I am not opposed to safety and reasonable measures to help situations and equipment become safer, but some of this stuff goes way to far, to the point where it causes an un-safe occurence. Example:
Our D6T - It has the seat sensor that prohibits movement of the tractor unless it detects weight on the seat. That in and of itself sounds reasonable, except if it detects no weight for a moment and then it is weighted, one has to set the parking brake, toggle the direction switch to neutral, release the parking brake switch, and toggle the direction switch before the machine will move. We do a fair bit of receiving articulated haul trucks with it, and often amongst trees or other obstructions, or sidehill locations, in which it is the dozer operators responsibility to ensure that the haul trucks can safely dump. We run two-way radios in the equipment and guide the trucks as needed. I find myself having to turn in the seat to see the circumstances and momentarily removing weight on the seat. The truck may be quite close to me. After telling the truck operator to dump I often need to move. Toggle the directional switch and go, except that if I lifted from the seat for a moment I now have to go through the whole procedure before I can move. In the event that the truck operator's radio has failed, channel selector got bumped, volume been turned down, etc. I sometimes need to move quickly out of the way. We have not had any accidents as of yet, but it could happen if I am not able to go through the whole procedure quickly enough, and usually I am not aware that I have de-weighted the seat and go to move before realizing that I tripped the sensor.
I have tried to unhook the sensor with the thought of installing a jump wire, but as soon as I un hook the wiring harness the almighty computer detects that it is unhooked and throws a fault code. I suppose a resistor could be added to a jump wire and it may work, but that is above my knowledge level.
Anyway, this is not a gripe against the manufacturer in particular, just an observation that the dumming down of society in general, often promoted by the good intentions of folks that have never set seat in a piece of equipment be it those who promote governmental regulations or just industry engineers, is in my opinion reaching the point of diminishing returns.
Our D6T - It has the seat sensor that prohibits movement of the tractor unless it detects weight on the seat. That in and of itself sounds reasonable, except if it detects no weight for a moment and then it is weighted, one has to set the parking brake, toggle the direction switch to neutral, release the parking brake switch, and toggle the direction switch before the machine will move. We do a fair bit of receiving articulated haul trucks with it, and often amongst trees or other obstructions, or sidehill locations, in which it is the dozer operators responsibility to ensure that the haul trucks can safely dump. We run two-way radios in the equipment and guide the trucks as needed. I find myself having to turn in the seat to see the circumstances and momentarily removing weight on the seat. The truck may be quite close to me. After telling the truck operator to dump I often need to move. Toggle the directional switch and go, except that if I lifted from the seat for a moment I now have to go through the whole procedure before I can move. In the event that the truck operator's radio has failed, channel selector got bumped, volume been turned down, etc. I sometimes need to move quickly out of the way. We have not had any accidents as of yet, but it could happen if I am not able to go through the whole procedure quickly enough, and usually I am not aware that I have de-weighted the seat and go to move before realizing that I tripped the sensor.
I have tried to unhook the sensor with the thought of installing a jump wire, but as soon as I un hook the wiring harness the almighty computer detects that it is unhooked and throws a fault code. I suppose a resistor could be added to a jump wire and it may work, but that is above my knowledge level.
Anyway, this is not a gripe against the manufacturer in particular, just an observation that the dumming down of society in general, often promoted by the good intentions of folks that have never set seat in a piece of equipment be it those who promote governmental regulations or just industry engineers, is in my opinion reaching the point of diminishing returns.
