Connecting Wheelchairs! YAY!

[MommytoMJM]

Well, we went to Epcot Saturday and used our new idea for connecting mine and MJ's wheelchairs together, and it worked!!!!

I have a collapsible companion chair and hers is a stroller type pediatric so when they are hooked together they are not much wider than a double stroller. We got those clamps that are used to hook umbrella strollers together, 3 clamps to a box, the box is 10 bucks. So we clamped those on and then used a clamp around that for extra support and stability. It is removable if needed, but we didn't need to that often. In narrow ride queues we transferred to a rental chair with her in my lap if our chairs were too wide, but we only had to do that a couple times. Overall it worked really well!

Hopefully this might help other families who have two wheelcahirs in a group!

 

[Talking Hands]

I saw another way with an electric wheelchair and a manual wheelchair. They used bungee cords to attach then one behind the other. Seems to work well.

 

[JoannaOhio]

I saw another way with an electric wheelchair and a manual wheelchair. They used bungee cords to attach then one behind the other. Seems to work well.

Could you possibly describe this in more detail? I've been wondering if this might be a possibility. When we come in December, my future son-in-law will be touring the parks in his electric wheelchair, and I'll be using his manual chair instead of renting one from the park. (I am ambulatory but can't do that much walking.) If we could hook the chairs together like that, it would relieve my daughter from having to do so much pushing of my chair - and she would be able to walk beside her sweetie.

 

[Schmeck]

Bungee cords??? That is so unsafe! How are you going to stop the manual chair from crashing into the electric one when it stops? What if the bungee cord comes undone, or snaps?

 

[Talking Hands]

The lady in the manual wheelchair actually had her feet on the back of the electric wheelchair so that would not happen. The bungee cords were very thick ones so I assume they had put some thought into it. They were very close together.
Bungee cords went from the posts for the arm rests on the electric chair to the arms of the manual wheelchair. Perhaps someone could make 2 rods with clamps on either end to attach 2 wheelchairs this way and it would be safer.

 

[JoannaOhio]

My daughter is an engineer - and we have more than eight months to work on this. I'm sure we'll come up with something. Thanks for the more detailed description. It seems to me that I should be able to rest my feet on top of the battery pack on his electric wc, which would brace the manual chair from bumping into it.

 

[Talking Hands]

Not a problem. Sometimes an idea can be improved upon and be safer for all. Ideas like these can start small side businesses when there are special needs. I would love someone to come up with a way to attachment cane and an umbrella to my electric wheelchair easily. Then I would not need to hold them in my hands all the time.

 

[SueM in MN]

I would suggest not using bungee chords. The brother of someone I know lost his eye to one. He was using it to secure things onto his motorcycle and stopped because something had shifted. The hook part came unattached and flew up into his eye. If you have ever been snapped by a rubber band, you can imagine what happened. So, I't not big on bungees.

An alternative to bungee chords would be to use strapping and plastic click buckles. They are similar to the buckles on some backpacks. You can get the strapping material and the buckles at places like Joann Fabric.
An advantage to those (besides not snapping) would be that since they don't stretch, they would keep the wheelchairs in the same relative position.

Some things that might be problems (but maybe not):
- strapping a manual wheelchair to a power wheelchair might cause the battery to run down faster because of the increased weight.
- the motors of the power wheelchair might also overrheat, especially at high load times like going up or down hills/ramps (not sure, but I'm thinking it's possible).
- if anything goes wrong with the power wheelchair, you might invalidate the warranty since I'm sure the manufacturer probably says not to pull anything with it.
- in my DD's wheeelchair dance class, they sometimes have some difficulty getting 2 wheelchairs with different size wheels to roll well together.
- going up or down hills with one manual chair is sometimes hard (almost harder going down because the wheelchair tries to "get away from you"). Two wheelchairs hooked together might be more difficult to control.

 

[MommytoMJM]

Just to clarify....

We aren't using bungee cords. We knew that wouldn't work in our situation. Our chairs are side by side like a double stroller (and not much wider than that) The clamps we use are plastic, they have just a touch to give for turning, but are rigind enough to keep the chairs together. My husband pushes my chair and MJ's just rides along. Since I have a companion chair and she has a pediatric chair our wheels are about the same size.

 

[SueM in MN]

Just to clarify....

We aren't using bungee cords. We knew that wouldn't work in our situation. Our chairs are side by side like a double stroller (and not much wider than that) The clamps we use are plastic, they have just a touch to give for turning, but are rigind enough to keep the chairs together. My husband pushes my chair and MJ's just rides along. Since I have a companion chair and she has a pediatric chair our wheels are about the same size.

Yep.
I saw you were using the connectors made for connecting 2 umbrella strollers together. I think that's a very good use of a product made for a different purpose.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

A few years ago I saw a couple in Epcot. The man was in a power chair. He had a small trailer hitch on it. He had a miniature trailer about one foot on each side. His wife would stand on the trailer and hold onto the handles on the back of the chair.

This was before we moved here. JudySue and I talked to the couple, and she took a ride on the trailer. We discussed the possibility of doing it with an ECV, but decided it would not work since the back folds and there would be no place for handles for her to hold onto. Also we could not figure how to put a small hitch on the ECV.

 

[MommytoMJM]

There is a specific ECV made that has it's own trailer with a chair in it so one persone can drive and one can ride, we saw one at MGM, but it is hugely expensive.

 

[pugdog]

we have seen a couple who had a chair made behind his ECV. we asked him about it and he said his DS is an engineer and designed it all for them. they welded on the hitch and had a chair from a boat that was put on wheels.
For my getting around on the DW powerchair we made a platform that i can stand on while she drives. working on trying to find the right wheels though. the first set were just rubber and were torn apart last trip down because of heat built up. trying to find some rollerblade wheels and axels for round number 2.
now i just need to get a pataint and start selling them.

 

[JoannaOhio]

Lots of good points to consider. Don't want to do anything to jeopardize the electric wheelchair. Guess we'll probably play it safe and maybe ask my 14-year-old granddaughter to help push my chair some of the time. DD says that probably wouldn't work in crowded situations where someone with "driving sense" (like her) needs to look ahead and figure the best way to maneuver the wheelchair through.

 

[Talking Hands]

At one point right after surgery my daughter was in a manual wheelchair and I was in my electric wheelchair. To give DD2 a break DD1 just grabbed to arm of my chair and we rode along together that way. Worked well in EPCOT but I'm not sure it would work in some of the other parks or if it was very crowded.