Hello from South East England

[foghornleghorn]

I suffer from an inherited disease causing muscle wasting so have been a wheelchair user since the end of 1991 (age 17).

1991 - Basic manual wheelchair issued in hospital and kept on release home.
1992 - Nicer manual self purchased one weighing less and with solid tyres which found easier to propel.
2001 - Moved house to somewhere with a large sloping garden so needed an outdoor wheelchair. After testing several I settled on a Pride Mobility Quantum Jazzy 1400 as it coped best with the terrain.
2001 - Referred to NHS Wheelchair Services to be issued with an electric wheelchair for indoor use. Given an Invacare Apollo. Basically a normal fold up frame with electric added.
2016 - Invacare Apollo dying from poor maintenance by NHS contracted servicing people. Had to get Social Services to refer me to NHS Wheelchair Services as if a brand new person to be able to be issued with a new electric wheelchair. Joined queue...
2016 - Invacare Apollo died. Managed to source another one from eBay to keep me going while Wheelchair Services wasted as much time as they possibly could.
2017 - NHS Wheelchair Services issued me with an Invacare Pronto M41 Modulite. Totally unsuitable. Woman had been obsessed with my posture rather than freedom of movement so it restricted everything I could do to the point where I would have ended up in a nursing home after a few months use. Rejected after 3 weeks of extensively modifying it to try and make it ok. Returned to second Invacare Apollo. Rejoined queue...
2017 - Issued with an Invacare Fox. Turned up with all specifications I had ordered having been ignored. Sent back.
2017 - Invacare Fox attempt 2. Turned up still half of specifications I had ordered having been ignored despite promises it was now correct. Sent back.
2017 - Invacare Fox attempt 3. Turned up close enough to being correct to actually keep. Out comes the welder and saw...

2018 Currently using
- Indoors: Invacare Fox. Lower than standard back as it got in the way. Fabricated removeable arm rests similar to what was on the Invacare Apollo. Fabricated folding centre footplate instead of stupid hanging footrests.
- Outdoors: Pride Mobility Quantum Jazzy 1400. Captains seat with headrest. Folding front footplate. Solid tyres as I can't risk a puncture when out. Pilot Plus controller. High torque 4.5mph motors. 88Ah Haze GEL batteries. Actual real world range 19.5 miles.

Come to this forum mainly interested in more range for my outdoor wheelchair as unless I set off at the right time for a bus by the time I have done 3 miles to the nearest railway station and saved another 3 for getting home at the end of the day I haven't really got much more than 10 miles to use while I am visiting anywhere. More speed would be nice too but I think that would involve cannibalising another wheelchair for all of it's electrical components as I think my current controller is only 70A.

[Burgerman]

You need to take a long look at the various lithium threads here. Your batteries are giving you around 40 to 50Ah max before you grind to a stop. Lead suffers from a capacity reduction affect as you take out power faster than the official 20 hour rated figure.

You can easily get 90 minimum to around 200Ah max in the same space as a set of group 24 batteries with lithium. Therefore your range can be doubled or much more! Since with lithium you get all the Ah it says on the tin.

Many here have 2x to 5x the range.

Snaker here has the record so far, with over 100 miles and he actually ran out of country before turning back.

[martin007]

Welcome foghornleghorn

[LROBBINS]

I'm curious about something. The port city in Italy that you Brits call "Leghorn" is actually named "Livorno". How did this transmutation come about?

[Burgerman]

I could be wrong. But what came to my mind was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foghorn_Leghorn

You may be reading more into this than the poster!

And maybe its me...

[LROBBINS]

Yes, I know who Foghorn Leghorn is, but Leghorn (city) and Leghorn (chicken variety) both refer to Livorno and I can't for the life of me understand why Englishmen can't say Livorno.

[foghornleghorn]

All I can find while searching for an answer is that 500 years ago it was written Legorno on maps.

[LROBBINS]

Thanks. That was enough of a clue to find out a bit more. Livorno comes from the Latin Leburnius or Leburna, but (transition from b to v is common), but it was often referred to as Ligorno in Toscana and toward Genova (in the region of Liguria) even as late as the 18th century. Evidently in tuscan dialect g was often substituted for v (for example, pavone = peacock in an old florentine dialect song became pagone). So, Leghorn is not much of a stretch from Ligorno based on just the sounds. BTW, all of the latin and italian variants essentially refer to "port" (seaport, not the wine).