding 3/4 inch to the bar length, going ahead and losing a portion of that linear distance in the course of the bend, and then grinding/cutting off any remainders to make it exactly reach the floor after-the-fact.. One of the epoxy joints came partially loose already, and I had to reinforce the joints with eight self-tapping sheet metal screws ( I pre-drilled holes slightly smaller than the screws to get through the thick metal ). Four screws in each bracket- Two up-and-down, and two side-to-side. We'll see how that goes. I may have to add some kind of additional corner reinforcement down the road.

2. Since completing this project, I have learned from online reading that my front seats apparently have airbags in them. Had I known this, I would have been careful not to place my face, head, or neck within a foot or so of the edge of the seat while I was working down there. I did not mess with the wiring connected to the seat, as toyota thankfully left plenty of slack and I was able to just slide the seat back and to the side behind the passenger seat with the wiring all still hooked up. I don't know if it is possible to accidentally deploy that airbag by farting around under the seat with the wiring, but I would strongly advise anybody who has airbags in the seats to use caution and treat them like loaded weapons when working around them.

3. As it turns out, I probably added too much additional rearward adjustment with these brackets. 6" is too much to really make much use of, as my feet barely reach the pedals at maximum rear adjustment. The most I would realistically use is 2 or 3 inches of the additional travel, but that extra three inches is heavenly! It makes all the difference in the world. My steering wheel does not telescope, so as a result of sitting further back, I do find myself using the five-and-seven hand position on the wheel instead of the nine-and-three or ten-and-two positions as before, but that's OK. It's well worth the added leg room. It's actually possible to slide the seat back so far now that I can fully straighten my legs. I could therefore theoretically pull over and comfortably take a catnap at a roadside rest-stop now in a pinch, which would have been impossible before due to the uncomfortable leg position. ( It would be impossible to drive with the seat in the new full-rearward position due to the distance to the steering wheel and pedals. )

4. I would not reccomend this modification to anybody who has a manual transmission. It's fine for putting the car in "Drive" one time when you start your journey/commute, but for constant shifting, the distance to the shift lever would be uncomfortable I think.

5. The modified brackets I made resulted in a slightly higher driver's seat- about 3/8 to 1/2 inch I would guess. I am already used to it but if I was 6'5" instead of 6'0" it might be a problem.

6. The modified brackets I made resulted in a slightly more reclined seat angle, which I did not like. I have read some posts in Yarisworld from people who do this intentionally by adding washers or spacers to the front attachment points of the driver's seat to add more thigh support. Personally, I liked the original seat angle, so I put the angle back to normal by adding 8 flat washers to the rear attachment points. I had to switch to 2" threaded bolts instead of 1 1/2 to accomodate the added spacers.

I have my leg room just the way I want it now. My next project will be to make a flat storage area ( with carpet ) where the rear seats used to be.....

Awesome write up on your DIY work! As for your pic posting woes I have noticed a bit of troubles using the built in copy and paste feature with MyPhotoAlbum.com. I instead go into the field, right click and choose select all, then copy. That fixed my troubles, it could possibly help you?

[padre1964]

Thank you Padre, for putting up the images for me.

I have my leg room just the way I want it now. My next project will be to make a flat storage area ( with carpet ) where the rear seats used to be.....

feel free to just post the flickr link and i can fix it for you. look forward to seeing a flat storage area. i am also planning on doing this but its still to hot here in ATL