Aspects to improve cabin comfort of wheel loaders and excavators according to operators

Comfort plays an increasingly important role in interior design of earth moving equipment. Although research has been conducted on vehicle interiors of wheel loaders and excavators, hardly any information is known about the operator's opinion. In this study a questionnaire was completed by machine operators to get their opinion about aspects which need to be improved in order to design a more comfortable vehicle interior. The results show that almost half of the operators rate the comfort of their cabin "average" or "poor". According to the operators, cab comfort of wheel loaders can be increased by improving seat comfort. Besides improving seat comfort, cabin comfort of excavators can be improved by changing the cab design (including dimensions, ingress/egress), view, reliability, and climate control. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved