More than double the length while (unfortunately) still using the default rig, but i think i've done an okay job weighing it such that it still animates smoothly! see for yourself!
i've also added fake ground collision (with Lumiry's help) to mitigate the inevitable clipping, but results are regrettably not perfect. it will still clip into the ground in some cases and it will freak out during certain animations, sorry...
that said, i suspect you'll get better results using C+, so i've made model and collision independent toggles!