Two new Honda TRX500 quads – one each on a coastal Northland farm and a Central Otago hill country farm – are putting the frames to the test.
The six month trial began in February, organised by Ag-Tech and Landcorp’s national manager for staff relations and training, Al McCone.
“Landcorp agreed to assist in the development and trialling because of rollovers..., every one with the potential to result in serious injury or death,” McCone says.
“We want to know if it is an impediment to safe use of the vehicle in work situations: does the device impede vision, or significantly alter handling to the detriment of safety. We are not so interested in some of the non-safety effects such as loading spray tanks.”
Quads have rolled on both the Landcorp farms and the company wants to protect the riders. “We know that the standard rigid RoP has the potential to cause major injuries, although it remains unproven whether this is better or worse than any alternative result, and we wanted to be able to say we had explored all options for keeping our people safe.”
The trials are at an early stage and results are so far varied. “An example of the variation we have seen is one set of feedback that says the dogs like having something to lean against and another set says the dogs dislike it.
“We also have some riders saying it impedes rear vision and others saying it doesn’t. The real test will be how people feel about it after six months of use.”
An earlier destruction test proved fruitful in improving the build of the device. “In initial destruction testing we helped identify a fault in the design of the ratchet and subsequent testing of the improved design showed the device has huge impact resistance.”
ATV Lifeguard marketing manager Weston Stewart says the company is making a point of getting information from all ATV lifeguard users. “We do get feedback from others who use them.”
