Glad you enjoyed the visual of driving along with a tarp draped over your hubby in the trailer :lol:
This is the thing with ALS, it all depends on what part of the body go in what order, and we just don't know at the outset what that order will be.
My Chris was not 'walking' in his last couple of months, but he was still doing some standing transfers each day until his last 5 days or so. Many transfers were by hoist, but when possible he really wanted to get up on his feet for a few minutes.
Getting him in and out of a car by then was nearly impossible as I did not have a hoist that could do this. They can be bought, I had a friend CALS here locally who got one, but her hubby took a sudden decline and she never even got to use it, let alone the new car she bought to drive on the beach with him!
If the core muscles and neck go before the legs, standing transfers can become outright dangerous as they can't control the top of the body at all.
My Chris could hold his head up kind of ok in carefully arranged sitting positions, but the moment he stood his head would drop right forward. This made the transfers increasingly difficult as it made his balance far worse and the saliva would go into maniac mode and just be pouring out of him.
Sometimes you can use equipment and get the PALS into the car, but the car seat may not be able to support them properly. This was an issue as Chris's neck weakened, as every movement in the car would cause his head to move. I was nearly to the point of suggesting I would have to try strapping his head to the head rest, but I doubt he would have agreed as his swallowing and saliva issues were so bad he would have panicked.
So many things that can be the specific challenges!
That is always one of the biggest powers of this forum to me. With all the variations in what each PALS experiences and in what order, we tend to get a lot of balance in the views, experiences and tips here because we cover such a range of the different onsets and progressions.
Maybe you can find one of these trailers second hand, and then if you had to change to a van later, you could sell one car and the trailer and get a decent second hand van. It's good to think of the short and long term planning now and see how many options you really may have.
My Chris wouldn't even use his PWC much, and we had 2 different ones, firstly joystick, then a chin control. So if I took him out it was transfer into the car, then a manual wheelchair with roho, sheepskin and several pillows for support and limb placement. He was also rapid progression, so we were simply running to keep up every week as he literally showed daily changes, and weekly leaps in loss of function.