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Mrs Joe has a Li Tech Marathon (Careco.co.uk) with lithium batteries, it has a 26 mile range. They have 4 similar models with less range. She only uses it on UK holidays.
I put the floor mats on the back seat and put the scooter there, I use the seatbelts to secure it when we are travelling to our destination as the boot is full. When we get there I store it in the boot, it separates into 4 parts, the heaviest being the back axle/ wheels which contains the motor, this weighs 15kg.
It retails at £1600 but we got it on eBay for around £400, it was mint condition. My advice would be to find the model you want and search eBay until one comes up, you can even get eBay to send you notifications if one is listed.
A lot of people buy them and realise they don’t use them, also, sadly, lots of people with terminal illnesses buy them and family sell them after they pass.
If we were looking again we would consider an auto folding model but the wheels are small and the ride may not be great.
I have one, a pride revo 2.0 which is about the biggest boot scooter you can get. I absolutely love it. Really gives me independence, even though you realise how difficult shops are to get around due to stuff being in the way.
I wouldn’t be without it and even took it to tenerife and Orlando with me.
Here goes with my thoughts after years of using a pavement scooter that breaks down into 5 pieces and changing to an auto-folding type about a year and half ago.
First things first before I get into the pluses and minuses of these scooter is having only one hand to use and unstable on my feet/foot I have to load the scooter fully assembled thought its not impossible for me to assemble or dissemble the scooter it is a very hard chore I can do without. I’ve found over the years there’s much advise on loading, unloading and assembling these scooter only to find that its a carer speaking on behalf a disabled person so you have to be careful to read through the lines of such advise and even myself giving advise here doesn’t mean its the correct advice for anyone else as I’m sure their disability will be different.
The problem I found with the 5 piece pavement scooters are the boot space and loading and unloading. My first scooter was very cheap, bought new and
I though at the time was great simply because I was mobile again and what’s not to like with that.As a year went by and I found it increasingly harder and harder to assemble and dissemble this scooter never mind the loading it into the boot. Then I discovered scooters that had a one touch/pull release lever and so the scooter was changed to this type. This solved the assembling problems but left the boot problem of loading and unloading. This continued to be a problem over the next 3 or 4 years, basically until I was able to order a bigger booted car. As mentioned in other thread above the motor part of the scooter weighs in at about 15 Kg so still a bit of a lump to lift to the boot sills level, more so if you have an SUV, then there’s the part with platform base and the tiller assembly on that weighs almost as much but is bulker and harder to handle but again I emphasised that it maybe not such a problem for a carer and in those virgin scooter years my wife had to help on the days I couldn’t handle it but its still a heavy lump of weigh. At this time I was still in salon type cars so a lower boot level however you tend to have less boot space in these types of cars.
I then had my new MPV car with a hoist fitted and everything became much, much easier and for the next 3 years everything was great with it being a seven seat MPV configured to 5 seats and a big boot.
In the last 6 months of having the MPV and before I was able to renew the car I started to bulk at the prices of such types of cars on Motability and the lack of such cars, that and the fact that Motability increased the cost of the hoist by over 120% so I thought to myself its time to try the auto-folding scooter type. This gave me time in the MPV to see a folding scooter would work in a what I call a small booted car.
This worked well and opened the door for me to have a larger choice of cars to choose from and settled for a VW Tiguan and so in turn spending my AP money on luxuries instead of the mondaine things like getting my scooters into the boot. The boot of this car had a similar size to the MPV in 5 seat mode. Just another point to bear in mind is although these days me and my good lady don’t often carry anyone in the back seats I do like to make sure these seats are available at all times so I rarely put the back seats down as you never know when a family member or grand-kids need a taxi and the scooter for my piece of minds is in the car even when I don’t intend to get out of the car because, again, you never know.
While with those last few months with the MPV I had to decide how I was going to load the folding scooter into the boot of the new car when it arrived. Now remembering that 15 Kg lump in the 5 piece pavement scooter I’d have to think about getting a 25 Kg folding scooter into the boot so in one way a worst scenario and an even more condense weight.
This was solved by buying a Elev8 platform. The cost of this was on par with the inflated cost of the Motability hoist however I can use it anytime in any car so even the kids can take me out for a change if needs be. The platform weighs in at 11 Kg so even I can manage that.
So now the disadvantages I’ve found between the standard pavement scooters and the folding scooter. The only thing I miss on my old 5 piece scooter is the captains chair. This is something to take on board if you have problems mounting a scooter because with a captains chair you can turn it 90 degrees to the driving position then spin around and drive away but with the folding scooter the seat is fixed so you have to be able to stand on one leg while putting the other leg over the scooters platform. This is something that caught me out but thankfully I can mount the scooter without to much of a problem and pressing a button on the scooter and watching it unfold itself makes it worth it in my case. Another thing to lookout for with folding scooters is the seats can be very flimsy with hardly any padding making them uncomfortable for long sittings however mine is OK, not as good as a captains chair but OK padding wise but this was just luck on my part because its something I never thought about until I was using it.
The only other thing that comes to mind as a disadvantage with the elevating platform is it comes with 4 straps to strap your scooter to the platform, health and safety and all that stuff, but this was a very big problem for myself with trying to get the coupling together on the straps so I tuck they up under the platform but this leaves the scooter at the mercy of getting the placing of the scooter right on the platform as there’s no room for error here as you don’t want a 25 Kg lump falling on your foot but with care its not been a problem for me in the hundreds of times I’ve loaded and unloaded this scooter.
Google “my travel scoot” the guy is based in Watford it’s the world’s lightest mobility scooter I ride it from my house to train station onto train onto the tube and into the lift at the duck and waffle 40 floors up and don’t get out my seat until I sit down for brunch I can ride it onto Thames clipper and if we come to some steps or an escalator then I just get off and the wife can carry it or drag it onto the escalator up or down it goes up really steep hills and with the optional extra long range battery does 24 miles you can even get a trailer so you can drag someone behind you it’s awesome it folds up and goes in any boot
Thank you for the replies ?
Where do you keep them when the are not in use?
Are you able to charge a scooter from the charge point in your boot or is the supply insufficient?
Tardelli
Thank you for the replies ? Where do you keep them when the are not in use? Are you able to charge a scooter from the charge point in your boot or is the supply insufficient? Tardelli
We keep the scooter in the conservatory or shed and keep the battery under the stairs. Never charged it from the car, but the Li Tech uses lithium batteries which are very light probably around 3 kilos ish, you can lift the battery box of bring it in the house and charge it anywhere. A standard lead battery pack probably weighs 10 kilos +.
We keep the scooter in the boot. To charge the batteries we bring them indoors
Thanks for the replies people ?
I’m really stupid why didn’t I think of that ?
I used to do all the time when I had my first few cars.
Tardelli
My buddy has quite severe MS and a foldaway scooter has trasnformed his life.
He can now go on holiday and get about so much easier.
Like everything else, you can only give it a try, if its not for you then its a small price to pay, but the benefits would outweigh the disadvantages.
There will be a lot of people on here who has the experience and advice you seek!
my partner uses a Komfi Rider Aerolite Plus got it 2nd hand and fits in a Suzuki Swift
CareCo AirLite X Same scooter but different name on it
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