The Official Powerchair Thread

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I didn't realize the power supply for these chairs!
My mom uses one of those small motorized carts.
I know someone who is wheelchair bound due to an accident but he has enough use of his hands that he can drive his van.
He is in a motorized chair, but I'm not sure if it's a powerchair... I'll have to look next time I'm in town and see him.

With the push to develop more efficient battaries for automobiles, I hope it will help out with the chairs also.
I'm not sure how fast/slow the chair industry is in adopting new technology.
I think it's GREAT that these can be customized and added on to.... personal expression! A wonderful thing!

That's funny about the robot arms on the chairs , but you wouldn't play any tricks like that on kids now... would you?

From my limited knowledge of these things, it seems like there is room for improvement where the body is supported by the chair.
I'm talking about pressure points, nerve damage, restricted blood flow, etc.
I know there are newer materials out now that beat the old ones, but I'm under the impression that sitting in a chair for the amount of time you do, has the potential to cause significant skin damage.

the power supply is huge on a real powerchair... check on your guy who is wheelchair user (i prefer not to say bound... people are not literally tied up in their wheelchair... they decided to use a wheelchair in the rehab institution to be able to move on with life and then theres a small bunch who did not and wound up living in the rehab for the rest of their life in a bed...) if his is a TDX or Invacare powerchair of any kind ask him what Group number is batteries are... there is NF22 Group24 and then Group28 if he is bariatric.

as automobiles improve the powerchair companies will likely first wait a year or two for kink removal and then begin adapting those batteries for powerchairs to create faster, more efficient, higher range powerchairs... especially great for us people who cant drive a car... not to mention faster powerchairs might get walkies in them and not in cars... cars pollute, powerchairs dont. the perfect zero emissions vehicle also you have less cars on the roads.

the personalization/upgrades that can be done to a powerchair is extremely immense. it can be as suddle as a dealer who pays attention to his autistic customers and lets them pick the materials for their headrest and seating system (i picked darlexx mind you soft silky hehe and also darlexx is nice because it holds heat and im always cold... warm batteries will be under me hehe)

well... id have to play the robot arm trick on halloween... cant help it!

now with custom seating systems like


Contour U

which is made custom for each user after a casting of their body is taken (see my website http://www.alinssite.info for more info on castings) and uses a special CAD/CAM approach to create a perfect seating system with zero pressure points. also with tilt systems the risk for pressure sores is greatly reduced. someone with such low weight like me and tilt system and custom seating theoretically has a 0% risk for pressure sores... my dealer told me "you could literally live in your powerchair for all i care... your pressure sore risk index is theoretically 0%" bariatric patients continue to be told to get out for as long as they can due to the pressure managment systems not being designed for a bariatric patient... i am so glad i am not bariatric!

Strapples, did I hear you call for a rocket ship? Like, with two HUGHE rocket engines at the rear, heatshielding for reentry like the Space Shuttle. And with a cheeky red paint job? If you've got a suitable head-gear replacement for handling the computer's keyboard, mouse and a joystick, have a look at this pretty awesome FREEWARE space flight simulator and have a go with the so-called Delta-Glider spacecraft!

As for that TDX-SP chair, I admit it does a great deal to try and look more like a piece of sports equipment, but have a look at the Sinclair C5: Although it was a miserable commercial failure for various technical reasons, it has a look that says "I'm just a personal transport gadget", not necessarily a hadicapped-person transport gadget. How about a power chair that somehow has the same kind of "fierce-ness" to it as a hefty sports car...?

Invacares goal is to get to that sports car look but the problem with it is it cannot accommodate Contour U and or other specialized seating & positioning and or any alternative control systems (head array). but id have to say, to me, the TDX-SP is damn close... not to mention, mix in black stealth head array + Contour U and you could pass off for a fighter jet driver or something he he..


stealth head array.

Stealth you say... does that mean it won't show on a radar?

Speaking of stealth and fighter jets, perhaps a tad of army green and camouflage patterns may be applied for "covering up" any "handicapped signals" with a touch of not-to-be-f*cked-with military gear. No more bullying handicapped folks, because "he just might have a Gatling gun or a flame thrower in there somewhere"...

hehehe... thats a joke i thought of with Stealth headrests a long time ago...

one of my trademark quotes will be when im angry is...

"DAMN IT YOUR NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE ME... THIS IS A STEALTH HEADREST HERE... ARGH!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN I DIDNT ACTIVATE IT CORRECTLY... DAMN IT... WHERED THE SWITCH GO!! !"

one thing id like to put on my powerchair is a big lazah to vaporize people when i get mega pissed... hehehe...

