(Temporary) convert a wheelchair to a sedan ?

[Jethro_uk]

Last weekend, we went to a wedding held in a country hotel. My wife uses a wheelchair, and there were various accessibility issues most of which we overcame (disabled folk are very ingenious !). However the biggest one was a sodding gravel drive which was the only way to get from reception, to the lodge. About a 100m walk with a 1/10 slope down.

The only way to get between the two was to drive - which meant no drinking. Oh well, it was only a wedding.

Anyway, one suggestion, made in jest but which has stuck, was if there was an *easy* way to carry the wheelchair over the gravel. Like an old fashioned sedan chair.

I've got some sort of idea of 2 steel poles, maybe 4' long, which can suspend the chair. We're not talking a great amount - even 2" would be enough. Ideally something that can be carried in the car "just in case".

SWMBO came up with a steel hoop that would go around the occupant, and could be strapped to the frame ...

I tried Googling, but results were very US-centric about cars that carry wheelchairs. And Wiki-ing "sedan chairs" very quickly led to "sex swing" !

[Tim+]

Just off the top of my head I would suggest that you be careful to keep the centre of gravity low. The best way to do this might be to carry the poles on your shoulders and to use two web slings under the seat of the chair.

You could adjust the length of the slings to ensure that the chair is lifted no higher than necessary.

Tim

[Bert Coules]

Presumably you'd need something like two hooped brackets permanently fixed to each side of the chair, which the poles could be slid through. If the slight added width wasn't a problem, and given that a fixing place could be found which would adequately support the weight of both chair and occupant, it should be a workable solution, though I'd have thought that five feet might be a better length for the poles simply to give the carriers a touch more stepping room.

[Mentalguy2k8]

What about some strong material straps like:

They wouldn't take up any room in the boot

[Nightjar]

When my father was alive, I carried some lengths of 4" wide aluminium U channel. Two made a ramp up short flights of steps while four, used in alternating pairs, could be used to traverse problem areas, like gravel.

Alternatively, you could get one of these:

Colin Bignell

[Jethro_uk]

Looks sexy, but I can't help but think it could be tricky to manoeuvre around tight doorways ...

[Nightjar]

...

This one looks as though it would make its own path through the doorway:

Colin Bignell

[Jethro_uk]

wheelchair/

You bastard ;)! Now it's #1 on SWMBO wish list !!!! Although I was a bit concerned by her first thoughts ...

"Could you fit a bazooka to it ?" :)

[Nightjar]

It does say it has optional gun mounts.

Colin Bignell

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Would laying a tarpaulin over gravel make it possible to run a wheelchair over that?

If not a tarpaulin, how about a long narrow piece of something stiffer eg carpet or vinyl?

Or ... ages ago I bought a roll of strong carpet 'protector' - the sort of stuff you see sometimes laid over carpet to protect it from muddy boots or office chair castors - to put down on the solum of a nearly dry cellar to act as a waterproff layer between the solum and things standing in it. The roll I got was maybe 10m long, and I think a bit less than a meter wide - but possibly wider rolls are available.

Something like that in a shorter length might be able to be unrolled enough to give you a semi solid surface to roll over. (You'd need two lengths so that when you'd rolled to one end of one length the next could be laid on the ground to roll over before you could retrieve the first one and re-lay it.)

[Jethro_uk]

Now *that* is lateral thinking. And absolutely brilliant ! Maybe not quite as comfortable as being lifted over, but the trade off is tarps don't weigh much, and are easy to fold into a small space ...

Heath Robinson, but workable ... time for some experiments !!!!

[Harry Bloomfield]

Would that not make the passenger rather seasick?

[Tim Streater]

A number of sections that can be laid down in front of the wheels and once the w/chair has gone over them, be moved from the rear back to the front, would do the trick.

Like the desert rats had in Libya in WW2.

Or perhaps convert one of those mini diggers to have hand controls. I can't make my mind up whether to keep the bucket or replace it with an autoloading 3-pounder, though.

[Nightjar]

...

ISTR that some sedan chair users suffered from motion sickness.

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

I suspect it would need reinforcing rods across the width, to spread the load.

Colin Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

tarps not as good as planks

[Harry Bloomfield]

Jethro_uk formulated the question :

Have you thought about making a base frame for the chair to sit upon, with some wider pnuematic tyres mounted on the frame? Then it would just need to be pushed and the weight, due to it being spread over a greater patch of tyre, they tend not to dig in so much.

[dennis]

They don't dig in as much if you remember to pull them rather than push.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

The required stiffness of the tarp (or whatever) probably depends to some extent on the size of gravel - whether it's pea-sized or much bigger.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

I would guess that that's much more likely for sedan chairs where the rider closes the curtains to hide themselves from the populace. It seems unlikely to affect someone carried a short distance not cut-off from what's going on around them.

The other obvious problem with the sedan chair method is it will only ever work if there's at least two strong people there to do the carrying.