Farming with Diabetes

Freedom Technologies Lift

The Freedom Lift, from Freedom Technologies Incorporated, helps restore independence to people with disabilities and gives them access to many hard-to-reach places around the home and the workplace. Using the hydraulic powered Freedom Lift, farmers who use wheelchairs can move, unassisted, between the ground and operating compartments of their pick-ups, tractors, self-propelled swathers, combines, and other implements. With the Freedom Lift’s extended reach, it can also be used to help someone making a wheelchair transfer to many other settings, such as airplanes, boats, motor homes, and hunting blinds.
Members of the Saskatchewan Handicapped Farmers Association, Saskatchewan Abilities Council, and the Canadian Paraplegic Association helped make the Freedom Lift user-friendly by providing critical analysis from a user’s perspective.

Specifications & Costs

The Freedom Lift (FL) is a pickup-mounted lift with a boom-style arm that terminates in a platform. The platform can accommodate an operator who uses a wheelchair or who sits on a flip-down lift seat for an operator who does not use a wheelchair. The lift fits in the bed of a standard 1/2 or 3/4-ton pickup truck.

An operator can control the FL without assistance. It has two sets of controls, (a) toggle switches mounted on the wheelchair platform and (b) a radio remote carried by the lift user. The FL has an electric hydraulic pump that is powered by a 12-volt battery installed and connected to the pickup’s own 12-volt battery.

Maneuverable up to a height of 7’8" and a lateral distance of 10’11", this lift provides free access to a wide range of vehicles and machinery. All moving parts have been designed for long-term service and reliability.

The average cost of the lift installed is $23,000.

Safety Considerations

The Freedom Lift is professionally designed and constructed according to Canadian Standard Association and the Canadian National Research Council standards. One safety consideration is the fact that the lift platform cannot always be maneuvered into the cab of a tractor or combine, which means the operator must have enough strength to transfer from the wheelchair sitting on the lift to the seat of the equipment.

Wosoba Uses Freedom Lift to Access Farm Equipment

Wosoba sitting in wheelchair is lifted into a pickup truck.

Wheelchair on lift.
Wosoba using his Freedom Lift to access his pickup truck.
Photo courtesy of Missouri AgrAbility project.

Floyd Wosoba, a 34 year-old Missouri farmer got his leg caught in an auger when he was seven years old and it was amputated at the knee. At age 31, he sustained a spinal cord injury at the T5-T6 level when he was hit in the back by a falling limb as he cut down a tree. Neither incident stopped him from farming. The Wosobas farm about 1500 acres where they raise beans, milo, and hay, and run a cow-calf operation. They also do a lot of custom baling.

Following his spinal cord injury Wosoba attended a seminar on spinal cord injury and the staff referred him to Brad Marsh at Missouri AgrAbility. He says that Marsh did most of the paper work to help him get assistance through the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR); and that "Brad knew all of the places to call for everything that I needed. It was great." VR agreed to purchase a Freedom Lift for Wosoba.

In 1999, the lift was installed in a 1/2 ton 1988 Chevy pick-up truck. He plans to move it to a 3/4 ton 1999 Dodge pickup truck soon. The initial local installation resulted in some problems. Wosoba contacted Howard Derksen (the designer) and he "immediately flew down from Canada and took care of the problem himself. His service was great." Since then the lift has been trouble-free.

With this all-purpose lift, he can now access his New Holland TR85 hydrostatic combine, Cougar 251 Steiger tractor, 5240 front-wheel assist Case IH tractor, 1896 Case IH tractor, 1494 Case tractor, and all-hydrostatic bulldozer.

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In This Issue
Section 1: Client Story—Filer Uses Pilot Lift to Access Tractor Section 2: Focus—Commercial Lifts Section 3: Assistive Technology Notes—Commercial Lifts	Section 4: State Project Feature—Delmarva Project Section 5: Tips for Preventing Slips or Falls When Using Tractor Chair Lifts Section 6: Contacts