Hi Just2fish
My hoist is a 4 way Autochair 80Kg and a very common hoist coupled to, then, a very common Pride Go Go Elite LX pavement scooter.
The procedure for me was Motability / RSA pass on your detail requirement to hire companies who then contact you about what you need.
The first two companies, I can’t remember now who they were but I think one might have been Enterprise, did not have a clue about hoists or scooters but the guy from the third company that are based in Twickenham, London knew everything and as soon as I started talking about how the scooter connects to the hoist I could tell he knew what he was talking about so a great relief for me.
My advice is to make a note for when they ring of exactly what you need and tell them make and model of the wheelchair/scooter plus the make and lifting weight of your current hoist and the size of your current car to give them guidance on how much space is needed in the car for wheelchair/scooter + passengers if you have the requirement like myself for the back seats to remain in an upright position.
One other thing is to make sure your happy with how all these things work before the hire guy walks away as I nearly made one hell of a mistake when the guy asked if I needed help setting up my scooter with their car and I said “it shouldn’t be a problem” but lucky for me he did say “are you sure as they can be a problem sometimes” so I said to get on with it, gave him my scooter and he was out at the pavement edge for over an hour adjusting the loading straps, something that would of took me a day if at all but I was just thinking how hard is it to disconnect my scooter from one hoist connect it to another that was even the same model but it turns out that it could be a nightmare.