swalker
Very helpful member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2014
- Messages
- 1,580
- Reason
- DX MND
- Diagnosis
- 07/2014
- Country
- US
- State
- CO
- City
- Vail
In previous posts, I have described some harrowing incidents due to problems with the right brake on my Permobil C500 wheelchair. We have been chasing this problem on and off since about June.
In September, we did a field repair (with the folks from NuMotion on the phone) while on our fall trip to Yellowstone. That repair was successful enough to get me through until now. However, the issue was not completely resolved, and I still considered it to be a safety issue.
Last week, I finally was able to spend about 4 hours with the good folks at NuMotion in Aurora, Colorado. In preparation for this visit, they had spent considerable time on the phone the the manufacturer (Permobil) trying to figure out what the issue could be.
It turns out to be a design issue. Most wheelchairs use different drive motors on the left and right sides. On the C500, the drive motor is the same model for both the left and right sides...one of them is simply mounted upside down.
The result is that the brake release lever (to put the wheelchair in freewheel mode) is oriented differently (and satisfactorily) on the left side. However, on the right side, there is substantial potential for that lever to hit the spring on the shock absorber, preventing the lever from re-engaging the brake when the chair is taken out of freewheel mode (or when you go over a sufficiently large bump).
The fix is rather simple. All they had to do was remove the right wheel, loosen the bolts holding the right motor in place, move the motor slightly in its mounting slots, and then tighten everything back up. This seems like a permanent fix.
They did this work on my primary chair. When I got home, I checked my backup chair (which is also a C500) and found that the right motor was mounted so the brake lever did not interfere with the shock absorber spring.
So, if you have a C500 or know anyone that does, have them check this out. It is a critical safety issue if it it is not addressed.
This sure took a long time to get resolved and resulted in some "excitement" while wheeling in some adventurous places. The wheelchair was out of comission for over 4 weeks during this time while various fixes were attempted. This failure was a major contributor to my decision to purchase a backup wheelchair. I am sure glad that it is resolved.
Steve
In September, we did a field repair (with the folks from NuMotion on the phone) while on our fall trip to Yellowstone. That repair was successful enough to get me through until now. However, the issue was not completely resolved, and I still considered it to be a safety issue.
Last week, I finally was able to spend about 4 hours with the good folks at NuMotion in Aurora, Colorado. In preparation for this visit, they had spent considerable time on the phone the the manufacturer (Permobil) trying to figure out what the issue could be.
It turns out to be a design issue. Most wheelchairs use different drive motors on the left and right sides. On the C500, the drive motor is the same model for both the left and right sides...one of them is simply mounted upside down.
The result is that the brake release lever (to put the wheelchair in freewheel mode) is oriented differently (and satisfactorily) on the left side. However, on the right side, there is substantial potential for that lever to hit the spring on the shock absorber, preventing the lever from re-engaging the brake when the chair is taken out of freewheel mode (or when you go over a sufficiently large bump).
The fix is rather simple. All they had to do was remove the right wheel, loosen the bolts holding the right motor in place, move the motor slightly in its mounting slots, and then tighten everything back up. This seems like a permanent fix.
They did this work on my primary chair. When I got home, I checked my backup chair (which is also a C500) and found that the right motor was mounted so the brake lever did not interfere with the shock absorber spring.
So, if you have a C500 or know anyone that does, have them check this out. It is a critical safety issue if it it is not addressed.
This sure took a long time to get resolved and resulted in some "excitement" while wheeling in some adventurous places. The wheelchair was out of comission for over 4 weeks during this time while various fixes were attempted. This failure was a major contributor to my decision to purchase a backup wheelchair. I am sure glad that it is resolved.
Steve
