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Gorby

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Joined
Nov 5, 2015
Messages
114
Reason
DX UMND/PLS
Diagnosis
08/2015
Country
CA
State
BC
City
Vancouver
We are looking for a low cost alternative to a wheelchair van. This would be for occasional outings where I want to use my wheelchair instead of a walker. Since we already own a pickup truck (Toyota Tacoma), we have been looking at a carrier that attaches to the trailer hitch. Does anyone have any experience with these? I am a bit worried because my wheelchair is a 350 lb behemoth not a light-weight portable.
 

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I am sure each of these is rated for a certain weight, a researchable question. But I would be loath to pay a lot in any case depending on your progression and how quickly you might progress past the point of being able to transfer out of the wheelchair.

If you are in Vancouver, I remember the transit as being pretty good there -- could you not travel on buses and trains in your power chair?
 
* I don't have any personal experience owning one, because my power chair is too heavy for any.
* However, during my research, I discovered three different types, each with weight restrictions; hook up and use requirements. There are probably more types, including wheel chair trailers.
* I considered a lawnmower trailer, but would have required too much parking space. Keep that in mind.
*Since the following are in an online business website, I cannot include the link. Copy and paste the types and they'll show up.
1. *Crane-Style Lift: Available for a wide variety of vehicles, A Crane/hoist lift is an effective solution for lifting and transporting Mobility equipment. Standing at the rear of your vehicle, connect the supplied docking device on the hoist strap to the wheelchair or scooter. Push a button to lift & store your mobility device (up to 400lb) into your Pickup truck, SUV or van
2. *Outside and Hitch-Mount Lifts: Keep all of your vehicle’s interior space for seating and cargo by transporting your scooter or power-chair with an exterior lift. Durable, safe and reliable NOTE: Tongue-weight carrying capacity as listed in the vehicle owner's manual must not be exceeded
3. *Wheeled Lifts: The newest type lift on the market, designed especially for small or mid-size vehicles, BRUNO'S revolutionary CHARIOT, is a lift on wheels! With its own independent suspension, it to bear the full weight and force of the load. Transport devices weighing up to 350 lbs safely. The Chariot’s wheels spin 360 degrees to keep it precisely in line with your car. It’s impossible to jack-knife! Great for most sedans, select SUVs, CUVs and minivans. (They said it requires less turning radius and fit in one handicapped parking space.)
*One type TRAILER I saw online had a cover to keep it dry in inclement weather.
*ALS will eventually make me unable to transfer from chair to car, we decided to wait. Just using transport chair for now. Good luck deciding. May blessings abound. B.
 
The problem is that you have to be able to transfer in and out of the car and that is the tricky sticky bit.

SWalker gets on buses in his PWC - I don't know if you have accessible buses there, or transport taxi's. For the price of the trailer, you could put that money aside to pay for the odd transport possibly? If you only use that a few times you have saved the money instead of having an expensive trailer you only got to use a few times?

It's truly a big issue with having no way to tell areas, order and speed of progression. I just think a trailer is going to have a much shorter usage life than transport that allows you to remain in your PWC.
 
What about putting the wheelchair in the pickup truck bed by using a ramp? Google: Pickup truck motorcycle ramp

Matt
 
Remember Gorby is PLS/ UMND so is likely looking at a different time frame ( I hope) that if it were ALS.
 
my vote is public transportation or here there are handi vans you can call.

second choice put in bed of truck with ramps.

that truck is going get difficult to transfer into.
so good to get out and about!
 
1) Your Tacoma needs a Class III receiver to handle the combined weight of PWC and carrier.
2) There are cheap carriers that can handle the weight but they use a loading ramp. Someone will need to be comfortable remote driving the PWC up the ramp and the weight shift will put a lot of twisting stress on the receiver.
3) There are also electric vertical lift carriers that can handle the weight. They are more expensive but safer loading.
4) In either case, with 500 lbs hanging off the rear bumper, the Tacoma will handle differently for sure.
5) As suggested, you could use motorcycle ramps and load/unload the PWC in the back of the truck. This will be more dangerous since ramp length and height will be greater. More risk of the PWC falling off the ramps, so you might remove the tailgate to provide better stability while loading/unloading.
6) Another option is to buy a used wheelchair lift as used in school buses. Mount it in the back of the truck bed (w/o tailgate). These are pretty common on ebay in the $300 to $900 range. Very heavy plus cost of shipping and installation.

