[Tony Wheeler]

Here are some pics of the steering column bracket, which as Keith says is standard Cab 12 but with a spacer block. Interestingly it's solid copper. Obviously it's a Rover part, designed to lower the steering wheel inside the low-roofed hull, but it got me thinking: What if I RAISE the steering wheel? Would I be able to drive a Cab 12 after all? Naturally I set to with some excitement and rigged up the steering column a bit higher, and sure enough it worked! Pic 5 shows the steering column raised 20mm at the bracket, which raises the steering wheel approx 25mm. Doesn't sound like much but it makes a world of difference to me - it means I can own a Cab 12!

In reality this experiment means that ANYONE can own a Cab 12, because you can shorten that bracket a LOT more than 20mm. However, the FIRST thing you need to do when considering a Cab 12 is check the seat. As Phil said earlier: "If you are really tall and have a Pat 12 you may want to remove one or both of the wooden seat spacers to lower the seat." Phil is absolutely right, the seat height makes a HUGE difference. There's no seat cushion on my Cab 12 so I'm sitting on the bare metal seat pan when conducting these experiments, so they're not valid for normal driving. However there's a 30mm wooden spacer under the seat frame, so if I remove that I can have a 50-60mm high density rubber seat cushion, which should compress down to 30mm under my bony arse, thus replicating the conditions of the experiment. In fact if I want to I can easily modify the seat mounts and gain a further 45mm, which would allow me to use the much thicker sprung CMP seat cushion. Now we're REALLY talking luxury!

Sjoerd, what this means for you is that if the F8 has wooden spacers under the seat frame, which I imagine it does, there's no way you could have operated the clutch. You may want to contact the seller and ask him to measure them, because that could be the solution for you. It may not be necessary to shorten the steering column bracket after all, at least not immediately anyway. Removing the wooden spacers may be enough to get you on the road.

Another point to note is that you can set the clutch pedal 20mm depressed, by means of a thick rubber stop behind the toe plate. Again it doesn't sound like much, but it makes a BIG difference for me. Obviously it would reduce full pedal travel, but there's 200mm travel on mine so we're only talking 10% reduction here. There's always a bit of spare travel on a properly adjusted clutch.

Anyway there are 3 areas for improvement - seat, clutch pedal, steering wheel. Cumulatively they offer huge potential for improved comfort in the Cab 11/12, and for tall people they are the avenue to ownership.