Wheelchair mount for van

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RustyHook

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Joined
Jun 13, 2021
Messages
2
Reason
CALS
Diagnosis
2/2013
Country
US
State
FL
City
sarasota
We have an old van and my sister pulls her chair into the space the passengers seat used to occupy. Our neighbor has offered us use of her van for drs appointments, etc but the mount is different, its the kind where the chair sits in the center of the van and it click into a receiver on the floor, almost looks like the way a tractor trailer hitch looks, a fifth wheel thingy

She has an F3 chair, could anyone tell me what I would need to get to adapt her chair to use that securing system? Thanks in advance
 
If it is the EZ -Lock, you would need a bracket that gets fitted to the bottom of the F3. The bracket has a bolt that sticks down and fits into the receiver on the floor. I will warn you that the bolt on the bottom of the chair may impact the ability of the PWC to go over thresholds and other obstacles without dragging - this is a common complaint from F3 owners (including me). If you're not going to use your neighbor's van often, you might want to just stick with using tiedowns straps… There have been some other threads on this issue, you could search to read more about it.
 
We used the EZ-Lock system, too. That bolt wrecked havoc on the threshold at the bottom of the front door. But once we got it properly banged into place, it was not as much of an issue. I learned to line up my approach and to go forward with a moderate speed... fast enough that if I was off in my alignment of the chair/bolt, momentum would take us safely past it.

It was nice to know that Darcey's PWC was not going to leave its floor mount. But we did discover that hitting the brakes in an emergency caused the chair to lean well forward due its spring suspension system. As such, I would also anchor the top portion of the PWC with a tiedown. When so equipped, having to slam on the brakes no longer presented a danger.

My best...

Jim
 
There are currently two major manufacturers in the US for that kind of lock down system. One is EZ Lock and the other is Q'Straint. The brand and model will typically be somewhere on the locking device.

I have an EZ Lock. To use it, the wheelchair must be equipped with a "bracket" sold by EZ Lock. That bracket is threaded for a 5/8" coarse thread bolt. One of the appropriate length is screwed into the bottom of the bracket and that bolt is the one folks, including me) complain about tearing up thresholds (and other things).

I have 3 wheelchairs with EZ Lock brackets and they all take a slightly different length bolt. I use the shortest bolt that will still engage with the EZ Lock base installed in the van.

I have one wheelchair (an F5 bought used) that came with a Q'Straint bracket. It works the same way as the EZ Lock, including using a 5/8" coarse thread bolt. The bracket on that wheelchair just barely makes it over the EZ Lock base installed in the van, but it does work.

On my C500 wheelchairs, the EZ Lock bracket places the bolt close to inline with the drive wheels. This allows the drive wheels to lift the bolt up and over a threshold if the threshold is approached head on.

I have heard that on the EZ Lock bracket for the F5, the bolt is placed much further aft of the drive wheels, making it catch on many more things.

I have heard the Q'Straint bracket for the F5 places the bolt further forward than the EZ Lock bracket, but still aft of where it is on the C500 EZ Lock bracket.

You can sometimes find used EZ Lock and Q'Straint brackets on ebay. Be careful, though. There are at least different versions of the Q'Straint bracket depending on whether you enter the lock from the front of the vehicle (wheelchair rolling backwards) or the rear of the lock (wheelchair rolling forwards).

Steve
 
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