Anyone Else Adjusts Their Seating Position Alot While Driving...

Hey All,

I don't know what it is but I seem not be able to find just the right driving seat/steering position.... I adjust my seat controls and steering tilt/telescope like several times an hour while I'm driving. Some kind of tweak adjustment is made like once every 10-15 minutes..... I can't seem to find that sweet spot.

Starting the drive its never spot on I think for alot of people especially if something was moved so you can move about more freely when stopped for awhile....so theres alot of adjusting happening before starting off and probably within a few minutes after i would imagine especially those air ride seats that move when u start out....

But...... after those initial adjustments (say, after initial 5/10 miles...) I find myself constantly micro-adjusting things. like rarely will i drive 15 miles without doing something to my seat/steering positions......I do the one of the following like once an hour easy....many times I'm adjusting several things because if you move one thing it will easily affect the others......

Adjust seat up or down Move seat forward or back Adjust Back Rest forward or back Move Steering Wheel in or out a little (telescope) Move Steering Wheel away or closer (up/Down) Adjusting seat cushion tilt angle Moving arm rests up or down.

Mostly I'm usually adjusting back rest, the up/down sitting position and steering wheel up/down or in/out position....

I make at least one of the above adjustments at least once every 10/15 minutes..

Now it may take awhile to find a decent seating position, never perfect, but ok. Then i get off my exit and start doing the local roads, you know the ones with the many stop lights and stop signs. or I hit heavy traffic with heavy merging or slowed traffic due to construction or accident, etc. Then the adjustments ramp up again

Some of it also has to do with my shift reach i think. I need to be able to shift the "away" gears comfortably (4th/9th- 5th/10th) so city roads always cause me to move my back rest (usually forward) and adjust the steering higher or closer to me....

Also, I think my clutch brake accelerator pedal heights are not ideal for me personally...I think....Cant adjust those so I don't know if they're the real problem. I don't know what to think.... I'm wondering if its the Prostar because I can't remember doing all these adjustments while training in a Freightliner.....but then again. perhaps I was so focused on the learning aspect of driving that the ergonomic part wasn't a priority..

This is "driving" me crazy..(lol).... Anyone else constantly adjusts their driving ergonomics like alot.?

Oh my gosh, story of my life.

I hate hate hate the air ride seats, and they are not ergonomic whatsoever. Who seriously thought it was a good idea to have the head rest stick forward several inches? So if you sit back and try to relax, your head and neck are pushed forward in an unnatural position.

I didn't like the seat in the freightliner or the Volvo I'm in. In this Volvo, the seat will bounce up and down as much as a foot if I hit a good bump in the road. How the hell am I supposed to maintain control of the steering wheel and the vehicle when I'm bouncing all over the place like a kid in a bouncy house?

This has been driving me nuts for months and I've almost brought it up on here several times, but I thought it was just me since no one else ever says anything about it. I also struggle with OCD and don't use meds, so I'm sure that's playing a role in my situation as well.

All in all, I've found that the best way for me to deal with it is to pick a position and leave it. It may be uncomfortable at first but I can usually settle in to some extent after a while. Also, it's worth noting that it's distracting and unsafe to be messing with the controls so much while you're driving. I know, I've done the same thing, but I've had to force myself to stop doing it. Limit yourself to a minor adjustment or two while you're driving. If that doesn't fix the problem, stop on an on-ramp, adjust, and go. Maybe even get out and walk around the truck a few times to relax before getting back in and driving again. Personally, I have had to put my foot down and force myself not to make any adjustments whatsoever while driving. Once I start adjusting, I don't know when to stop (OCD is fun, isn't it?).

Something else that helps me is to not move the seat or the mirrors even an inch once I find something that's comfortable on the highway. Keyword is "highway." Since we spend the majority of our time on the highway, that's where you need to be comfortable. If it worked on the highway and you could see, it'll work on the local roads and in the truck stop. Like you, I also tend to sit more forward during local driving and more back during highway driving. When off duty or when first starting your day, force yourself to not touch the controls. It's a bad habit and you'll eventually stop.

FWIW I hardly ever adjust my seat. In fact when I started out I was kind of surprised to find that I could drive for 10-11 hours and not have problems. As for the air ride seat bouncing, maybe there was something wrong with yours, Paul, but I think it would actually be more difficult to keep control if you didn't have that seat, since you'd still be bouncing around with the bumps but the seat wouldn't be going with you.

The one issue I have is that I seem to sit too high in the seat. If I adjust it so that the clutch is right for me, then I'm looking through the top of the windshield. This was especially a problem in the winter since I was looking through an area that wasn't cleared by the wipers.

Each truck is different. Each seat is different - like a snowflake. I generally have an idea of how to adjust the seat for my liking, but some days the seat never quite seems JUST RIGHT.

I used to constantly adjust the chair during my first year.

At some point I just stopped. Possibly a nervous habit, not sure. Now I set once when I enter the truck, and might adjust once before I roll. That's it.

I've driven three different trucks now for extended periods (Cascadia, Pete 587, KW T660). I made adjustments the first few days in each, but then I was good and only mess with the steering wheel when I stop and get back in. Not sure how to help. It would drive me nuts to adjust for city vs. interstate , etc.

Tangentially related, I recently read about how adjustable seats, controls (like steering wheels, pedals, etc.) were created by Air Force engineers in the early 50s. Seems the fighter pilots kept crashing the early jets because they had trouble reaching controls at critical moments. They measured every pilot (height, leg length, arm length, etc.) to create an "average" pilot and then built a ****pit for those dimensions. They kept crashing. Turns out there is no average human being (in terms of body proportions, in this case). That's when the engineers came up with the idea of adjustable everything. That tech got carried over to cars, trucks, even office chairs and keyboards.

I change the back position alot. I don't tend to move the seat itself though cause I have short legs. Slid back any more than it is now and I can't push the clutch to the floor

More than I can count. Usually small adjustments throughout the day A little up, down, back, forward, recline fwd, back. Only a click at a time. Seems to relieve pressure points, (or I am just chronically OCD). Probably the latter!