Rare Spares Handbrake Extender Universal Version for Ducato, Relay & Boxer

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So to that end, I've been searching for a handbrake extender, but the search for the gadget to fit my elderly motorhome was proving to be fruitless. The design is such that it should fit most vans, campervans and motorhomes, although we do know that Newer Ford Transits are not suited to our handbrake extender The Kobran handbrake extender can be used on RHD or LHD motorhomes (The retaining screws simply need to be unscrewed and turned around to ensure the silver washer type screw head is facing outwards). I love it and my wife, who had great difficulty reaching the handbrake before, finds it so much easier, though she has only driven the vehicle once or twice since I fitted it. First is the dificultly sliding it over the handbrake, at one stage I had to apply a large blunt instrument. Next is fitting the screws, whilst longer ones are supplied because the flanges are splayed the screws don't align to engage thread, in this case I had to 'squeeze' flanges with molegrips to get the screws started. It may be that in warm weather or maybe plunging it in hot water will help.

I fitted it today & apart from swearing at the spring falling out (fixed by my technical department, thanks Mrsambulancekidd& a spot of glue) I'm quite pleased with the results. I had an issue with our 08 Ducato, which is fitted with swivels (don't know make) which I thought raised the driving seat too much for me and I'm only 5'8", what my upper body dimension is I'm not sure. I considered changing the base of the drivers seat but then discovered the two adjusters on the RHS of the seat base; and they made all the difference!

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Mary, we have a Rare Spares one, which works fine except when someone stronger than us pulls it on hard; then we can't get it off again. It has worked well for nearly 5 years, but we found it has a split in the plastic casing now, so doesn't work. So if you DO get one, be very careful with the tightening! I will certainly look into these extenders as I am a short guy at best and reaching down to release it is not easy. If you don't want to fit new seat boxes, which are not that expensive and simple enough to fit, try removing the swivel and see if the improved driving position is worth the loss of a swivelling seat? Not included in the first post was the fact that this extender is a bitch to fit, it was designed for last model and x250 has larger handgrip, this causes two problems.

It is also easy to work and I think it will make hill starts very easy indeed. As you already probably know the handle will drop down by removing the pin so that the seat can rotate. Also mine the captain’s chair still swivels when the handbrake is in the on Position! So that is no problem. Couple that to my drive being very, very steep & with a pinch point of about 1/2 an inch either side, it was driving me mad. Who the hell designed these bloody vehicles, they clearly hadn't heard of ergonomics?

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I did feel a right Herbert hanging off my handbrake.I must be heavier than I thought judging by the bend on the handbrake. button obviates the need to press the release button with the thumb. Instead, the whole arm is moved.

So much for 'camper' chassis with motorhomes in mind - the 'designer' must have 'forgotten' to allow for the additional height of swivel bases which white van man does not need. There have been no incidences of extender catching on clothing when exiting cab whilst wearing jeans or shorts. I am not saying everybody will have the same difficulties as me, as we are not all built the same and will have the seat in the same position, issue based on components used in our best selling Ducato extender. These are then modified in-house to fitThe answer for us is lower seat boxes or remove the swivel base, either of which also has the benefits of bringing the handbrake closer to the end of my arm and making the driving position much more comfortable and car like.

The price difference betwixt the two is akin to comparing one of Gerald Ratners drinks trays to something from Garrards. Engineered to last, rather than engineered to the minimum price/maximum profit. and Post 2006 types). Note that the revised version remains externally visually the same as the previous Post 2006

Nice to know you CAN get spares, but I was hoping that it would be a little cheaper. Husband (tightwad!!) thinks he can manage without......we shall see!! Please note that the handbrake extender was origially designed to fit up to 2006 models on a Fiat Ducato/Peugeot Boxer/Citroen Relay chassis, however it is possible to fit to later vehicles with some modifications. It also fits other vehicles, see the table below Once upon a time fly-off handbrakes were quite the rage, usually on cars with sporting pretensions. They were convenient when a car was driven in the type of competition where use of the handbrake had a positive value (eg. rallying and autotests). Otherwise they were something of a menace, being logically less fail-safe than the conventional type and often perplexing mechanics and MOT testers unfamiliar with the way they functioned. When my car went for its MOT I used to tape a sheet of paper to the fly-off handbrake explaining how it worked. I recall instances of 'broken' fly-off handbrakes being disassembled in the hope of 'repairing' them and of operating cables being snapped when a mechanic with gorilla-strength muscles vainly tried to get the ratchet mechanism to hold.