With any of these solutions, you need to assess the effort required to transfer between the PWC and passenger's seat and how long that will be viable. There is also the option to replace the seat with a transfer seat that will rotate and lower for easier transfers. But these are very expensive (I have one in my 1 ton pickup) unless you can find a used one. Also, all of these solutions have the PWC exposed to the weather.

Finally, don't totally ignore the handicapped van. Ours is 4 yrs old with 41k miles and full Braun conversion. Sold our 5 yr old Honda CRV with 75k miles privately. Net cost to switch was $7k.
 
Just to clarify..

As someone mentioned, I have PLS, so I am hoping that my progression will be slow enough to justify the cost. My husband can handle getting the chair onto the carrier. My motivation is to get to places that are not serviced by transit. For example, I have found some wheelchair accessible trails close to where I live, but they are outside of town.

Apparently the truck trailer hitch is rated to handle it. But to me it sounds crazy to be putting nearly 500 lbs (wheelchair plus carrier) hanging off the back.

Thanks for the input everyone.
 
Nikki/Gorby, I did take UMND into account -- that is why I said "weigh the cost." I am not saying it's not worth it, and if it is, I'd buy sooner rather than later so as to get everything out of it possible.

Re the bouncing, no doubt you would want to use each of the transit loops as part of the securement -- they are designed for that. And potentially use a cover if there is any precip. But the wheelchair is going to be exposed to weather if you are out in it anyway -- ours certainly was in Seattle -- and as long as you wipe it down, you should not see rust per se.
 
I do not have direct experience with what the platform you are considering, but have researched them thoroughly.

A couple of things to watch out for are:

1. Most have a weight limit of 400 to 500 pounds "evenly distributed". Your wheelchair might not evenly distribute the weight, but at 350 pounds, I think it could work.

2. There will be a ramp that folds down, typically on the vehicle passenger side. The longer that ramp, the better. The platform will be pretty high on a truck, and even a 42" ramp will result in a pretty steep angle - perhaps too steep for the wheelchair to negotiate. Whoever is loading the wheelchair (by driving it up the ramp) may have to give it a bit of a push. That will be quite awkward.

3. Be sure to secure the wheelchair to the platform.

4. You might find that a stabilizing device on the receiver will allow for less movement of the platform. Amazon sells these, but I have not experience with them.

4. Water is the enemy of a wheelchair. The platform will have a metal mesh floor. You should consider putting a waterproof layer on that (perhaps something like marine grade plywood). You should also consider a cover for the wheelchair when it is on the lift. It would be bad to be caught without protection for the wheelchair if it precipitates.

5. The platform sticks out far enough from the back of your truck that you will probably be required to have a red flag on it to be legal.

6. The platform and wheelchair will probably obscure your license plate. To be legal you might need to temporarily relocate the license plate to the platform. I have seen many folks using these kinds of things to haul wheelchairs and scooters and have only ever seen one instance where the license plate had been moved.

7. You cannot ride the wheelchair onto the lift. Someone must stand beside it and use the joystick to maneuver the wheelchair up the ramp and onto the platform. Most folks that I have seen using these load the wheelchair facing forward and unload it in reverse. Most folks also have their control mounted on the wheelchair's right side, which will be next to the pickup's tailgate. That will make loading and unloading "interesting".

Instead of using the platform that mounts in the vehicle's receiver, we purchased a set of 8 foot long "suitcase ramps". I have used those to load the wheelchair into an SUV (2006 Lexus LX470) that probably has a similar tailgate height to your pickup. It is extra tricky with the SUV, because the wheelchair back has to be reclined just about all the way to fit into the SUV's rear opening. We have done that twice and will never do it again unless there is an emergency requiring it.

Steve
 
Thanks for the input everyone. If we decide to proceed with the carrier, I will post how it turns out.
 
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