Hmmm -- lasers; they look pretty fancy in the movies, but I've worked in a research lab that had plenty of lasers around: Around a 1'x1'x4' specimen I once saw places where the beam from it had accidently struck the walls and other surfaces. It makes no more damage than dropping an ember from the tip of a cigarette on said surfaces, and it eats power like there was no tomorrow to do that. Again, a practical superconductor may help this.

If you want to equip your chair with a laser capable of instantly evaporating 180 pounds of pesky neurotypical, be prepared to have a large truck following you whereever you go -- to carry the power supply and elaborate cooling systems needed.

Now why does this remind me of the movie Dr. Strangelove...?

ok... so then maybe a gatling gun would be easier?

and i have no idea why it reminds you of Dr. Strangelove... i have never seen it! but if it has anything to do with powerchairs and Stealth headrests then i MUST see it!

Yes, the gatling may be a little easier to carry around. Just remember to pull the parking brake before firing that thing; the recoil of it kicks worse than a horse!

As for the Dr. Strangelove movie thing: The title figure in it is a mad-head german nuclear scientist (played by Peter Sellers) who's bound to a traditional (non-powered) wheelchair. Towards the end of the movie, he gets so excited over the prospect of saving a racially selected few of the US population from World War III (which is impending at that point in the story), that he all of a sudden staggers out of the chair, exclaiming the famous last words in that movie: "MEIN FÜHRER, I CAN WALK!!"

hehehe... ill make sure to just turn off my powerchair before firing the gatling gun... powerchairs have automatic parking brakes that use a magneto disk lock brake... once that magnet locks on you cant move that thing even if you are a 500 pound wrestler... Invacare literally proved it with a 500 pound super heavyweight.

heh... ok so it has nothing to do with stealth or powerchairs hehe..

Woah, powerchairs look so cool! If I had one I'd never want to get out if it.

for someone like me with spinal issues the specialized seating and positioning systems will likely be so heavenly to me i wont get out... when they had me in the casting system to take a mold of my back i was so comfortable. and that wasent even MY powerchair. aside from being helped in bathroom tasks i will very likely live in mine 23 hours a day 365 days a year

So Strapples, if I understand correctly this will be your first Powerchair?

If you don't mind, how different will your life be after you get this from before?
I'm interested in knowing the actual physical changes you expect from this as well as the emotional ones... if you don't mind posting that.
If it's too personal, I'll understand.

What other accommodations will you have to make for that monster of a chair?
It looks large and heavy!

Oh, and I will go check out your website soon.

yes... but will it be the first time ive been in one, hell no... ive "hijacked" friends powerchairs (including my dealers demo powerchair when they got me in for a "test drive" but i hijacked it)

physically life wont be much diffeent, just on wheels and with perfect positioning... i have never felt perfect positioning in my life... i have always had extremely severe posture control issues... emotional changes, hehe those are already done... pre-changed he he he...

the only accommodation we need to make is make a heavy duty ramp which dad is outside building as we speak... also get a good van lift installed... to be done in the next few weeks...

fact: the powerchair i am getting is not extremely large, but very heavy... 400 pounds is how much the powerchair its self weighs... i only weigh 90 pounds he he... my god my powerchair weighs 4.1 times my weight...

For some reason when you mentioned the weight difference between you and the chair, it reminded me of those KungFoo experts I used to see who would lie on the ground and have a jeep drive over their abdominal area.

This demo was to illustrate the power of Ki or Chi, and brute strength I suppose.

I wouldn't suggest that you try this... 400 lbs! Sounds like quite a lot of pressure!
I can remember having a large kid sitting on my back in school once... we were fighting and he got me on the ground face-down and just pummeled my face.
I gave in rather than look like a pug the rest of my life!

Just having his body weight on my was agony enough!
I can't imagine 400 lbs!

Maybe you can convince a friend to lie there while you drive over him... it would make a great YouTube video I'm sure... knowing that crowd as little as I do

Nice to hear you're getting a ramp built up for this thing.
I saw the one in the video and it looked like a massive metal ramp that would hold an elephant!

hehehe... maybe ill get one of my autistic friends to lay on the floor for me... would you like some DEEP PRESSURE? hehehe... ive dreamed of having a female sumo wrestler lay on top of me he he... ive always been one to love deep pressure...

yes... thats the kind of ramp dad is building for the house hehehe...

and i was thinking, if you ever need a powerchair ill make sure to make things scented with escential oils for ya he he