Have a Mission: Need your ideas!!!

[ATV Chic]

So, 6 weeks ago, my cousin Jay who owns his own construction business, had a tree fall on him. He was cutting it when it decided to fall strait at him, he put his feet up to catch it. It shattered two of is vertabrae and he had to have rods and screws to save his spine. He is now paralyzed from the hips down. He's had great out reach from the community, they have donated and helped a ton. But, my mission that I need everyone's help with: His favorite hobby is his sand rail. He rides it a lot and we are trying to come up with a hand system to work the clutch and gas and then he has to change the gears by stick like a car. I REALLY want to solve this for him. He's been down about it and I want to give this to him. So, please, if you can help us devise a system it would be awesome! He is a great welder and owns a welder so i'm confident we can build anything that anyone can come up with. Thanks in advance for your help!

[SRH]

the only thing he could do is adapt a set of hand controls for gas and brake...but as far as clutch and shifting ive seen some setups with a button on the shift knob u depress and shift but thats not a easy task whats so ever...nearly impossible to hold the wheel, work the gas and brake and shift with the other hand and work the clutch it a handful for me just doing the gas and brake and steering when im going in and out of traffic in a rush...not to mention the setup is $$$$ for the manual clutch

best bet unfortunately is to stick something in there with a automatic tranny, as far as hand controls i prefer suregrip, there close enough to the wheel to drive with 1 hand at a time...they alos make hand controls for the razr , rhino, teryx and other side by sides, they run about $600 you install yourself.. i believe you can get them from www.hunterworks.com im sure you could modify 1 of those setups to work in a sand rail

has he been out on a quad??? dont let him sit there and be depressed, thats the worst thing for you with that injury

:(

[SRH]

forgot to mention, http://www.sportaid.com/driving-aides/ this site has alot of deals and carry alot of stuff useful to anyone with an injury like that...i believe they even carry the sure grip setups cheaper than hunterworks...

they also have cheap portable setups, that go in and out of any vehicle no problem maybe he could rig those up...but if hes trying to haul *** those things will be bouncing around in his lap which is no good without sensation, but i havent personally ever tried them

he might possible be able to get the handcontrols on the gas and brake, and have another rod independent in his lap to depress the clutch, but it would take some finese....chances are if this injury is fresh to him thats going to frustrate him....anything is possible but anything other than a automatic transmission just isnt practical with this injury

[KXRida]

Look up Anthony Mastrocola on here. I think his username is quadmxracer17 or something. He was paralyzed back in 2006 at steel city. He has a pretty wild hand control setup in his mustang that works pretty good for him. I think his insurance may have covered some of it, but I'm not sure. If you need any more information PM me.

[reconmaster]

www.rickyjames824.com go to media then videos 1st video....at the end it shows rickys hand controls for his stock car

[yellowzo3]

Try to research as much info as you can on Evan Evans. He races the CORR series and is paralyzed. He uses all hand controls to drive the truck and he does VERY well.

http://www.potawatomiracing.com/images/drivers/evanevansnews-big.jpg

I can't find any pictures of the interior, but if you watch CORR on tv they always show him inside the truck driving. He uses a hand lever for the throttle and he has a brake lever (looks to be the same kind quads use) for the brake I guess.

I'm pretty sure he uses an automatic (a lot of races do in these trucks)... I think that would be safest as his hands would already be full steering with one hand and doing the throttle and brake with the other. But maybe you could work out some kind of paddle shifter that has both the paddles to shift up and down on the same side so he wont have to take his hands off the steering wheel or throttle at all.

[CannondaleRider]

What Evan Evans actually has(above), is a center mounted bar, with a twist throttle on it. He obviously uses the twist to control throttle, and brake is controlled by pushing that bar forward.

Shifting? I'd either adapt an automatic...or a sequential shifting setup. So, no clutch control is needed. The sequential would have the benefit of more control. If it's a sequential with a clutch setup also... Adapt something for a way to use it if need be(Wheel stands, drag starts, R's up for goin' sideways, whatever his flavor) But adapting a control of the clutch, for every gear shift, with an H-Pattern tranny...is going to be a challenge. Those two hands are going to be fairly busy, however you do it.

[SRH]

Originally posted by reconmaster
www.rickyjames824.com go to media then videos 1st video....at the end it shows rickys hand controls for his stock car

i was pretty sure ricky uses a auto tranny in his trucks , or does he have a straight manual tranny?

[yellowzo3]

Originally posted by CannondaleRider
What Evan Evans actually has(above), is a center mounted bar, with a twist throttle on it. He obviously uses the twist to control throttle, and brake is controlled by pushing that bar forward.

Shifting? I'd either adapt an automatic...or a sequential shifting setup. So, no clutch control is needed. The sequential would have the benefit of more control. If it's a sequential with a clutch setup also... Adapt something for a way to use it if need be(Wheel stands, drag starts, R's up for goin' sideways, whatever his flavor) But adapting a control of the clutch, for every gear shift, with an H-Pattern tranny...is going to be a challenge. Those two hands are going to be fairly busy, however you do it.

I could have sworn I saw a bike or quad brake lever in some kind of truck like this :p ...Thanks for clearing that up man. My bad there!

Do you have any pictures of his setup? I couldn't find any. I figured his controls and everything would be a good idea since they see a lot of abuse during the race and never seem to fail.

[CannondaleRider]

I couldn't find any pictures of it either... the only time I saw Evan's setup was through some videos that showed his setup, and talent with it. Not sure where to find much about it.l

[yellowzo3]

Ahh Perfect!!! A video of him describing the entire thing for us! lol

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CehhqSl3_tE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CehhqSl3_tE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>


I guess he beat me to the paddle shifters on one side :p

[ATV Chic]

You guys are awesome! I really appreciate all of your help! He definately needs to know that there are some ways of making this happen. I think just that alone will lift his spirits! I will definately show him the stuff you suggested and that video! He used to ride quads but likes his sand rail better. Just this info you all have given me will give him hope that he will be able to ride again. That's alot. I can't thank you guys enough!