Van’s

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Jun 13, 2017
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17
Reason
CALS
Diagnosis
08/2017
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US
State
TX
City
N.Richland Hills
My husband was just fitted for a wheelchair last week.Did anyone have trouble fitting the adapted van in your garage ?We have a washer and dryer on one side of the door , and a closet on the other side .
 
What is the issue you are concerned with? I would imagine maybe not having room with a side entry. We honestly never park in the garage. There needs to be a good bit of clearance.
 
I’m really worried about the tight fit .Our kitchen door leads into the garage but the washer and dryer is on one side , and a storage closet on the other side of the door .
 
So it sounds like you may need to park in the driveway or street. You can find a way to give yourself extra room for pickup/dropoff if needed, and then leave or re-park.
 
Here are some things I have learned along the way.

I am tall, and need a tall van. My van in a 2004 Chevrolet Express conversion van with a raised roof. The floor has not been lowered in my van. My van has a lift as opposed to the ramp you will find in most converted minivans.

My van is too tall to fit into our garage. I have looked at several other options for transportation and the only one that I would consider that might fit in our garage is a pickup truck conversion from ATC. I would need a 2500 or 3500 (that is, a 3/4 ton or 1 ton) pickup because those have more headroom and I would need the extra headroom.

The only way those would fit into my garage would be to modify the height of the eve that sticks out over my garage. The garage door is just barely tall enough for that vehicle and not tall enough for other vehicles I have considered.

Even though we get over 200 inches of snow per winter, we must park my van outside. My wife and friends have the chore of brushing the snow off of it after every snowfall.

As far as width, the manual for my lift recommends there be 8 feet of clearance on the lift side of the van for proper operation. I have found that I can load and unload the wheelchair in a bit less than that, but not much less (maybe a foot or 2 less).

Wheelchair vehicles are longer than many smaller cars, so be sure you have enough length to your garage as well.

Many homes have one or more steps from the garage into the house. If yours does, be sure to allow for the room that a ramp or lift into the house will consume.

If you do have to park you van outside and you live where it snows, I highly recommend getting snow and mud tires. I have the ones from Permobil and they make a significant positive difference in negotiating the snow in our driveway (and other places we go) as I load and unload.

Good luck sorting this all out.

Steve
 
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We have a Toyota Sienna conversion. It barely fits in the garage. We have never loaded or unloaded while in there. We would always load at the end of the driveway. Our driveway goes up toward the house, not real steep, but there is an incline. I would park at the end of the drive and have the ramp open going up the driveway. That was easiest for entry and exit.

One tip, no matter where you park if you are not using the van daily it will be good to keep the battery connected to a trickle charger. We have had issues with the battery losing power when just sitting.
 
Found it mpre practical to park outside. Did put in a parkng pad sit wasn’t,t really necessary. Really enjoy my Chrysler Pacifica with Braun ability conversion?
 
My DH is tall. He has a Permobil F3, which is a big chair. We have a Dodge Grand Caravan with a Braun XT side entry conversion. It was the only minivan that he fit comfortably in with his chair.

We have a 2 car garage and the van fits in one (left) side. On the other side, we had a ramp put up against the far (right) wall. We can deploy the van's ramp and he can get in the van in the garage. It is a tight fit, but it works. I sometimes have to squeeze in the driver's side door, but that's a minor inconvenience.

The ramp from our garage goes in to our laundry room, which is pretty small. He can get in the door, and with a sharp turn, get in to the house even with a full size washer and dryer.

Measure, measure, measure. Don't get any vehicle until your husband gets his chair. We ended up going through Mobility Works to get the van. The salesman brought several different models of vans right to our house so DH could try them out and we could make sure everything worked.

Good Luck!
 
We have a 2 car detached garage (no way to attach one to our 1895 house). We park the van on the left side, but need to back the other car out to open up the ramp--a minor inconvenience. We have a pad built when we remodeled that sits at the end of a ramp outside our new first floor bedroom--we use that except during winter (a different ramp leads to the garage).

Ed
 
We have a 2016 Town and Country Rollx conversion with a ramp that automatically deploys from the passenger slide door. For loading and unloading I could park the van next to the garage and drop the ramp. I could basically get the end of the ramp to drop at the garage door. We had a lift installed in the garage for the wheelchair to get in the house.

So, Dad would come out of the house onto a platform, enter the lift, come down to the garage floor, drive out of the garage onto the van ramp - with the van sitting outside the garage. We could park the van in the garage for storage, but not during loading or unloading.

I took photos to get ready to sell the van today. Mom hasn't decided if she'll keep the lift installed in the garage or have it removed.
 
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