WheelchairDriver

My Name in Darrin Bosley,
I'm 45 years old, I was hurt my neck back in 2009, I just messed up two disc between C-5 & C-6 and C-6 and C-7, I was just in pain before the surgery which I had in Aug. 2009
I knew something was wrong the min. I woke up. I could still move my legs and feel them. but, I knew something was wrong. Long story short during the operation they said they may have got a little close to my cord. Now I caught between to wolds the walking and the riding. I can still get out of the chair and get in the bed and shower, and even on some days I can walk about 10 feet or so. I know how blessed I am to be able to that. My problem is pain, something to do with my cord tells my brain that I am hurting to the point it feels as if I have broken a bone. That is how bad it hurts. Pain meds. don't work good enough to get rid of the pain unless they just keep me knocked out all the time. That's why I'm in the chair. I am also blessed to have a very loving wife and a adopted three year old son. I said earlier that I was between two worlds. That's because the people that where my friends don't know how to talk to me because I can't get up and walk off from the chair. On the other hand the people I have met so far around here that are in chairs don't expt me because I can still stand up. enough of that.

I found the site because I was researching chairs to see what everyone else was doing about the terrible chairs that the sales men keep pushing at me telling me that they would go anywhere I wanted to go. The insurance company bought me a Invace TDX SP, That want go over a threshold. I like to hunt and fish and unless I wanted to spend $24,000 for a tank chair. that was not going to happen. We had to come up with a chair that would go in the woods, up and down hills ect. The other problem was the none of the chair have any suspension and the causes me a lot of pain every time I hit any type of bump. Well we just finshed the chair and if I can find a place to post a photo os the chair I would like to share it with you just to something else that is possible. keep in mind this chair was never built to go inside.

Dying to see. But, I have to ask. How can you get any performance or range if it is using heavy and frankly hopeless lead batteries? This is always the downfall of any off road type chairs. INCLUDING the tank chair. It suffers from lack of amps (controller) and lack of stamina (batteries) like all the rest.

Feel free to post pics here with details, or email them to me. burgerman@ntlworld.com

Emailed!

Looking at these, I can see you are going to struggle with battery power and motor torque - so have geared it low (slow) to help. So great for outdoors!

You should take a look at my lithium battery pack and Roboteq controller, and some bigger 4 pole motors if you want to rip up that farmyard! But obviously that will cost a fortune...

Very interesting concept, how does it work in the woods or beaches? Are those motors the ranger Invacare motors? I kind of like the suspension concept but I'm thinking it would work better if it was reversed in direction of travel.

I understand what Burgerman is saying but sometimes we have to work with what we have. $$$$$ are at a premium. Nice fabricating work as well.

Sully,
for off road use what ever you build should have most of the weight over the drive wheels.
as BM's website promotes, big tires and rear wheel drive is the best.
front wheel can be good for those with good balance - it is going to tip forward if you set it up with most of the weight over the drive wheel

and with big wheels/tires off road you will need a lot of battery power to go very far.

I would guess that dbosly1 will tell you that he needs more battery power and the smaller wheels in the back carry too much weight for off road use.

Yes agreed rollingcowboy I try not to be too critical of someones efforts since it is already built. So it is better to ask what he thinks of his results. I like his fabrication work, from what I can see of it.

I have an old Jazzy 1170 HD, I know everyone here is all about 4 pole motors and with good cause. What I want is a beach machine and secondarily a light service, off road woods machine. It won't get tons of mileage, I simply want to get my carcass to spots. I do Bow hunt and also rifle, I have put aside thinking of any real stalking as I did in the "day". It will be mostly sitting and waiting, once I have staked out where I think my opportunities lay. The main purpose is to get myself out of the house and the beach or woods are the best place for me.

I had pretty much given up trying to either fish or hunt and gave some of my stuff away a Mod.70- 30.06 and a T.C. Muzzle loader to one of my sons who follows the old mans hobbies. Better they are used than gather dust. But I still have a Sav. Mod.99 in 250/3000 cal. and a fine compound bow. The sort of fantastic thing is they are all antiques, and in good order, well not the compound bow. My shot gun is an Ansley Fox in 12 Ga. probably 100+ years old and the Model 99 is at least 90 years old.

I didnt understand most of that!

Translation: You dont want anything fancy, but just need to go into the woods to shoot something?

You sound just like my dad used to!

Then God bless your Dad!!!! Yes, I have no real issues with my current chairs under most of the uses I put them to. I just want to go into the woods and not nessarily shoot something, but just find the wild life and enjoy it. Here where I live I can take up to 6 deer every year. That is a considerable amount of venison, a low fat source of protein. I am also permitted 2 Turkeys as well.

That doesn't mean I "HAVE" to take them. I have often seen that many deer within 15 feet of my home. And they walked away after eating some of my wifes roses. (She was not as enthusiastic) The whole point is to most folks rather pointless, I just love to commune with nature, and some selective solitude.

At 72 I am not influenced by the "have to" any longer>

Yes I get it. But it was always easy to find my dad. There would be stuff running out of the wood, the sound of a busy war, and clouds of blue smoke over the area. His way of relaxing I think! It didnt do much for the rest of the woods animals though. They were far from relaxed!

That's funny!!!!