Thank you both for the replies, it's much appreciated.
I would never have even thought about the problem of rear wheels and the front castors being different distances apart, I never even knew that, but it makes sense if I think about it. The castors on my manual chair are also set at a narrower width than the rear wheels. Also I never even thought about the potential of one or both the castors twisting and dropping off the ramp due the wide arc castor forks naturally scribe. If you were sat in the chair one false move on the joystick and you'd be munching tarmac!
Lol
BUT I am still going to buy a pair of the ramps for my scooter. The pair are £100 incl del and I plan to experiment with them using a two stage height B&D Workmate as a substitute vehicle as I've not got a vehicle at the moment. I plan to drive the scooter up with me standing next to it. I'll work out someway to bolt/clamp the ramps to the workmate worktop. Even if I don't use them in anger they might come useful in an emergency and are handy to have. Worst come to the worst I could always flog them on eBay for 50 quid. The pins and spreader bar are good suggestion
Yes the ideal solution would be a WAV and is actually what I would like to get. Plus I am planning on setting myself up with a decent powerchair by hook or crook.
A guy from Cordwallis who use TBC conversions bought a demo VW Caddy Maxi Life out to show me. I particularly the like the front seats in VWs as I find them the most comfortable and supportive to my legs which is particularly important to me.
I could go down the Motability route and the Maxi WAV + push/pull would cost me £3750 upfront plus the approx £58/mth rental. The upside is that Motability is pretty hassle free, but downside is that over the long term it works out quite expensive plus there is a 6 mth wait on a new Maxi WAV so the summer will almost be over by the time I get it.
A used WAV is a more attractive option especially from the point of view of no waiting for it to be built and converted. There are even new ready made WAVs available to buy and although quite expensive it is a new vehicle and I could claim the 20 % VAT back.
I'm not sure if you can claim the VAT back on used WAVs?Whether I bought new or used WAV I'd probably still have to pay for a push/pull lever to be installed and I've been quoted about a grand which sounds steep to me, but then what do I know?
This is from an enquiry before I decided a WAV is a batter option than say a golf estate and hoist (small scooter).
"Hi Richard
A Golf will require an interface for the indicators as the wiring is what they call "CANBUS" so the the Golf will cost £1057.00" I think the Caddy Maxi is derived from the Golf?
As far as used WAVs go the only place can think of looking is eBay? Have you any other suggestions John? (BM), is Autotrader still going and worth a look at. When I used to buy secondhand cars in the past as well as Autotrader I used to buy the yellow Freeads newspaper but everything has changed with advent of the internet.