Over this past weekend I decided to do something with this brake pedal on my 2020 RTL that's simply too high. It tends to put my ankle in a bind when I go to put my foot on the brake and it's just not a comfortable position plus it lengthens my response time.
Biggest issue in tackling this is no frame of reference as to how much shorter the rod needs to be to change the position of the brake pedal. For that reason I decided to make the rod adjustable using a threaded rod and a coupler. I found out quickly that a very small change in the length of a rod made a much higher change in the position of the pedal. You can see from the pictures the rod I built has a hole position back about two-thirds of the diameter of the hole in the factory rod. So if somebody would want to drill a new hole in the factory rod it ain't going to work because you're going to cut into the existing hole.
The picture of the brake pedal is with the shortened rod in place and gives you an idea how much it dropped to Pedal.
Because of a spring pulling forward to return the brake pedal to its normal position, it has just a little bit of an initial slop in the pedal feel. I felt that might be a problem but after driving it for a while it seems like that kind of settled in and really wasn't a factor.
Getting on the brakes as hard as I can he brake pedal goes slightly below the plane of the floor board. It's a different feel but I don't see it as a problem. Now I can keep my foot on the floorboard and feather the brakes in curves.... AND let my foot ride on the floorboards with my foot
over the brake on those cars sitting in driveways/side roads and you don't now what they're going to do. That's what I miss with a handbrake I always kept a couple of fingers riding on top of that brake handle so that I could easily set that brake if someone pulled out in front of me. I think I'll still miss the handbrake but willing to give this a try for a while and see how it goes.
Biggest issue in tackling this is no frame of reference as to how much shorter the rod needs to be to change the position of the brake pedal. For that reason I decided to make the rod adjustable using a threaded rod and a coupler. I found out quickly that a very small change in the length of a rod made a much higher change in the position of the pedal. You can see from the pictures the rod I built has a hole position back about two-thirds of the diameter of the hole in the factory rod. So if somebody would want to drill a new hole in the factory rod it ain't going to work because you're going to cut into the existing hole.
The picture of the brake pedal is with the shortened rod in place and gives you an idea how much it dropped to Pedal.
Because of a spring pulling forward to return the brake pedal to its normal position, it has just a little bit of an initial slop in the pedal feel. I felt that might be a problem but after driving it for a while it seems like that kind of settled in and really wasn't a factor.
Getting on the brakes as hard as I can he brake pedal goes slightly below the plane of the floor board. It's a different feel but I don't see it as a problem. Now I can keep my foot on the floorboard and feather the brakes in curves.... AND let my foot ride on the floorboards with my foot
over the brake on those cars sitting in driveways/side roads and you don't now what they're going to do. That's what I miss with a handbrake I always kept a couple of fingers riding on top of that brake handle so that I could easily set that brake if someone pulled out in front of me. I think I'll still miss the handbrake but willing to give this a try for a while and see how it goes.
. Without your heel on the board, it is very hard to apply just a little light pressure as you approach a roundabout. It’s all or nothing when only using the ball of your foot. My temporary solution works (kinda
