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off road wheel chair

joe lane

Active Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
64
hi all, wanted to share this with you, more garage mania i know its nothing to do with 4x4 but it is an overland build so it might qualify lol

my sister lost the use off her legs about 2 years ago and living in a rural part of Ireland could not get out any further than her garden gate
so i went about building her an off road wheel chair. now i had this built before top gear showed there's so could not believe they had a dedicated slot
and i looked high and low for bits and pieces and general ideas]

so after some googling and looking around the self build robot sites the easiest way was to use an old wheel chair as everything you need ie: controllers, motors and brains is all in one buy just got to find one worthy
well i managed to get hold of a heavy duty one from a cracking young lady in wales worked perfectly just needed a new set of batteries, all i needed was there

just need to build a frame and get hold of some running gear and sought out the drive
in the end i used ride on lawn mower wheels and tyres these were 22.5 inches high and about 10" wide, low ground pressure , perfect,
well nearly and the set i got a hold of had the bearings in all ready, a lot of these ride ons have a fixed to axle affair so they are shaped to maintain drive square peg into a square hole sought of thing.

as the rims are quiet deep i had to some how get direct drive, this was achieved with the famous gas red band pipe a motor bike sprocket and a fancy bit of turning and welding.
the stub axles i turned in the lathe using some 30mm round bar, first turn for the bearing mount, 2nd turn for the 12mm threaded end, then a 1mm slot for a snap ring to hold the rim in place on the axle.

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now drive, ( i have a cunning plan ) as boldrick would say

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chris you will like this is, myford ml4, i think it is any way

this is welded in to the rim to space out the sprocket , a large round plate turned, drilled, and welded for sprocket mounts
i am not an engineer of any soughts just a few lessons at school so you can imagine the setting up to get every thing together.

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welding here was tight, especially the prep, a wire wheel in the drill was good enough,

now the gearing, i looked at the formula, and looked again and looked again still nothing, so took a guess, the motors i had were four speed 4 pole high torque, would carry some one weighing upto 150kgs so pretty powerfull, right a large crank on the wheel end and the smallest sprocket on the drive got to be a winner,

now the world of motor bike chains and drive sprockets, yes there are differant sizes which one, i went for the size a 125cc uses as the smaller size was for the likes of these scooter things that made an appearance for a while
2 sets were ordered and a couple of chains

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right gentlemen im going to pause here for a mo, i seemed to have lost some pics here, will see you soon

later joe
 
Well, when I saw the title I was sure this was going to be a joke, how wrong can you be? well done matey. :thumbup: :dance: :thumbup:
 
This is extremely cool! When you have finished, do you fancy making one for my dad? The seat will need to turn 90 deg as he likes to go fishing, but cant on one leg :(
The Etesia range of mowers have hydraulic motors on each wheel, but maybe very expensive to use them.
Well done you
Steve
 
I'm enjoying this already! Bravo Joe, can't wait for the next installment :icon-biggrin:
 
I always thought these machines were fantastic as a kid, always wanted to have a play and when I grew up I got to drive them on a few occasions, great fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlK9ISg3Kt8

http://www.bellequipment.com/resource/0/9468C7BEA6EA39FB802579F4002ED564/$file/220Eloaderdrawing.jpg

but thinking of a all terrain wheel chair I always thought this wheel arrangement would be best because you could still have easy access from the front with engines and battery behind and below the chair, that full 360 degree free castor rear wheel means you can use the drive wheels to steer or turn on the spot in it's own length, one drive wheel forward and the other back.

Looking forward to seeing your completed project, must admit you have caught my attention with this project of yours, good luck and please keep us updated.
 
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hi all,

thank you Cossack for your comment :icon-biggrin:

hi froggy steve, i have to confess i built this last year, just never found the time to post, i love this sought of thing, some thing to tax my pretty head i have the tools and a fine garage, and as my sister took bad i felt a bit guilty as we were always out kyaking, snorkelling so it was the perfect excuse to build it and give her some semblance of freedom.
i did think once about building them, its different for family for some one else is another matter altogether, i would worry to much to be honest.

