Greenlaning for disabled peeps

I have been searching the 'net for info on the above subject and have found very little on it.I was wondering if anyone on 'ere has any info at all.
To give a bit of background, my son who suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy like most 18 yr olds loves cars etc.Sadly, he will never be able to drive due to his condition but this got me thinking about him accompanying me on laning trips. Obviously the fronty cannot accomodate him sitting in his powerchair as he normally does in an adapted vehicle so last weekend we tried to hoist him from his chair and slot him in the frontys front seat. We went for a 20 mile drive and he loved it

Whilst we have a hoist at home to perform this task,wanting to lift him out & back in a wheelchair while out laning presents a bigger challenge! Dismantling his hoist for the trip is not an option so I began to look at an engine hoist to do the job when out. Even this is far from ideal as the smallest 500kg model weighs over 70kg.
After more searching, we found a company called autochair who do a people lift which mounts within the car.The rep is coming around tomorrow to give us a demo and measure the fronty! If this works (and after raising the cash), all we would have to do is buy a racing harness & adapt it to work on the standard fronty seat to hold him in a secure position.
Exciting times ahead and Im hoping that if this works out,I would be able to take other duchenne lads out for a trip too

http://www.ricability.org.uk/reports/re ... lford1.jpg
above is the kit which is fitted inside the car which will be demonstrated tomorrow!

Keep us up to speed on developments martin ....sounds very good so far

looks a brilliant bit of kit Martin. Good luck

would be nice to sort a laning trip out for a few of them mate i would gladly help in trusty rusty

Great idea, I know hose home hoists are no good for the car as my mum uses one for her husband.

Keep us updated :wink:

I've got a trailer that you can get 2 wheelchairs in ..........the occupants might get a bit muddy tho :lol:

Firstly,thanks to all for the encouragement

We had the rep around to give my son a demo on how the Milford people lift works and the results have been very positive. This lift is very lightweight and easy to use and it would appear to solve the problem of access to the fronty whilst out laning or any other activity fronty related.
I have asked for a quote so that I can begin seeking funding from a few disabled focussed charities.I believe its about £2k :shock:

Anyhoo, the first piccy is of the mount bolted to the car.

The following pictures are as the passenger is maneuvered into the car seat

and the final photo is of removing the arm itself from the mounting post,ready to be stowed away in the boot.

The chap measured up the fronty :lol:

and informed me I could safely lift the fronty a few inches higher and the people lift would easily handle the extra reach from the wheelchair to the car seat

All in all,it looks like a great bit of kit!

great bit of gear

2k

Is it tranferable to other cars, if for some reason you sold the beasty and got another

that looks like a good peice of kit mate would make life a tiny bit more simple for you.....on a lighter note i may have to build something like that to get the mother in law in my frontie she aint gettin no smaller :roll:

In that case its a godsend, and makes the price far more palatable :lol:

Would be great for the lad to get out, nice find and keep us informed of the progress

Looks like a goodbit of kit and be good to see kids out doing the lanes with us

and enjoying it as well it would give great satisfaction to see there faces when they are on the lanes

keep us posted on progress.

Wow, now that bit of kit is impressive. Quite inobtrusive and the passenger seat remains in situ.

Lawrence

Firrst 2K is the ball park norm for a taillift/vhicle hoist, so no surprises there.
See if you can gain a more realistic price. This peace of kit looks good so maybe you can demo it??? for them???

Whats its SWL?

Looking a bit closer at the pictures has sent me thnking. My mother is disabled, in so far that she has extreme difficulty getting upstairs to the bedroom (the stairs in the house are 2" too short for a Stena stairlift) and climbing into the motorhome and more importantly into my Fronty. I acquired the motors and the running gear from a hospital bed and am planning on replacing the 240v motors with 12v ones to fabricate a raising platform. The current setup uses a worm gear and threaded rod. But back to the main point, would it not be possible to fabricate something along a similar line as the people lift you have pictures of? Using a worm gear driven shaft instead of a hydraulic ram to raise the arm. Just a thought, with plans Im sure a fabricator could make something up for a fraction of the cost. I might have a think about that one. It looks like a great bit of kit and Im glad your son loves the idea of Frontera'ing.

OK

For another £150 they can upgrade its swl to 22 stone.[/quote]

There you go ste......you can drop the diet now :lol: