The Great Wheelchair Hack and Cathouse Thursday
As my health and arthritis is to the point that I can no longer be on my feet for long periods, car shows, gun shows, air shows, etc, I've decided it's time to get a "scooter." BUT, I realized that there will be times that I want to take one of my cars (perhaps with friends) and want to be able to carry the device in the car, WITHOUT having a big ugly platform on the rear, making a huge hitch receiver a necessity.
"Thanks" to the A-holes at the "Good Guys" carshow, who refused to allow my trike in the door, --and there would've been PLENTY of room!!-- I had already acquired an Invacar "Ranger II",
BUT IT does not break down, only folds "flat" and is heavy as hell. NO WAY am I gonna get it into the trunk of any car, and the "chair" (a canvas sling) is uncomfortable as 'ell
So the other day, I got one of these for less than a hundred bucks
and it DOES break down into pieces I could toss in the trunk. In fact, I brought it home in the Dart!!
But it turns out to be a REAL POS in a few ways
So this afternoon, I started "planning" the "big hack."
The problems with the Jazzy is, no ground clearance, and front wheel drive is no traction in grass and low traction terrain.
Only real problem I'll be able to solve on the Jazzy, I think, is the ground clearance, observe:
What you are looking at is the bottom of the battery support cage, just over 1 1/2" ground clearance!!
Turns out there is lots of clearance between the top of the battery boxes and the bottom of the chair seat, so I'll rebuild the battery box cage to raise the bottom some.
I may experiment with reversing the motors so that they are in the rear of the machine, and turn the seat around. We'll see
The project with the Jazzy is meant to be temporary, and I believe the Invacare machines will eventually be a "better deal"
The "first" chair I had was the clumsy, uncomfortable, Invacare "Ranger." Similar to this one below:
This chair has MUCH more ground clearance, and with the motors in the rear has more traction, plus it has larger tires and wheels, which roll easier over rough terrain. So the plan is to make it "break down" more like the Jazzy, by heavily hacking the frame, and then adapting the Jazzy chair seat to the frame.
When reality hit, and I realized how incredibly expensive this crap is, I bought a twin to it just the other day. I have a grand total of about 350 invested in all three chairs. These damn things run over 5 grand new!!!
More to follow, this is going to be a gut wrenching, long term, horribly backyard engineered massacre
As my health and arthritis is to the point that I can no longer be on my feet for long periods, car shows, gun shows, air shows, etc, I've decided it's time to get a "scooter." BUT, I realized that there will be times that I want to take one of my cars (perhaps with friends) and want to be able to carry the device in the car, WITHOUT having a big ugly platform on the rear, making a huge hitch receiver a necessity.
"Thanks" to the A-holes at the "Good Guys" carshow, who refused to allow my trike in the door, --and there would've been PLENTY of room!!-- I had already acquired an Invacar "Ranger II",
BUT IT does not break down, only folds "flat" and is heavy as hell. NO WAY am I gonna get it into the trunk of any car, and the "chair" (a canvas sling) is uncomfortable as 'ell
So the other day, I got one of these for less than a hundred bucks
and it DOES break down into pieces I could toss in the trunk. In fact, I brought it home in the Dart!!
But it turns out to be a REAL POS in a few ways
So this afternoon, I started "planning" the "big hack."
The problems with the Jazzy is, no ground clearance, and front wheel drive is no traction in grass and low traction terrain.
Only real problem I'll be able to solve on the Jazzy, I think, is the ground clearance, observe:
What you are looking at is the bottom of the battery support cage, just over 1 1/2" ground clearance!!
Turns out there is lots of clearance between the top of the battery boxes and the bottom of the chair seat, so I'll rebuild the battery box cage to raise the bottom some.
I may experiment with reversing the motors so that they are in the rear of the machine, and turn the seat around. We'll see
The project with the Jazzy is meant to be temporary, and I believe the Invacare machines will eventually be a "better deal"
The "first" chair I had was the clumsy, uncomfortable, Invacare "Ranger." Similar to this one below:
This chair has MUCH more ground clearance, and with the motors in the rear has more traction, plus it has larger tires and wheels, which roll easier over rough terrain. So the plan is to make it "break down" more like the Jazzy, by heavily hacking the frame, and then adapting the Jazzy chair seat to the frame.
When reality hit, and I realized how incredibly expensive this crap is, I bought a twin to it just the other day. I have a grand total of about 350 invested in all three chairs. These damn things run over 5 grand new!!!
More to follow, this is going to be a gut wrenching, long term, horribly backyard engineered massacre