hi clive, are you ready

here goes

right the two axles are finished and i have the perfect sleeve, you guessed it red band gas pipe,
now so i can start building the frame i need the two rear wheels i Havant got a clue as to what there called, i call them trolley wheels
i bought some bog standard wheels and tyres from ebay, these were for cheap sack barrows, 180mm tall 80mm wide, bearings fitted and tubes as they were like go cart split rims
i pulled out the donor wheel chair and cut off the rear swivel bearings, used these, but cut the wheel carrier off as these were to small, now i set about making the wheel carrier to the size i wanted and take into account the way these things work they sought of follow you, i had this 150mm x 80mm x 4mm stainless steel angle lying around, i cut up 2 pieces about 100mm wide, cant beat a plasma cutter, drilled the holes for the wheel axles, drilled one hole in the top for the swivel mount weld

now i had a basic height to work to, the frame was built out of 50mm square box and it was cranked so the chair would sit back a certain degree and keep the weight just off the front, the rear swivel wheel had to turn 360 degrees this was a pain and i had to set it up a couple off times before i got it right

now i know you want pics but you are going to have to bear with me, i have some missing and i cant find them anywhere.
i had to strip the motors to fit the small sprockets on and tap out the ends
View attachment 10552

View attachment 10553 this is the smallest i could fit

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then mount them on the frame, now i had a chance to test out the drive

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it was 4ft wide, the mounts were made from the same stainless steel as the rear and very strong, at this point chris i could have done with a milling machine, i had to cut slots in the mounts so i could adjust the chain drive

now the drive soughted and the lower frame finished i set about the seat and controls, easy, i had a water proof seat from an old electric shopping buggy, fitted that with a swivel seat and bolted the controls on to the side, bought some gel batteries, used the old wiring harness and i got my grandson to test it out

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the step is a length of 25mm x 3mm flat bar bent then a peice of stainless steel shaped and fitted, it takes my weight, the batteries were a tight fit, i fitted a small rubber mat under them to keep them off the cold steel and to protect them, then strapped them down using the original straps

this is the finished product

014.jpg you would not believe my luck, the fibreglass body work from the electric shopping trolly cut in half fitted almost perfectly, the arches for the chain drive fitted perfectly

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i have some more pics finished but i think they are to large, will post soon

catch you soon
 

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Super cool!
I don't quite know what to say for the moment!
I'm going to read the post again first!
 
Yep, thats outstanding Joe :cool: Does sis make full use of it?

About Julians post, WTF are those things Jules? They look a hoot!!! My uncles are farmers; I may have to suggest some changes to their agricultural techniques :-D Where were those & what were they harvesting?

No apologies about the shameless threadjack Joe :-D

Sent from my SM-T310 using Tapatalk
 
That looks like a monster wheel chair to me. Awesome build. Thats a new invention done. :clap:
 
:thumbup: Can't wait to see a video of that masterpiece in action.
 
hi all, been busy, heres the vids

grandson tested
and superhero tested

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http://th_IMG_0356.jpg

hi gav, sister used it all the time husband didnt like it, always panicking about her out on her own, the chair ended up in egypt, 2 lads had it off me it for there brother, a wall fell on him and lost the use of his legs.

trouble is the grand kids want some thing to play with now, i was looking at some thing with tracks, its just finding them used, we will see.

catch you all later
 
Shame on hubby there :eek:

Bloomin awesome machine - I'd take that over Happy Valley any day!!!

Good to know it found a good home though :cool:

Thanks for sharing :thumbup:

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That's an amazing job you did there Joe :thumbup:, but a bit unfair of the husband especially after all the work you put into it.
 
Yep, thats outstanding Joe :cool: Does sis make full use of it?

About Julians post, WTF are those things Jules? They look a hoot!!! My uncles are farmers; I may have to suggest some changes to their agricultural techniques :-D Where were those & what were they harvesting?

No apologies about the shameless threadjack Joe :-D

Sent from my SM-T310 using Tapatalk

Those are Bell Bar Loaders, they are a blast to play .... um work with, those are loading sugar cane but also very useful for logging.

http://www.bellequipment.com/en/home
 
Sweet, thanks Jules :cool:

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no prob, I see in the new south africa it is now called a 125A or tri wheeler, its a very simple machine that almost unbreakable, the ones I used had 3 cyl air cooled diesel engines running 3 hydraulic pumps at set RPM, two pumps were dedicated to a wheel each and the hub of each wheel was a hydraulic motor, 3rd pump ran hydraulic pressure to boom/grab or forks (FLT version).
So machine has no brakes, gears, clutch also no suspension and only electrics are for starter and recharging starter battery, no worries about cooling.
And if you get one stuck you are incompetent ect.
 
Wheelchair, awesome!

Still can't quite believe it, but a gem in any case! :lol:
 
Great build Joe, but checkout this puppy!



I'm not disabled and I want one!
 
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