Wheelchair ATV

Wheelchair ATV ATV'S ATV'S 24-5-30 A special-built ATV designed for disabled or elderly farmers started as an invention entered in a contest at a British farm show. But it received so much attention, a manufacturer picked it up and put it on the market. Stanley and Martin Prince built the mobile ATV from scratch. When they started on the project, they considered reworking an existing ATV but decided they could not build what they wanted that way. The ATV wheelchair has a rollup ramp to accommodate a wheelchair. All functions on the heavy-built machine can be controlled with a single joy stick. The machine is totally open in front to allow the operator to drive right up to machinery and work on it. It also makes it easier to hunt and fish from the chair. The 4-WD rig is powered by a 13 hp gas engine that powers a hydrostatic drive system. Stanley Prince says the hardest part of the whole design was to position the deck low enough to make it easy to roll a wheelchair onto the machine, and also to keep the center of gravity low. They also wanted a soft ride and gentle turns, so that ruled out a skid steer system. What the two men finally did was to build an articulated frame, putting the power unit on back and the wheel chair up front with a separate hydraulic motor on each wheel. It took three years to perfect the original prototype but the men say the resulting rig is unlike anything ever built. They designed a pivot point between the two platforms on the unit that bends back and forth for steering and also twists for smooth maneuvering over rough ground. The rig û now called a Rural Pursuits Vehicle û is now on the market from a British company called TJ Frazier, which went into production earlier this past June. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, T.J Frazier Ltd, The Airfield Seaton Ross, York North Yorkshire YO42 4NF England (ph 011 44 1759 318703).

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