Ohakune bubble cab causes field days stir

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 592, 27 June 1995, Page 3

Ohakune bubble cab causes field days stir

Local farmer and inventor Elwin Greenwood' s prototype 'bubble cab' sparked immense interest at the recent National Field Days held at Mystery Creek. The purpose-built safety and weather cab is a new concept designed to fit on all-terrain vehicles (ATV s), golf carts, small tractors, snow mobiles, gang mowers, airport vehicles and the like. Although the cab has been in the design and construction stage for several months the actual polycarbonate globe did not arrive from the Auckland manufacturer until 2am on the Tuesday morning prior to the field days, leaving Mr Greenwood and construction engineer Ian Heappey only six hours to assemble it and get it working before leaving at 8am for the first day's show. The globe has been developed over the past fi ve years by Mr Greenwood using the unique concept of two clear

virtually-unbreakable polycarbonate domes which rotate one inside the other and held in place by an aluminium safety frame. The globe shape has no sharp corners to catch on scrub and no annoying covers to flap or tear. The rider has allround vision and the globe is easily and quickly detached from the vehicle, said Mr Greenwood. Peter Berry or Berry ' s Promotional Marketing has been appointed as marketing executive for the newly-formed company "Greenwood' s Globe Limited". Mr Berry said he was amazed at the interest shown in the prototype. The company now plans to assess the market survey which was carried out over the four days of the field days, fine tune "one or two improvements" and then start on production within the next few months.