Hey all, Ive been presented with an interesting issue. one of my clients owns an S250 and up until recently he always hired an operator to do all the work. A few days ago he asked if I could design something that will allow him to operate it. The only issue is he only has the use of one arm (his left). The machine is manual drive control with foot controlled lift and tilt functions. I havent been able to come up with anything that might work and ts been bugging me for the last few days. Any creative thinkers out there??
Can you make it into a tiller control for motion like the old Owatonna and other small skid steers had. He could operate with one hand with one of them. you twisted for steer and pulled or pushed the whole assembly forward or back for direction. Owatonna made them for many Manufactures including JD so there is a few around yet to look at.
He only has one arm and both legs? If you need to keep costs down and convert on the machine he has, a T bar may be the way to go. It wont be very ergonomic running that all day but it will work. EH controls would make it even easier but would be more complex if you are more of a mechanical than electrical person.
Doesn't bobcat make a remote control option for some machines? Perhaps it or parts of it could be adapted to solve some of the problem. Maybe have the right stick operated by a hyd cylinder solenoid controlled with switches on the left stick. Or mount another control stick beside the left one so you could control both with one hand like a zero turn mower?
Great ideas! ill definably look into the Owatonna style. also good thinking with the remote option, but unfortunately this generation/spec wont work with remote. and just to confirm he does have full use of both legs, so the lift and tilt functions are taken care of. One random thought i had was a second set of pedals to control drive and steer functions like on excavators?
Talk to the people at bobcat to see what options they can offer. Check websites like this also http://agrability.org/Toolbox/solution.cfm?solution=621
Interesting, with a will there's a way. There was a super for a sewer and water contractor here locally that had lost his right arm at the elbow. He could run a wobble stick backhoe like a pro, amazing to watch.