Foot peg vertical relocation question

We have a North Shore Atlantic-II double. The foot-pegs in the rear cockpit are closer to the bottom of the hull than are the foot-pegs in the front cockpit. The position of the rear-cockpit foot-pegs (from the hull [vertically]) work well for me. The front-cockpit foot-pegs are too high (vertically) from the hull for my wife to be able to place her toes (let alone the balls of her feet on the pegs\pedals).

Our apparent options are:

  1. Move the peg guide rails down about 2” closer to the bottom of the hull. Downside; drilling new holes in the hull and plugging the existing holes. Upside; the forces on the pegs and guide rails will be similar to what they were designed to be.

  2. Gluing foam onto the inside bottom of the hull to raise her feet such that the balls of her feet rest on the pegs. Downside; The hull below the pegs is pretty vertical (the upper part of a generous radius) so the added foam results in the place where her heels will rest moving inward more than moving upwards. Feet moving into position might tend to peel off the foam (and possibly complicate wet exits). Upside; No real alterations required.

  3. Obtain foot-pegs that extend down (toward the bottom of the hull) lower than the current foot pegs (see attached sketch]. Downside; The forces on the foot-peg guide rail would induce some torque into the peg-rail connection that is not in the original design. These might have to be custom-fabricated if not commercially available. Upside; No holes need added to the hull and the existing guide-rail holes would not need plugged/sealed.

  4. Drill (4-5) holes in the existing foot pegs and attach a rest plate that extends the required distance below the existing foot rest.Upside; Seemingly easy alteration. If existing pegs get compromised they can be replaced - since they are an OEM item. Downside; Seems like it could be rickety and more prone to failure than some of the other options.

  5. Remove the existing foot-pegs (leaving the guide rails in-place) and glue in either one large block (or two smaller individual blocks) that get glued to the bottom of the hull and to the bow hatch bulkhead wall. Upside; Should be easy to try. Downside; cockpit probably won’t fit other paddlers (although we don’t foresee other paddlers needing to use that cockpit).

Looking for thoughts on these options and/or other ideas.

Thanks,
Steve & Linda
Southwest Ohio, USA

I installed different footpegs than those that came with a Looksha IV. This required that different holes be drilled through the hull. This would be equivalent to your option #1. It was quite easy/straightforward. The result has been satisfactory over a number of years. I can’t really shed light on your other options.

Thanks for that data-point. You said that you drilled new holes for the change. How did you seal the original holes?

The new footpeg track came with its own bolts, so I sealed the older holes with the existing older bolts. I may have capped the bolt ends so they wouldn’t scratch the paddler, but they weren’t an obstruction anyway. They do not leak.

Thanks. Since we’re not adding new tracks we’d just have to get an extra set of bolts to seal the four extra Holes.

Do you two switch cockpits often? If not, you may consider shaping a fixed minicell foam footrest customized to the paddler. Less destructive to the boat and can always be removed, tinkered with, or bumped fore/aft in sections.

My Looksha IV was a single with a rudder controlled by footpegs so a Minicell foam footrest was not appropriate. However, this is a bow cockpit on a tandem and your minicell foam solution is a better and more elegant approach.

Smart Track sells this Vertical Adjustment Kit. It’s just a plate that you bolt your foot tracks to that lets you offset the mounting height. Meant for their for tracks with 14.5 inch bolt spacing, but the instructions say it can be adapted to other spacings by drilling new holes in the plate. It might be another option for your list.

http://topkayaker.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=73_86&products_id=621

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You could just put a bolt/screw in the hole with sealant.

PS…second vote for that.

Your #5 alternative sounds a lot like a bulkhead foot rest, and, as AlwaysWet says, they do not need to be glued. They are simply pressed into place. That would be my choice for the first try. It gives you a relatively quick solution that can be switched back to what you now have easily, so makes a good “prototype”, if you will. If she finds she likes it, you may be done, if not, she at least gets to verify that lower is better, and then you can move on to one of your other solutions with this experience helping you decide.

But if done well, my guess is she will not want to go back. I would not go back to foot pegs, now that I have used a bulkhead foot rest. If you do, I suggest making it out of several layers, so that you can fine tune the exact thickness. I made a 1/2 inch thick layer, then several inch thick layers, and the final, sloped layer that was about 3 inches thick at the bottom, and less that 1 inch thick at the top. That also gives some adjustment in case other people to want to try it out.

My second choice would be extending the footpegs down, either by adding plates, of finding replacement foot rests. That would also be easy to prototype, and you could jury rig a temporary solution, then go for the final solution. And, that avoids the possibility that moving the rails down adds a change in angle of the foot rests that is suboptimal.

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That general concept (if not that specific hardware) seems like a workable solution - and is not something that I had thought of. It seems like either this or a mini-cell foam footrest are the most promising.

Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the detailed info. We’ll find a source for the materials and give this a try.

With the leg muscles being so powerful - is there any chance of compromising the integrity of the bulkhead? Normally won’t be pushing hard on the footrest - but will one good accidental push with both feet loosen the glassed-in panel?

That is a reasonable question. It looked like a glassed in bulkhead. If so, as afar as I know that should have sufficient strength. But I am not familiar with North Shore Kayaks. if you want to confirm, you could try contacting them to see if they see any problems.

I have not had any problems, and generally find the pressure against the bulkhead is not that great, I seem to put more pressure against the thigh braces and hull, actually.

If it is not strong enough, I would then go to the option of adding a plate to extend the foot rest, or add the extra rail as Wolf suggested.