Lynn
08-07-2008, 03:27 PM
My mother had Polio when she was 6, and even though she hardly let it slow her down, I’ve always been fascinated by aids for the disabled.
I was watching some re-runs of the TV show ‘Junkyard Wars’ last night and their ‘judge’ for the episode was a guy who invented a really cool add-on that turned a normal wheelchair into an off-road trike.
Basically it was a motorized steering wheel and handlebar unit that could be attached to the front of a standard (slightly modified) wheelchair. When the unit was attached it turned the wheelchair into a trike, lifting the wheelchair's front wheels up a few inches to get them out of the way.
The user had a special fitting under the seat of the wheelchair that the device connected to. He initially connected it such that it was rotated 90* (wheel on the left, handlebars on the right). Then he grabbed the wheelchair wheels and rotated the wheelchair to the left (and probably wheelied a little). When he did this the add-on mechanism rotated upright, and held the front wheels of the chair off the ground.
It looked to be electric drive, and I’m guessing you would want the batteries semi-permanently mounted under the wheelchair seat.
The short video clip that they showed made it look really cool, and fairly capable off-road wise. Sorry, but my quick googling didn’t produce any hits. I just thought I’d share what I know here in case there is anybody interested.
Oh, and it was actually the British version of Junkyard Wars, which I think they call ‘Scrapyard wars’. The episode where the challenge was to build an amphibious motorcycle. I didn’t catch the name of the inventor.
I was watching some re-runs of the TV show ‘Junkyard Wars’ last night and their ‘judge’ for the episode was a guy who invented a really cool add-on that turned a normal wheelchair into an off-road trike.
Basically it was a motorized steering wheel and handlebar unit that could be attached to the front of a standard (slightly modified) wheelchair. When the unit was attached it turned the wheelchair into a trike, lifting the wheelchair's front wheels up a few inches to get them out of the way.
The user had a special fitting under the seat of the wheelchair that the device connected to. He initially connected it such that it was rotated 90* (wheel on the left, handlebars on the right). Then he grabbed the wheelchair wheels and rotated the wheelchair to the left (and probably wheelied a little). When he did this the add-on mechanism rotated upright, and held the front wheels of the chair off the ground.
It looked to be electric drive, and I’m guessing you would want the batteries semi-permanently mounted under the wheelchair seat.
The short video clip that they showed made it look really cool, and fairly capable off-road wise. Sorry, but my quick googling didn’t produce any hits. I just thought I’d share what I know here in case there is anybody interested.
Oh, and it was actually the British version of Junkyard Wars, which I think they call ‘Scrapyard wars’. The episode where the challenge was to build an amphibious motorcycle. I didn’t catch the name of the inventor.