One hand operation of tractor ?

[wawajake]

I may have surgery this winter on my right arm and be in a sling during the winter plowing season. And my wife refuses to learn the tractor.

Has anyone rigged up any sort of way to operate the FEL joystick with left hand , or other tips?
(safety police please ignore)
I hate to postpone the operation till winter is over and even a few weeks in my remote snowy Canadian location, can mean we risk being snowed in and can't get to work.

its times like these you wish you had a son besides the two daughters !

jake

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

its times like these you wish you had a son besides the two daughters !

jake

Are the daughters old enough to run the tractor? Safety police notwithstanding, lots of farm kids 10 years + or - drive tractors.

With the FEL mounted joystick - how difficult would it be to remount on the left side? Don't have a Kubota B so don't know, but on my Honda it wouldn't be that difficult.

 

[pat32rf]

I have a JD4300HST and a buddy with a VERY restricted right arm and hand. He loves driving "Johnie" for skidding and piling logs, and often sits on the drivers seat to move the unit while I am on the hoe seat building trails etc. He can't move/flex anything below his bicept since his arm got caught in a conveyor but with his shoulder muscles he can shove his whole arm forwards or back. He can't unbend his fingers but can hook the joystick and pull it with his shoulder somehow.
He will sometimes reach accross and use his left arm to move the joystick but he isn't as smooth doing this, it just gives him more options.
Its like he was in a cast from the bicept down to his knuckles.

 

[jimmer2880]

Are the daughters old enough to run the tractor? Safety police notwithstanding, lots of farm kids 10 years + or - drive tractors.
.....

I agree. By the time my oldest daughter (now 6) turns 10, she should be good enough to plow snow with my BX1830 while being supervised. With today's tractors, it's not like physical strength is a limitation.

 

[whistlepig]

I would have a bracket made up for holding the FEL control and mount it on the left loader mast. Then I would have a hose maker make me some short hydraulic extension hoses. This wouldn't all that hard and expensive to do.

 

[beenthere]

Not sure 'bout your Bota, but in a pinch, I could operate my deere 4300 HST joystick with the left hand, enough to lower, raise, and dump. Might have to do either/or steering or FEL, but think it wouldn't be an impossible task.

Some linkage rigged to your left foot would be most desirable, but thinking you might heal before getting it figured out.

I think you will adapt to the left hand steering and joystick pretty quick.

 

[deepNdirt]

get you a steering Knob, some dont like to use them, But I had one on my last tractor got really used to useing it and now that I dont have one on my current tractor it just seems like I'm mission something
I guess that would be the ability to steer withy only 1 hand as for using the remotes, I hav'nt a clue!

 

[PILOON]

Most joysticks control the valves via a pair of push/pull cables that in turn push/pull the actual valve bodies that are located elsewheres.
They use them as 2 cables are much easier (and nicer) to route than a gaggle of hoses and fittings.

If that is the case on your tractor, then a longer pair of cables would allow you ro reposition the joystick at a convienient location to the left and be easy to return to the factory location at a later date.
Routing might not be all that pretty, but it is only a temporary need.

I'd like to avoid the steering knob as they are wrist breakers if ever you jamb a front wheel against a solid object. In fact I believe they are banned at OEM levels.

 

[whistlepig]

I don't know about others but I'm always "feathering" the FEL while steering the tractor. One hand on the wheel and the other on the FEL control. For me to sit in the house and watch someone push my snow with my tractor would be way too much for me to handle. They can't be playing in my snow with my tractor. That's not fair. I would relocate my FEL control in a heartbeat.

 

[deepNdirt]

I'd like to avoid the steering knob as they are wrist breakers if ever you jamb a front wheel against a solid object. In fact I believe they are banned at OEM levels.

this figures! I guess he wouldn't need 2 bad arms, just trying to make suggestions to help, afterall it would only be "temporary"