[Karl]

Are they no Pick ups on the scheme. I do realise they are commercial vehicles but surely they would be much more easier to get a mobility scooter in

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[Jono]

Those will never be allowed on Motability.

[ajn]

Im not enjoying cramming the the stuff in the tiny boot spaces on these small vehicles (tinySUV)..?

Mostly seats down/parcel shelf out almost all the time exposing everything in there…

Having to wiggle into the drivers seat, not much foot room either..

Had to drive a few hours Saturday, my left leg muscles from the waste down is paining due to not being able to move it just a few inches over to the left as I had no room to do so..

Hobbling around now in pain till it eases..?

[BigDave]

Karl wrote:

Are they no Pick ups on the scheme. I do realise they are commercial vehicles but surely they would be much more easier to get a mobility scooter in

I had look into this using one of our farm’s new Isuzu D-Max’s pick-up’s as a base vehicle.

It is a lot more difficult than first thought, particularly if needing a hoist to lift the wheelchair/scooter in/out of the vehicle.

Firstly, don’t forget all pick-ups come from new as a basic flat-bed only.  You have to pay extra (at least £2k) to get a load cover (canopy) to cover the load bed as it is an accessory.

Then, add circa £600 + VAT to get the manufacturer’s power supply accessory feed into the load bed.

Then as the canopies are basically just GRP, there is no structural integrity to bolt the top mounts of a hoist to – it requires quite a bit of engineering.

Then the real difficult part – finding a hoist that would work. Basically, the arm and the balance bar of the hoist not only has to come out of the rear, but it also then needs to clear the open tailgate (so about another circa 2 feet) in order be able to lift the wheelchair/scooter up, without catching on the tailgate.

And none of the usual adaption companies produce such a wheelchair/scooter hoist with this length of reach. If they did, it’s arm would be so long, it would hit the roof when swinging the scooter into the body.

The only other way would be to mount the hoist on a custom-made retractable floor frame, that slides out over the tailgate (add on at least £1k)  however you then have the problem of the hoist still needing a top secure mount in the vehicle’s body!

Even if you could design a workable system, then when loaded, a problem is that there is no side access to the space in front of the scooter via the canopy tail flap and tailgate– so it is a wasted space unless you put stuff in before loading the scooter (and have to take the scooter out before unloading).

So overall, even if Motability permitted pick-ups on the scheme (unlikely), it would be difficult and costly to adapt to carry in powered wheelchair/scooter sercurely with a hoist.

[Karl]

couldn’t a one ton electic winch fitted at the cab end on the bed  pull it up a ramp they are £89.99 on ebay and a scooter is only  120-150 kg

[Rico]

Ideal car would be a pick up crew cab model tbh I always thought that would be perfect with all equipment and still room for shopping

[Karl]

My thoughts exactly Rico. Enough room for scooter eould help so much. I would be able to go shopping with the wife instead of just sitting in car waiting

[Author]

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