Help controlling a wheelchair joystick

I saw videos on that, but I am actually going to take this and make a RC mower to mow steep slopes to steep to push a mower on, or even drive a tractor up. So I thought I needed something a little more solid. Because of issues I found when I finally got time to tear into the chair today I am going with a sabertooth 2x32, since it will control both motors and the brakes. Hated spending that money but the controller in my $50 chair turns out to have issues. My main goal was the motors and frame to cut up and work with, the way it was wired turned out well as I can reuse most of the harness. But on a good note my Arduino starter kit showed up, so will play with that and probably incorporate distance sensors into my safety design, plus I was shocked at how cheap sensors and stuff are.