Can you use a self-propelling wheelchair outdoors?

Last weekend I hired a wheelchair so I could go along the promenade at Weymouth. Although the path along the promenade looked smooth and flat, in reality the camber meant that my chair kept veering off to the side so I had to keep stopping and righting myself. In the end I had to ask my friend to push me as it was too tiring for me to propel myself. This was the first time that I have used this kind of wheelchair. I am now a bit confused about wether you can use a self-propelling chair outside. I don't know how much my problem was caused by the fact that I was using a cheap hired wheelchair or wether it was because it is always difficult to use a wheelchair outdoors.

What do you reckon is the minimum you need to spend to get a decent self-propelling wheelchair? And if you get a better quality wheelchair would it be possible to use it outside as well as inside?

Thanks for any advice you can give me

Jonathan

If the path was sloped it is very difficult to stay in a straight line pushing yourself across the camber rather than up or down it, even for more experienced, you may also find you naturally push with more force on one side than the other depending on whether you are left or right handed and which way the path sloped.

Mine only get used around house or when someone take me shopping in car cos it fits in a car boot and I can manage a flat shopping centre. Around my village I use a mobility scooter to get around local playing fields and nature parks (have dog to walk twice a day!) and a powerchair to get into smaller area's like post office at back of village shop, doctors surgery, ambulance transport and taxi's etc.

Unfortunately they don't do a chair for all occasions! so to get into different settings you may need more than one chair. If you can walk a little (you mentioned hiring the chair so I assume you aren't already in one full time) you might prefer a little boot scooter if you can also still drive and just need it occasionally to cover larger distances like the promenade or a large shopping centre. This would be the cheaper option.

You can get power add-ons to turn a manual chair into a little powered chair to keep a light folding chair but they cost around £4,500 just for the add on's then you'd need a chair to put them on! It won't handle rough terrain like a proper powerchair as obviously the front castors are still much smaller than what you'd get on a powerchair. A decent powerchair starts at around £5,000 but they are very heavy, parts are more expensive when they need repairs and obviously cost more to replace. A cheap one off ebay maybe ok for an occasional user who won't use it as heavily and only in pedestrianised area's.

A small boot scooter you can probably pick upon ebay or from a local mobility shop sale for under £1,000. (or couple of hundred off ebay)

Hi Kati

Thanks for your reply. I was thinking about getting a boot scooter. Last year I went to a mobility shop and tried out a 4-wheel boot scooter. The only problem was getting it into my boot. I have a Nissan Micra which is not adapted in any way and even after I had dismantled the scooter the heaviest part was too heavy for me to get into my boot. Have you ever used a 3-wheeled scooter? I know some people consider them unstable but I imagine they are lighter. I know you can get ramps to help get a scooter in the boot but I am not ready to consider getting one.

Jonathan



Kati said:

If the path was sloped it is very difficult to stay in a straight line pushing yourself across the camber rather than up or down it, even for more experienced, you may also find you naturally push with more force on one side than the other depending on whether you are left or right handed and which way the path sloped.

Mine only get used around house or when someone take me shopping in car cos it fits in a car boot and I can manage a flat shopping centre. Around my village I use a mobility scooter to get around local playing fields and nature parks (have dog to walk twice a day!) and a powerchair to get into smaller area's like post office at back of village shop, doctors surgery, ambulance transport and taxi's etc.

Unfortunately they don't do a chair for all occasions! so to get into different settings you may need more than one chair. If you can walk a little (you mentioned hiring the chair so I assume you aren't already in one full time) you might prefer a little boot scooter if you can also still drive and just need it occasionally to cover larger distances like the promenade or a large shopping centre. This would be the cheaper option.

You can get power add-ons to turn a manual chair into a little powered chair to keep a light folding chair but they cost around £4,500 just for the add on's then you'd need a chair to put them on! It won't handle rough terrain like a proper powerchair as obviously the front castors are still much smaller than what you'd get on a powerchair. A decent powerchair starts at around £5,000 but they are very heavy, parts are more expensive when they need repairs and obviously cost more to replace. A cheap one off ebay maybe ok for an occasional user who won't use it as heavily and only in pedestrianised area's.

A small boot scooter you can probably pick upon ebay or from a local mobility shop sale for under £1,000. (or couple of hundred off ebay)

I don't use 3 wheel boot scooter. I live in village thats not very wheelchair friendly lots of big hills and I have to go on road where no paths so mine needs to be at least mid size 6mph, my elderly collie likes a ride on the footplate too when she gets tired so I need one with a reasonable amount of power just for that task!

I think you can get smaller 4 wheel scooters but I've never tried to lift one. I used to have an energi enigma chair which is very basic electric chair where back folds in half and seat folds, the small batteries are on a removable tray, but the individual batteries were heavy even for 34ah and the chair folded although easy to push if you had boot ramps and an estate car, was heavy to try to lift.

I can't drive so I've no idea how big a Nissan Micra car boot is, you could see if its big enough to fit a boot hoist for a small powerchair (would also depend on height of boot to swing the chair in) or you may have to consider either selling your current car and getting a new one on motability.

A regular estate car with ramps maybe cheapest option, unless you want to go with getting a chair and a power add on?

Here's a video showing how the power add on's for manual chairs can be taken apart to go in a small boot. It may give you an idea whether this would work to save you hassle of changing your car? .. then maybe just get a cheap scooter for around your local area?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40kNATWXpw4

You can always arrange a free demo from a local mobility store maybe ask them to bring a small cheap boot scooter (tell them what car you got they should have an idea what will fit) and ask if they got the E-fix and can bring it on a demo chair for you to try too, see if you can manage getting that either into boot and walking to front of car .. or dismantling it from driving seat and lifting it over to passenger seat (if got no-one with you to help).

Kati

Thanks for sharing this excellent video, it shows how it fits into a very small car (SMART car - A 2 seater)

Alan

Ataxia South Wales

Thanks, Kati. Very informative.