increase range of OnControllerColliderHit

I'm using OnControllerColliderHit to trigger an event. I would like to increase the range of the detection from the Character Controller. Is there a way to do this?

function OnControllerColliderHit(hit : ControllerColliderHit)
    {
        if (hit.gameObject.tag == "the trigger thing")
        {
        stuff happens;
        }   
    }

The simplest way would be to increase the radius of the Character Controller. Then by definition, the range of the OnControllerColliderHit() will be further.

If you want to increase the range without increasing the radius, I would look into raycasting from the player outwards and creating collisions that way.

A third way would be to add a sphere collider around your player that extends beyond them and mark it as a trigger. Then use OnTriggerEnter instead of OnCollisionEnter and find the objects that enter the trigger.