So I got one handicap project knocked out in the beginning of the week that wasn’t really on my project list. A buddy and I built a handicap accessible simulator rig (for my Computer). I can still use my feet and arms to drive normal if I could get in the seat but it is not as safe as it probably should be. This is the reason that I have the hand controls in my truck. It just makes it safer.
I play a few racing games as well as American Truck Simulator on my computer as a way of relaxing, as well as a little bit of a time killer. I haven’t maybe talked about it as much, but I have always liked big trucks (Semi’s, 18 wheelers, whatever term you use). I would like to build a truck that is accessible that could be a show truck. I run into the fact that they cost a lot of money and I really have no reason to have one other than I want one.
As far as the simulator goes, I was having a few problems driving from my chair. When the foot pedals were positioned under my desk, I had to be careful to not push them further under the desk. Also the way that the steering wheel had to be mounted, I had to pull the drawer out and mount it sort of in the drawer. This made it a little tight to get my legs under the drawer and still be able to use the pedals. I also had to mount the shifter in a side drawer as well.
I have been looking at stands, wanting to buy one. However, most are set up with a seat attached to it. The others seem to have a post in the middle. Neither way will work with my chair. The other issue is that all of them seem to just have a platform to put the pedals on them with nothing there to keep them from sliding away from you. As such, buying one was not an option.
The fun part with building one is figuring out where to start. I finally decided that since the foot platform was one of the bigger issues, we should start there. We built a box that the pedals fit into nicely that would sort of hold them in place. I then pulled up to them and we laid a bar down to figure out how far back I would need to sit from them. Turned out that if we made the bar stay 2 inches from the box, then I could just wheel up to it until my front wheels touched the bar. So we welded in pieces and centered it so that the bar and pedals were the right distance apart (see picture below).
With this figured out, I had my buddy hold the steering wheel in front of me for positioning as I was pulled into the base. Turns out that the steering wheel would be in about the right spot if it was directly above the bar that we added. We figured out our height (approximately 30 inches) and cut some more pieces and tacked it together and mounted the steering wheel to it and saw that it was about right. Once fully welded we tried it again and realized the bar was not quite as sturdy as we wanted so we added a bar to stop the forward and back motion. The piece we had left over just happened to be the right height so that we could mount a monitor in front of me so that it could be a self contained unit. Once it was all welded up, we painted it, thinking we were done (see picture below).
Upon showing the pictures off at work, the question was raised about how I was planning to us the keyboard as you have to do that sometimes in the games and simulators. We went back to the drawing board and added a box for the keyboard and a plate for the mouse.
We once again tested the setup out to make sure it still seemed to work before taking it from my buddies house, back to my house. We then installed it and it fits and works perfectly. We are both proud of how it turned out. While I have ordered the new monitor for it, I haven’t received it yet. It is now a complete project except for that.
Thanks everyone for reading!!