Permobil c300 review old & new

[david kott]

Permobil c300 review old & new
Well I’m not sure how much of a review this will be many people know way more than me about chairs here than me and I am not much of a writer.
First a bit about me I am 50 years old c5/6 quad and weigh 130 pounds. The c300 with cropus seating, foot elevate, seat elevate, recline, and tilt is the only chair I have ever used. I got my first one in 2006 and a new one last month 11/01/2014.
I’ll start with the old one. My use of the chair was medium to hard use. Lots of long walks with my dog occasional trip to a state park no complaints from me as to getting around batteries lasted just fine the chair performed ok. I did not like the chair on very rough surfaces i.e. large stones or bumpy lawns but I have only had foam filled tires I was not willing to risk a flat. Indoors or in my van once again I have no big complaints the ones I do have are the foot plates are huge, the arm rest assemblies where too long and big, and the head rest design was terrible.
Clearance is around 3 inches but the bolt for my ez lock cuts this down to about 1.5 inch so clearance over thresholds is a problem at times.
I also used this chair in a little more abusive fashion. It has been used as a snow plow over the last 4 years. The plow is a 42 inch garden tractor blade It connects directly to the front anti tip wheels with a quick release so I can use it independently a rope with a block of wood is placed between my feet as a link to lift and lower the blade with the tilt and foot elevate. I also have a small workshop and use the chair to drag or push things around.
Problems I have had are two joystick cables replaced I think this was from the swing away joystick repeatedly bending the cables, joystick failed I can’t remember what the problem was but it was super fiscal because it didn’t leave me stranded, the swing away linkage would work loose and one of the links actually broke a friend welded the break and I replaced the factory screws with bolts and nyloc nuts then had no more problems, one gear reducer I’m surprised it was only one with the plowing. I was lucky and could hear it going bad and got it replace before it stopped working. A bad relay for the back rest this was in the last year I never did get it fixed. And two intermittent problems over the last two years that where never resolved ( ok I know I said in an other post how good the service is in my area I did not say they are great technicians) one was that the tilt would not work occasionally, drive over a few bumps wiggle in my seat and it started working again this went on for maybe 4 months then went away been good for over a year now. The last problem was that the chair would just stop, only for a second and then start again this could happen once or ten times in a row and was very intermittent. I could go months without a problem then it would be back for a day or a week and then gone for months. This and the fact that I needed a new seat for a pressure sore is why I decided to get a new chair. Otherwise I would still be using it.

The new c300
A few problems right off the bat the joystick is flashing a generic code the code clears when the joystick is swung away. So I would guess it’s the cable, they tell me the first foot of cable is part of the joystick so they are going to replace the whole joystick. Second bug is the swing away joystick pivot keeps loosing up the second time I put some Loctite on the screws.
Some changes. The foot plates are much smaller, swing away joystick is by directional and uses friction pivots no more linkage so far I like this one much better. The mounting shaft for the swing pivot is too long and sticks out past the end of armrest I will cut 2 or 3 inches off. Armrest assemblies are much smaller and simpler the pads use tee slots allowing better adjustment. (Actually it looks like they did a much better job of designing the adjustability of the whole seating system as far as fitting many body shapes.) The head rest design is still does not fit me I switched to my old one. I personally don’t like the angled joystick as a quad my hand is in a fist and my knuckles keep hitting the buttons when I am driving forward, I’ll see if I get used to it. The actuators are proportional to joystick and seem slower once again I personally don’t like this and will see if it can be programed to be on or off and faster.
I’ll try to keep this updated as I find more likes, dislikes, and problems.

Sorry once again I know my writing and spelling sucks but I hope my experience with the chair is useful.

[Burgerman]

Nobody cares about spelling.

Did you try reprogramming this to steer better yet? What is the make of the controller?

[sin85]

I just got mine.
It is great indoors and in tight places.
Trade off is that it only goes 10km p/h.
Despite what the dealer says there is no way it will do 20km distance on puny 60ah even though they are MK.
Controller is R-Net.
It is ok as a spare.
My old Optimus with lithiums is still the best chair i ever had by far (at the moment the charge cable for hyperion is giving me some trouble but i hope to fix that soon).

[Burgerman]

>>>Despite what the dealer says there is no way it will do 20km distance on puny 60ah even though they are MK.

That's because if the ISO tennis court test. Its a simple course on a flat floor around the perimeter. They don't test range. They do this:

1. Measure Ah used per lap. (Or many laps, and averaged in fact at constant speed) to find out how many Ah used per mile on the flat. Constant speed with shallow turns on a level flat surface gives the best range figures by far. Then they look at the 5 hour discharge rate of a battery and divide this capacity by their measured Ah used to get a distance per charge figure. In reality we take power in heavy pulses, and voltage drops below that required to keep the controller alive well before this peukert corrected figure arrives. And you stop!

2. They look at only one chair in a range, and make no changes to account for different speeds (taller gearing) which has a huge proportional affect on actual range in reality. So they will claim same range for say 6 and 8mph versions of the chair.

3. They use no carpets, tight turns, manoeuvring, hills, ramps, grass etc. or off level/cambered power draining footpaths or road edges. This typically eats half the power. Or more since its at a higher than 5hour rate.

So its not surprising that you don't achieve their claimed figures even with new batteries.