Is there a seat safety option for a Komatsu 820-5 skid steer?

[contractor bill]

I own a company that operates a Komatsu 820-5 skid steer. The seat sensor in the machine has a push button sensor under the seat. When my operator is using the machine over rough and uneven areas sometimes the hydraulics freeze up. This is supposed to happen because the seat sensor is a safety switch that when activated will lock out the hydraulics so that the bucket will not be able to raise or lower. A Komatsu dealer told me that there is a Seat Safety Kit available for the 820. The safety kit I believe includes a new sensor and a flat plate that prevents the seat sensor from activating when an operator is bouncing around in the cab. Questions: Has anyone ever heard of this? Is this safe? Can I install the kit myself? Why did Komatsu come out with this and not make it available when I purchased the machine brand new? Thanks

 

[skidsteer57]

did you get an answer to this question? The seat switch is activated when the seat is depressed. When released, there is supposed to be a 1.5 second time delay before the safety system is activated. The lap bar will activate the hydraulic interlock immediately. The time delay in the seat switch is supposed to protect against inadvertent lock-out of the hydraulics if the operator bounces up and down on the seat. However, this time delay seems a bit long to me. It may explain your other post where the lap bar circuit was not tripping, and then when the operator came off the seat, the interlock did not trip for 1.5 seconds, allowing the hydraulics to work for a short time when the boom pedal was depressed. Let me know what you found out.