Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Plus 4 Tyre options

My day car for well over 30 years (and to this day) have been various types of manual Land Rover products. They do tend to have heavy clutch pedals but I've never ever had a problem driving these, its just the Morgan. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the CX is a fantastic car but I'd sooner buy a new knee than give up my simple little Trad, should it ever come to it....

PS - Mine isn't a leg length issue. I only have a 29" inside leg so fit in the car easily. I've just assumed that its the repetitive high loading on the knee joint at that critical angle and just a Morgan thing. But was a real nuisance in stop/go traffic.

I believe that Ledgerwood did an Auto conversion for the factory on a pre GDI +4

Rog and Gambalunga,
I too am a Land Rover man and you are right about the heavy clutch action Rog and yes its not a real problem even though it makes the Morgan look quite light in comparison. I'm not tall either Rog, 5'9", perhaps a little less these days! So I don't know if this will help you gambalunga. I found sitting in the Morgan that your feet were in the same plane as your backside in that you are sitting with your feet straight out in front of you. When depressing the clutch a lot of ankle flex is required and some leg extension. This for me had two issues when lots of clutch action was required. Firstly, Ankle fatigue and secondly, leg extension is coming from the hip, this caused me to fight the front bolster of the seat with the back of my leg and quickly My leg became sore and uncomfortable, to the point where I actually thought this is the most uncomfortable badly designed car I have ever had the option of driving! Now that made me wonder why the L/R didn't present me with such issues so I pulled the Mog seat forward to bend my knee a little and clear the front seat edge, It helped with the contact under my knee to some extent but not enough and of course what do you do with your bent leg when not clutching! That was a bl**dy pain too! So what could I do and what made the Land Rover so comfortable over the Mog. Seating position! Yes a far more upright position. So I made some seat spacers and fitted them, Now this made things a lot better, almost comfortable and my journeys got longer but I was still getting fatigue after an hour plus although not nearly as bad as before, but what it did was allow me to see the issue more clearly in that it was now just the action of extending my leg which was still fighting the front edge of the seat perhaps even more so than before. I had the car on the lift to whip the wheels of for cleaning shortly after fitting the spacers/seat risers and the sill was at about chin height and looking at the seat position from a true side aspect rather than looking down on it. I could see that it had a quite pronounced rearward tilt, light bulb moment here! So I whipped the spacers back out and profiled them to taper from level with the front chassis crossmember to the back of the seat runner at a shade under an inch. I then refitted the spacers and jumped in using a step ladder. OMG It's a different car altogether! It's changed from driving something akin to a hand cart with a box for a seat into something that feels as though it was fitted for me. Rog, I know this will help you but Gambalunga being so tall I don't know If you could tolerate raising your seat height. Perhaps a taper from the rear at say 1/2" to almost nothing at the front. The straight line under the runners would be stable as the rear two bolts would keep the orientation. I'm loving this solution but my leg loves it way more! Hope it helps you and others, I really could not believe just how much difference this made!

That's interesting info Sewin. I hadn't thought much about the subtlety of the seat angle. This is not a big problem for me at the moment with the spring disconnected but trying different spacers is something I could certainly play around with

You are on the right lines regarding the seat height and angle. I didn't suffer the left leg ache as you quite rightly describe as much in my Roadster 4 seater as the seat is much higher in the 4 seater (taller wood blocks under seat rails), but the seat position is slightly further forward and therefore for longer legged people the top of your legs can touch the bottom of the dashboard. The downside of the taller wooden blocks is that the seat has to be slightly further forward as it's constrained by the rear wheel arch/ footwell. I looked at trying to push the 4 seater seat frame further back to alleviate the issue of top of legs rubbing against the dashboard but there was no room. So raising the seat for shorter people maybe a solution.

From memory the early 4 seater tub used to be an inch higher than the 2 seater and thats why I first got into a 4 seater for more comfortable ride, not certain if that still remained the case with later models.

Funny you should say that John, When I first started looking at buying a Morgan the kids were younger and would have come out with us wherever we went so I was looking for a 4 seat version. I drove a couple and found them great comfort wise although perhaps it was the euphoria of at last realising I was able to buy a Morgan, who knows what the truth is there. The only options around then were a little too old and tatty so For some reason life got in the way and I never got around to finding one. When Maddie my wife, and I came back to the thought once again the kids were all either starting university or already at it and hardly ever went with us on a day to day basis. so we decided on the 2 seat version. In the early days I didn't find it a comfortable ride but with considerable effort work wise and a few mod's such as Rog's suspension assisters, quality shocks, BRB's and thorougher cleaning/servicing and adjusting everything along with all new tyres I felt I had almost got there. After my seat runner adjustment though It turned to gold and frankly I don't think a classic could drive any better than it does!

The good thing about this site is that It might not always give you a definitive answer but it usually gets you close enough to recognise what you might need to do to sort your issue.
Mind you at the time of looking for the 4 seat option I drove an older car with the CVH engine and found it fantastic fun, phenomenal throttle response and a slick gear change with perfect gear ratio's and pin point steering. I can't remember if it was a 4/4 or plus 4, it was a customers car that I met in the dealership when I was looking at cars in BHM when living in Kent. I hadn't driven any Morgan at that stage and whilst speaking with him he said "well come and drive mine around the block and see what you think of them" I don't know what it was about it or what he may have done to it but I wish it was mine!..... still !

I was an early adopter of the T-Trac2 here on the forum and today there are quite a few users of this tyre on the 4/4.
Last autumn I bought my third set of T-Trac2s. However, I was disturbed by how eggy the wheels ran, at 90 km/h the car shakes sideways even though I had the wheels rebalanced twice.
Then there was a discussion, even here in the forum, that the T-Trac2s come from India these days. I looked it up and yes, my new set comes from India. Nothing against India, you would think the workers are just as good as those in the Netherlands and the production machines were probably brought there and set up again. Anyway, it's definitely my last set of T-Trac2 because I'm already annoyed. With the first and second set, the 4/4 drove as smoothly as a billiard ball.

That's handy to know Heinz, thanks for the heads up! I might save up for another set of Sprint Classics then.

I did the same and found only benefits, an excellent and completely free little mod

I have a set of 2 year old Vredestein T-Trac2 on my 91 4/4, no issues, they run perfectly but then I dont drive like I have just robbed a bank.