Tractor Chairlift For Handicapped Drivers

Tractor Chairlift for Handicapped Drivers MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Handicapped Equipment 11-4-20 "The Purdue 'Chairlift' allows a paraplegic to get in and out of a tractor by themselves. With it, he or she can transfer from a wheelchair into the lift chair, raise up to the cab entrance, then transfer to the tractor seat by means of an overhead hand-grip bar and swing into the tractor," says Hubert Von Holten, president of Round Grove Machine, West Lafayette, Ind., who teamed up with Purdue Professor Emeritus, C.B. Richey to develop the device. "We can tailor it to fit most any tractor ù even the big articulated models. We're also looking at adapting it to combines," notes Von Holten. The Chairlift main frame attaches to the tractor frame. The chair mounts on parallel linkage, made of 3-in.square, ?-in. wall steel tubing. It pivots off of the main frame and lifts the chair and passenger up to the tractor cab. Power's provided by an electro-mechanical ball-screw linear actuator which is in turn powered off the tractor battery. A reversible toggle switch on the seat arm rest, and one on the tractor dash, controls raising/lowering and pivots the seat 100? to each side. In the transport position the chair sits in the raised position just outside the tractor cab. The assembly automatically swings 60? toward the tractor as it lifts the 40 in. from ground level to cab level. The basic Chairlift,designed for do-it-yourself installation, sells for $2,500. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Round Grove Machine, Hubert Von Holten, 345 Burnett Road, West Lafayette, Ind. 47906 (ph 317 423-4192).

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