are you in there, not driving, and sitting still? or is it all driving?
It's a mix. While I'm doing work, it's typically sitting still and listening to the radio while staring out of the windscreen. Work does take me throughout the state, though, so may be driving up to 3 hours in a single direction.
FWIW, my most recent long trip was 2800 miles (1200 each way, plus 400 in running around). I generally try to break that particular run up into a long day and a short day - so 800-1000 miles on day 1, and 200-400 miles on day 2. Things were better on that one, and I suspect it comes down to having been able to stop every couple or three hours, get out of the car, walk around, stretch, do cartwheels and kickflips, etc.
Where the pain is might help people suggest things. Is it sciatic type pain in the leg? Pain in the hip? Lower back? Upper back/shoulders? Neck? Lots of possibilities.
Good point. I should've mentioned that to start with.
The pain varies. It can be lower, mid, and upper back; it can be neck and/or shoulders. It can be nerve pain akin to sciatica, usually on the right-hand side. Sometimes it runs from my ear canal into the heel of the foot. It's not insignificant, and I've had to use the electric carts at supermarkets, etc. recently due to it, which is not something I've ever had to before.
Without getting into my medical diagnoses, I can say that I have a history of breaking parts of my body that, while not on an Evel Knievel level, is certainly above average. I'm no stranger to neuralgic pain, muscle pain, or just being punched in the face. I was also diagnosed with arthritis in my hands, fingers, and wrists about four years ago, but it's relatively minor. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, but it's mild enough that Aleve keeps it tolerable for the most part.
on long trips, I’ve found I might adjust the seat a bit different than driving around town or shorter trips. I’ll set the seat memory positions differently and use a different setting for the longer trips - a little more upright, and a different angle of the seat bottom helps.
Yep, and that's something I've tried. Using the secondary seat memory isn't really on the cards since my wife and I are fairly significantly different in height, so we both need a baseline setting. Having said that, it's helped to alleviate some of the symptoms, but it's not solving them.
A seat cushion might help, depending on what the pain/problem is…. I’ve used hiking/camping inflatable cushions on long airplane flights, and they’re ok. Better for shorter durations. 18+ hours in a seat, they aren’t the best.
Agreed. And, speaking as someone who has also been part of the 12-hours-and-up-in-an-economy-seat-in-the-sky crowd: this only seems to happen in the Outback. Our other cars don't cause any problems, and neither have cars I've rented or borrowed in the past few months.
if it’s seat bottom - I’d look to wheelchair cushions…
Thank you for that suggestion; it's one that hadn't crossed my mind.
I miss the old Airhawk cushions for motorcycles, the new ones are no longer neoprene rubber and aren’t as comfy, and harder to repair. There is a company that still makes similar ones with neoprene rubber vs the polyvinyl cells.
I vaguely remember those, but as none of the bikes I've owned were tourers, never had one. I was also a lot younger then, so that may also have had something to do with it. Any additional info would be gratefully received.
There are companies that make this type of cushion for wheelchairs/long distance truckers. I’ve thought about buying one for longer trips - the rear of the seat bottom on the 2019 touring is a bit hard. The dynamic cushioning is great once you set the inflation correctly. Next overseas flight I’ll take my really old airhawk instead of these inflatable seat pads.
Interesting that you mention the truckers' cushion in relation to the wheelchair ones: I'd been looking at the ones for truckers, but didn't realise that there was overlap with ones for wheelchair users. Will definitely look further into it.
if you didn’t need as much cushioning/pressure relief, something like a nice thick sheep skin cover is nice - keeps sweating down, provides some cushioning.
Pressure is likely the problem, but I take the point.
but none of that matters if it’s something like lower back pain or upper back pain.
So, the great unknown in all of this is the following: is it really the driver's seat that's the issue, or am I just getting older? One obviously feeds into the other (and it wouldn't surprise me if it was a bit of both), but it seems odd that the car's seat could be so out of whack as to cause this level of pain.
When I've needed to spend hours in a vehicle during the day I learned to follow a trick I learned when I had to spend hours on my feet...change to different shoes once or twice during the day. That small change in footwear can alter your body position quite a bit.
That's rather clever, and makes a great deal of sense. I'm going to try it on the next run and see what happens. Thanks
It can work for a car seat too. Adjust the seat angles every couple of hours. It will put stresses on different parts of you. Luckily, more recent models offer a lot of subtle adjustments.
This actually touches on something I've been somewhat dissatisfied with on the Outback, which is the seat's range of motion in certain axes. I'd happily trade the lumbar support adjustment for being able to tilt the front higher and the back lower, thus moving the centre of gravity on my body behind my back and relieving pressure on my hips and legs.
Whatever ends up being the solution, it needs to not inhibit the ability of the seat heaters to do their job by too much. Those are an item I really don't want to sacrifice.
