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irismarie

Very helpful member
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
1,386
Reason
PALS
Diagnosis
05/2010
Country
FR
State
tarn et garonne
City
valeilles
My strength is not now sufficient to be able to transfer without a huge struggle and at least half a dozen people handling my bum. GETTING in and out of the car from wheelchair has become impossible. ANyone know any gizmos? ALl I have seen apart from turning seats - and the is not the real problem - is a handle that hitches over a bit of the car frame and doesnt look that helpful.
Suggestions SO welcomed as now S has gone permanently and taken his van I can not longer take my power chair out with me:-(
Love to all
 
so sorry Irismarie:-(
 
So sorry dear Iris Marie! Have you heard about a transfer board? We use those in rehab and teach people how to use them who have weakness in their lower extremities and not enough strength to pick their bums up with their arms?

Peace my friend
 
Do you have a standard car of your own you use, or are you talking transferring into lots of cars? If you have your own car, you could have a cable winch attached over where your seat would be, and make a harness (perhaps out of transfer belts? somethign sturdy, maybe just steal a hoyer lift sling) that could it could hook onto. It would take some craftiness, but it would be a 1 person job, just a slow one. My dad designed one for me before I could transfer into his crazy tall SUV.

For lots of cars... that's hard, but a good transfer board could help. It would still probably take at least two people, though.
 
thank you, friends. I shall go on a charm offensive, Beky, to all my friends with engineering capabilities (I think I have ONE) . It seems that should be able to be a good answer tho I cannot quite visualise it yet. Do you have any photos?
My experience with transfer boards has been bad but I think that is cos the board I have is too short. I am not stable and do not feel safe at all. But I must try that. Thank you for reminding me of that choice.
Love to you all
Hey! Twinsmom, my twins were 51 years old yesterday:)
 
The basis for the plan is a come-along, a manual cable winch capable of lifing 1+ tons.

Now, they come all the way up to the 5 ton variety, but for this kind of job, you want the minimum strength because you don't weigh a ton, (and certainly not 5!) and the heavier the capacity, the more times your friend have to push the lever back and forth to move the desired object (in this case you, but come alongs are great for everything, and even just a 1 ton will handle your power chair if you ever need to tow it out of or into something). So find a good a 1 ton comealong. We actually use one as the main tie down in my van because it failed to come with enough tie down points, and when we we trying to use someone's SUV, it caught my powerchair in midair and held it, then successfully pumped it back into the car.

I obviously don't know what your car looks like, but the next piece of the puzzle is a strong pulley point - this is going to involve a smart mechanic with a welder. A construction is only as good as it's weakest part, so your car needs to have a decent frame around where you want to sit (no crumple zones!), and the weld needs to be very tough too, or the sheer mechanical power of the comealong will tear it off. If you have a mechanic that can attach a high quality pulley, that would do the job too, but if you don't mind getting a new comealong every so often, just a really good, strong loop would do the job.

The wire of the comealong would go through the loop, the hook would attach to whatever kind of harness you're comfortable with, and then you would have mechanical advantage pulling you up and into the car, and while I am not advertising the highest comfort rating, with patience you would only need one helper to lever the winch, then come over and get you centered on the seat, then let the winch down and unhook you (you'd keep the harness on for the ride).

I am under the impression that european cars are smaller, so I'm am a little unsure of how to get a long enough space to bring everything to bear, and the angles would be a lot different than our american hog SUV estimates. I don't have any pictures at this time, we didn't think of that unfortunately, but if you gave car specs, my dad LOVES inventing stuff for disabled folk and claims I don't give him enough work now that I have a conversion van. He would definetely work on a more custom design.
 
Beky i shall print that out and take it to my garage. BUt I fear my car is a bit too old and weak for all that. But I hshall ask and I thank you very very much for having gone to all that rouble to explain it properly. Muchlove to you
 
You make my day nearly everyday, Iris!
 
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