swalker
Very helpful member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2014
- Messages
- 1,580
- Reason
- DX MND
- Diagnosis
- 07/2014
- Country
- US
- State
- CO
- City
- Vail
When I returned from a ride yesterday and deployed the wheelchair van's lift, I noticed a shiny bolt laying on the van's floor.
It was pretty obvious the bolt had come from my wheelchair, but where on the wheelchair was unknown.
I checked the wheelchair over pretty carefully and was fortunate to find that two bolts and a small plate securing the right lateral thoracic support had somehow become detached from the wheelchair. I had one of the two bolts, but the other bolt and the small plate were missing.
This morning, we searched the wheelchair van and found the missing small plate wedged in a small crevice at the van's side doors. It is a miracle that it was there. I don't know how it fell in that exact spot, but that happenstance prevented the plate from being lost.
Today, we went to Ace hardware and purchased a replacement for the one bolt that was truly missing.
It took just a few minutes to reinstall the plate and the two missing bolts.
We checked some other bolts on the wheelchair and found that there were three that were very loose and about ready to fall out. We tightened those down.
This afternoon we went for about a 10 mile wheelchair ride and everything seemed to work just fine.
Wheelchairs have many bolts. This experience prompted me to note that I need to be more diligent in checking for loose bolts.
So, be sure to go over your wheelchair regularly looking for loose bolts!
For reference, this particular wheelchair (one of five I have) was a 2016 Permobil F5. It has about 1,650 miles on it.
Steve
It was pretty obvious the bolt had come from my wheelchair, but where on the wheelchair was unknown.
I checked the wheelchair over pretty carefully and was fortunate to find that two bolts and a small plate securing the right lateral thoracic support had somehow become detached from the wheelchair. I had one of the two bolts, but the other bolt and the small plate were missing.
This morning, we searched the wheelchair van and found the missing small plate wedged in a small crevice at the van's side doors. It is a miracle that it was there. I don't know how it fell in that exact spot, but that happenstance prevented the plate from being lost.
Today, we went to Ace hardware and purchased a replacement for the one bolt that was truly missing.
It took just a few minutes to reinstall the plate and the two missing bolts.
We checked some other bolts on the wheelchair and found that there were three that were very loose and about ready to fall out. We tightened those down.
This afternoon we went for about a 10 mile wheelchair ride and everything seemed to work just fine.
Wheelchairs have many bolts. This experience prompted me to note that I need to be more diligent in checking for loose bolts.
So, be sure to go over your wheelchair regularly looking for loose bolts!
For reference, this particular wheelchair (one of five I have) was a 2016 Permobil F5. It has about 1,650 miles on it.
Steve
