Prius Elbow

Getting young?

 

My knee's are shot so use a mat when on my knees. In Lowes in the garden section they sell the best mat. Its about 1.5 inches thick, blueish green, and its really soft and made of rubber. The surface is not super smooth so it would not slip off the arm rest. Buy this mat and cut out a piece that fits exactly on top of the arm rest. Softest mat they make really. Or then have that upholstered onto the arm rest.

I also keep one of these mat's in all the my car's trunks in case I have to change a tire. Never know what kind of surface you'll end up stranded on with a flat tire. Doesn't take much to really mess your knee up.

And I keep a breaker bar and a short piece of emt pipe with the correct socket for the tire nuts. The emt pipe is about 2 feet long and slips over the breaker bar. Very little effort is required no matter how tight the nut is. It will only pay off If I have to change a tire. The tire nut tool that comes with the car's is a joke.

 

Trained myself to keep hands up on wheel, except when tired keep elbows on door, center arm pads then steer.

 

The arm rest was definitely too low for me, so I constructed wood and foam additions to the top that make the arm rest about level with the center console, which feels "right" to me.

 

Its just a breaker bar and I went to Home Depot and in the electrical aisle they sell very thin wall pipe called EMT pipe (electro metallic tubing) that I just cut off various lengths. Comes in a 10 foot section. Like $5. That 1 inch pipe fits over the breaker bar handle and essentially extends the handle and leverage. Greatly enhances the effort. You will really struggle with the 4 way bar trying to get off a nut put on by a tire shop. Standing on it is not good because you can break you ankle or ruin the nut then its a tow. Usually the socket on those bars is not that high quality or at least not as high quality as a craftsman socket. 3 foot section of pipe over the breaker bar and its a breeze.

One time I had to use 8 foot section over a 3/4 inch breaker bar on my Crown Vic getting off the wheel bearing castle nut. Its on with 225 lbs. Only thing you need to be careful about is never use a cheap socket under that pressure. They sometimes explode.

Ever since I ripped a bicep tendon working on one of my cars I am much smarter. Does not take much to tear a muscle working on a car with bad form or under tooled. I don't wail on nuts or bolts anymore. Its the pipe...or I freeze it...or I chisel it off. If I know I'm doing something big like struts or brakes I'll rent a Dewalt 1/2 electric impact for $15 a day.

 

It's my left elbow on long trips. The arm rest in the door needs padding.

 

Your very welcome. That mat at Lowes/Home Depot is the softest mat I could find. Its to be used for gardening.
It makes kneeling a pleasure.

Came out of Publix yesterday and a painter must have been a 50 years old was painting the entire lower trim all the way across the front of the store on his knee's on concrete no mat or knee pads. All afternoon on his knee's on concrete.

Beyond stupid. So easy to destroy your knee's. Knee replacement is unbelievably painful. The rehab is brutal.
Your fighting to move your knee a 1/16th of an inch every 2 days.

 

I agree that the driver's door arm rest is simply too low in relation to the center console arm rest. On multiple long distance trips, I slowly noticed that A). I am avoiding holding the wheel with my left hand if my left elbow is on the door arm rest when the windows are closed, and B). I am slowly tilting (canting?) my body to the left to compensate for the dropped driver's door arm rest. Both conditions lead to increased tiredness on trips longer than four hours.

My solution this weekend: got a length of super-thick foam tube water pipe insulation, 3/4 inch diameter for the pipe hole and 2.5 inch outside diameter, some 3M super-duper 2-sided tape, trimmed the ends of the insulation piece to match the taper of the door edges, and trimmed the bottom of the tube to provide a flat glue surface. I laid two parallel strips of tape - one flat on the arm rest and one along and just above the inside 90 degree corner of the arm rest angle. Now my torso sits upright and the very thick pipe insulation piece is wide enough to function as a comfortable and higher arm rest and it also has a surprising amount of "give" cushion. Plus, the dark gray color looks decent on top of the Softex. Ill try it out for the New Year's trip to Louisville next weekend (600+ miles each way).

 

This solution came to me a couple weeks ago: Use a narrower block of foam to adhere to the bottom portion of armrest, and wider piece to adhere to vertical door panel using 3M Command no residue strips. I like that it feels sturdy and stays in place very well. I keep my left elbow on this foam pad over 90% of the time when driving as the wheel is quite far from me and I can't hold my arms out straight for very long.

Specs: 2.25" wide x 4" long x 2" thick black neoprene glued to 3.25" x 4" x 2" piece. Shaved top edge with Dremel grinding bit. Cost of foam w/ cutting, about $2 plus trip to foam factory.

Note: at a foam factory, you can get neoprene in many different thicknesses. I happen to need a 4" lift for left elbow.







Wider piece attaches to vertical door panel with 3M Command brand strips with velcro interface
narrower bottom piece uses double sided 3M Command strip.

This 4" block of foam has been in place for over 2 weeks. Stays in place very well. Only need to put a big note near or on it when going into service 'do not bump off or throw away!!'

The foam block helps a ton. I've got a good grip on wheel near 9 o'clock and it helps me lay back in the seat and relax more, but the next issue is the seat bottom is too short for my legs I'll see what I can come up with.

 

Nice job. Looks factory installed.

 

My left elbow for many months would feel twised and I could feel the whole thing everytime I went from steering wheel down to anywhere. It is better now, I used to have a problem with the left leg and the door panel, moving the seat and position helped there. This was not made with a 6 foot american in mind.

 

In a BMW 5 series, I would not need any foam to make door armrest higher. In an Accord, I'd need about 2" lift. 4" lift for Prius armrest for me is kinda sad: The car is not a very good fit.

Just watched this Recaro video on perfect seat adjustment in cars. Unfortunately, the vast majority of car seats do not meet the requirements in video because most car seats are made to be 'one size fits all': The seats will move, but the bottom cushion length not adjustable. Consequently, long legs hang much too far over front end of the cusion. A BMW with sport seat has bottom cushion extension, but few cars have that. Argh!

Added a 2nd pic below in post 31 showing how foam mates to horizontal armrest and vertical panel. You would be surprised how sturdy it is. Definitely function over form, but I'll take it. Not my first crack at armrest pad: Tried rolled up towel with 3M command strips, but the towel kept launching off the door whenever closing it Before that, used a thinner foam pad on horizontal portion only, but doesn't feel stable.

Next challenge is to figure out how to add on to seat bottom so cushion comes within 2 or 3 inches of back of knees, not 5 or 6".

 

you'll be thrilled with the new i3 seats.

 

I am new to the prii world but i really like the driving position in 2012 prii, ok still really new to me but i had a honda odyssey before and really prefer my prii.
I feel that i am in control of everything remind me of freightliner fld 120 "wrap around" dash.

I have probably driven close to 3.5 millions miles in my life, just can't wait to put more miles behind me....with my prii of course.