Mobility scooter -Problems because can't lift one into the car?

OnAndUp

Hiya

I have been "lurking" on here so have decided to join to see if anyone can help me with the predicament I'm in.

Basically I have difficulty walking/standing and wanted to hire or buy a mobility scooter as I am going away for a week in the UK next month.

The issue that I have is the weight of them even the "lightweight" boot scooter type. Last year I hired one from shopmobility for a week when I was away it was a Kymco Micro 4 but struggled with getting it in the car. The problem is it will be me and my elderly mum and even when we have managed to split the scooter down neither of us are strong enough to lift the heaviest part of the scooter (usually the back wheels part) off the ground and into the car - we even found the battery very heavy to lift too.

I have been looking at ramps so that we could maybe drive it in to the back of the car but they are very expensive at least £100 and some of the better lighter transportable ones are £300-400. Also even if we could get a cheap decent ramp I'm not sure how we could fit the whole un-split scooter into the boot of the car we have which is a 2004 Ford focus as it has quite a high "lip" on the boot.

This week I have seen a second hand Rascal Taxi 3 scooter in a local mobility shop for £199 with a 3 month guarantee, I would be happy to buy this in order to have my own scooter but unless we can figure a way around getting it in the car there doesn't seem much point? It's SO frustrating!

I have also looked into hiring a car for a week but they are very expensive a renault kangoo seems to be £450 and even an estate car eg a mondeo are £250 and I would still need some sort of ramp to actually get it in the back of the car although there would be more room than in the focus.

Does anyone have any clever preferably moneysaving ideas on how to get around this? Cheap ramps? or something that would helps us lift the heavy back wheel part of the scooter into the car boot?

Many Thanks for reading this long story! I'm hoping that someone else may have had similar problems and figured a way around it that we haven't though of?

Owain_Moneysaver

Could you buy/hire a small trailer and carry the scooter on that?

Or sell your car and buy a more scooter friendly one (old taxi perhaps???)

Emmylou_2

I occasionally hire a powerchair from my local shopmobility for weekend trips etc.

We went to our local Ikea's bargain corner and bought two cupboard doors for less than a tenner. It's a pretty steep ramp but it does us for now.

My boyfriend is THEORETICALLY going to hinge them and extend them a little bit with a bit that hooks onto the boot lip (we have an estate car). However, he's been saying this since October and I'm still waiting...

Piffyonarockbun

My Dad had a winch fitted at our local hospital so he can get Mums scooter in and out of his
vehicle. (Vauxhall Meriva). Dont know what the department is calledm but they repair wheelchairs etc for peeps. Maybe there is one at you local hospital!

Oscar_The_Grouch

The hoist is a great idea if you are going to use your own car, but as you say you are looking to hire a car too, I guess that's not an option.

Rather than looking to hire a car, see if you can find a good price for a small van. The boot lip should be lower and you shouldn't need to dismantle the scooter to get it in!!

You should also be able to hire a ramp from any good tool hire shop - HERE is an example of a skip ramp that would do the job for £16.50 a week (just the first thing I came up with on search, so there should be something better/cheaper).

sunnyone

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

The hoist is a great idea if you are going to use your own car, but as you say you are looking to hire a car too, I guess that's not an option.

Rather than looking to hire a car, see if you can find a good price for a small van. The boot lip should be lower and you shouldn't need to dismantle the scooter to get it in!!

You should also be able to hire a ramp from any good tool hire shop - HERE is an example of a skip ramp that would do the job for £16.50 a week (just the first thing I came up with on search, so there should be something better/cheaper).

Ramps from machine shops/industrial useage are superiour to ramps for disability IMOHO and they can be much cheaper even with the vat, mine are from machine mart and they are perfect for both my powerchair and manual wheelchair, they are ally suitcase ramps which arnt heavy and easy to use.

I use a boot liner thats cut longer at the rear and folds out to protect the bumper for car use.

I also use a smaller ramp from the same range screwed down to access the rear of my house and years later its still in a very good state.

Indie_Kid

Piffyonarockbun wrote: »

My Dad had a winch fitted at our local hospital so he can get Mums scooter in and out of his
vehicle. (Vauxhall Meriva). Dont know what the department is calledm but they repair wheelchairs etc for peeps. Maybe there is one at you local hospital!

Wheelchair services?

sunnyone

sh1305 wrote: »

Wheelchair services?

They dont pay for or repair hoists of any desription, I am a fully funded NHS wheelchair services user (both power and manual) and they dont supply or have any other services for scooters because the NHS dont supply them.

Scooter arent suitable for fulltime wheelchair users and the NHS have nothing to do with them.

Scooters are alternative transport for the able bodied as well as disabled people and until that changes the general public will see the good, the bad and the lazy and thats a diservice to the disabled people that use them, my grandad had a little one that fit in my car boot and it did so much for him but we would never have allowed him out on it on his own due to him being a bit vauge because of his age.

edited to add that the NHS dosnt supply hoists or any other aids for manual/power wheelchairs to travel by car either.

OnAndUp

Thanks very much everyone for your ideas.

Although I'm afraid I haven't worked out a solution yet!

Unfortunately although the trailer is a good idea, my mum is the driver and she's not confident enough to tow a trailer also it would make it difficult to park as where we are going it's mainly small villages narrow roads, very small car parks.

The car is also hers so changing it wouldn't be straightforward although it does seem like in the long run if she was willing to it would be the best option to have maybe a small MPV which would be more scooter friendly?

sunnyone wrote: »

Scooters are alternative transport for the able bodied as well as disabled people and until that changes the general public will see the good, the bad and the lazy and thats a diservice to the disabled people that use them

I'm actually a VERY reluctant scooter user I'm only 34 and never thought I would become so disabled so young. They make think of that woman on "Benidorm" :eek: OMG cringe! But my mobility has become so bad it's a scooter or be stuck in!

I'm going to have a look at the ramps on machinemart now I hadn't thought of looking at tool shops for them. I will enquire tomorrow how much it costs to have a winch fitted although I'm guessing it will be expensive and probably not worth it on the focus as the scooter might still struggle to fit in the boot?

I'm a bit mixed up now as I was just trying to sort something out for the holiday and hoping there would be a quick/cheap fix way to get the scooter in the focus, but am unsure now whether to do something temporary or look at something more long term. I should have started looking into it sooner as we are going away 4 wks tomorrow and I don't have lot of time left.

ElectricSoup

Any chance you can hire something local to where you are staying? Doesn't solve any longer term problems with use of a scooter & needing to move it but may sort you out for your holiday.

Oscar_The_Grouch

OnAndUp wrote: »

I'm actually a VERY reluctant scooter user I'm only 34 and never thought I would become so disabled so young.

I'm 39, so know where you are coming from on that one!

OnAndUp wrote: »

We are going away 4 wks tomorrow and I don't have lot of time left.

Hope you enjoy your holiday!! Come back and let us know what you did, what worked and (probably more importantly) what didn't!