Title pretty much says it all. Thanks!
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I’ll put a link to the Hoveround page on Wikipedia for those (like me) who had never heard the word before.
Sorry I’m no help here but I just have to say that the Hoveround commercial always brings a smile to my face.
There’s a part in it where some lady is spinning in circles in the kitchen. To me it looks like, “Oh no. Grandma’s drunk again!”.
Well, this might be a bit much.
There are tons of sites for off-road power chairs of varying degrees.
(I’m assuming that you mean off-road-type activity; I think most any power chair will go up a steep sidewalk.)
It depends on what you mean by “Hoveround” type vehicle. As redtail notes, there are power chairs specifically designed for outdoor use, but you wouldn’t want to use one at home.
This would be for going up a very, very steep driveway. It’s so steep that apparently even cars can’t really make it. He’s talking about changing the gears on the one he does have, but the schematics are proprietary and I know it would be an incredible pain, a recipe for disaster. But getting up the driveway makes it very difficult for him to get to doctors’ appointments and such.
I’ve been searching, but perhaps my google-fu is weak today. If someone has a link, I’d appreciate it.
P.S.: redtail23: LOL!
P.S.: redtail23: LOL!
well the ibotprobably would have qualified but it’s not in production anymore. I saw what looked like the inventor Dean Kamen operating it in uneven grass at Oshkosh years ago.
So he lives at the top of a very steep driveway, and has trouble getting back to the house after going out? Or at the bottom and has trouble getting out?
One possibility would be to change the gear ratios, but that could get quite ugly, as you mention. I’d think you’d really need some pro help with that. Even on something as simple as a bicycle, you can create a hella mess trying to do custom gear ratios.
Has he considered an electric winch to give him a boost? It would also make going down safer.
He could look into some of the other off-road chairs. They’re not all quite as silly as that one.
Generally they will have bigger, softer, chunkier tires and lower gear ratios.
The downside is that they’re less efficient and slower.
Pretty much the same sort of difference that you get between road bicycles and off-road bikes.
Sadly, he needs a walker to walk at all now; when he does, he can’t go very far, or for long. So the deal is, he has to get down the driveway (about a 30 degree angle) to the sidewalk to get into a waiting car, and back up again when he returns.
He is a retired engineer, and he has some machining tools that would probably be adequate to the task of changing the gears – BUT, it would all have to be done by proxy, and even in the best of circumstances there’s so much that can go wrong.
Tell you what, I honestly have searched quite a bit, and I can’t locate anyone selling a more rugged device. For one thing, they seem to have several different ways that they can be referred to: “personal mobility device,” “mobility scooter” … I dunno, maybe somebody could point me towards a manufacturer or dealer who actually sells the right kind of thing?
You can PM me if you’re more comfortable doing that.
Thanks!
P.S.: Slow is fine!! Big, chunky, slow gears!
If it’s just the one driveway, maybe you could rig up some kind of winch assist system. Seems like just the kind of thing a retired engineer could get into.
Really, I think all you’d need is a standard slow speed winch and a remote control option. You’d have to worry some about what if the scooter tipped over while it was being winched, but I think that that’s a risk even without the winch given the steepness of the driveway. But maybe you could rig up a rail system like those chairs that go up stairs.
I think it depends on the size of the motor and I would think on a steep hill a longer vehicle would balance better than a chair sized one.
I visited a professor in Berkeley once and all the houses were on real steep hills. They all had these wooden plank “lifts” beside their walkways to help you up the hill. Their parking was at the base and he said he never would have gotten groceries up the hill otherwise.
Oh and my newest home has a steep hill too. I can’t get my garbage can up it for anything (They come down for it now). I had to laugh at me the first time I tried. It was heavy…but I tried. I got it half way up and realized I couldn’t get it up any further. I couldn’t let it go either…so I laughed…I mean what else could I do…lol! Thankfully the neighbor across the street drove up and heard me call him. He saved the day.
IIRC from the commercials, the point of a hoveround is that the base is narrow enough and the wheels maeuverable enough that it can manage tight spaces inside a house. This would make it very top-heavy for extreme cross-country applications like the OP’s suggestion; if cars have a problem, that indicates it’s probably not the best application for a general mobility assistance chair. It would likely tip, if not from simply center-of-gravity issues, then as soon as the torque was too high. Overtorque the rear wheels, or hit a small bump on the driveway, and over you go. Avoid the problem by torquing the front wheels, (FWD) and the lean reduces pressure on the front wheels an you spin out.
I agree with previous posts, it’s a situation that calls for a funicular lift or one of those stairway chair lifts… Or build a zig-zag ramp beside the driveway, like many mountain roads.
For the situation you describe, I don’t think a chair is your best bet. I realize that’s probably what he’s got handy (hence the consideration of altering the gears) but ‘on hand’ <> ‘optimal’.
I’m going to recommend finding a local agency that specialises in home adaptations. For one thing, I’m guessing that his physical abilities are deteriorating. If he’s going to spend money on a solution, why not find one that will last rather than having to re-think it in the future? (I say this from experience - people will continue doing things the way they do them for long, long after that is no longer suitable or safe.)
They have some absolutely amazing gear these days, but I don’t keep up with it anymore. Also, those agencies often have donated used merchandise or income assistance programs, if that’s a problem. Or even if he doesn’t buy something, it will give him new ideas on how to solve his problem.
Where is he located?
Sure there is. “Hoveround takes me where I wanna go… where will it send me?”
Eeeep! Large man, I must suggest, your voice is good enough to “send” you to a stage IF YOU GET OUT OF THE CHAIR! 