Powerchair range FWD vs MWD vs RWD

[sacharlie]

Everything else being equal which drive system allows the most range?

[Burgerman]

Depends on type of use, but mid for indoor or anywhere theres lots of turning.
And rear for long distances outdoors on flatter ground and because larger front casters are used in place of the 4 small ones that are sprung "into" the ground on mid drive.
Front drive wastes power indoors, and at speed with constant corrections being applied to go straight.

[sacharlie]

Any control issues turning the seat around on a hoveround and switching the left/right & pos/neg motor control leads?

[Burgerman]

Other than the programming, no.

[jefferso]

Front drive wastes power indoors, and at speed with constant corrections being applied to go straight.

So front wheel drive will have a greater range at a relaxed pace? I'm sure it would depend on a lot of factors, such as control programming, but on a relatively flat surface, would you hazard a guess as to how much more range a front drive chair might have at 3mph vs 6mph? 50% more?

[Burgerman]

Too many variables to hazard a guess. Maybe 10% for an average user. But it will vary a LOT depending on usage, user, weight, terrain etc. On a lateral slope like the edge of a road, for eg it might use 3x more Amps at the same 3 mph as a mid drive chair.

FWD uses a lot of power indoors as theres a lot of weight to swing around sat over the casters as you manoever about around furniture or doorways etc. So very wasteful in a indoor situation.

At slow speeds in a straight line they are as good as any chair. As speed increases the gyro if fitted wastes motor power (or you do it manually without thinking as you correct it). So the faster you go the more power you waste. And because of peukert, the battery doesn't just use more power, it actually shrinks. Because you are discharging it faster. So that cost even more range than you would expect.

So all else equal, a front drive gains range from a relaxed pace for 2 separate but related reasons.