Pronto M94 Powerchair

[Drbic]

I own a Pronto M94 Powerchair http://www.scooterville.com/Invacare_Pronto_M94_Heavy_Duty_Power_Chair_%28M94%29/p/41847/c/661/ or http://www.invacare.com/cgi-bin/imhqprd/inv_catalog/prod_cat_detail.jsp?prodID=M94

I bought it used off of a "Craigslist" http://seattle.craigslist.org/ for a fair price and have owned it for almost 2 years. I modified my living space to accomodate it including a luxury bathroom. it appears to be failing slightly relating to it's turning... Everyone I have talked to at this point are acting like I cant work on it my self (BS!) and while I have found the parts catalouge and can find some parts at http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/ and got some wheels for it I remain somewhat unhappy with the pendantic movement of the chair. Dont get me worng it is moving. It is doing the job. BUT I want a bit more.

The biggest issue I have is the Van chair. Spending time in it is starting to wear on my and I have made arraingements with a local custom upholstry shop to upgreade it. However

That got me thinking that I wish I could modify one of the 55's which clearly have a better frame setup etc. I have been a metal fabricater mechanic most of my life. It does not appear that the F55 is avaliable in the USA. Is this true?

[ex-Gooserider]

No, unfortunately the F55 is a UK only model, at least officially... Martin, one of our regular users does a business refurbishing F55's and can get you the parts and send you anything you need, but it is not cheap...

The other option, which is what I'm working on slowly, is to get one of the closest US equivalents to the F55 and try using that as a base. This would be the Sunrise Quickie 626, 646, 636 series of chairs, which are not real common, but do show up periodically on Ebay and / or Craigs list... However, shipping a chair any distance also gets expensive fairly quickly, so you probably should look for a local chair if you can find one... (Try some of your area's chair suppliers, they sometimes get old chairs in trade...)

There are some differences between the F55 and the 6?6 chairs, the biggest probably being that the F55 uses a steel tube frame, and the 6?6 chairs use aluminum, which makes welding a bit more of a challenge... There might also be some differences in the shape and angle of the front lower crossmember that may make fitting a battery box a bit harder.

ex-Gooserider

[Drbic]

I could see right away the frame differences. Makes me wonder if I can find a print of the frame for local fabrication. I am a competent welder and machinist. ..... so I will go on the hunt.

Thanks for the input.

[ex-Gooserider]

I don't think you'll find an "official" print, but I suspect that there will be some pretty good home brew versions around somewhere, wouldn't be surprised to find them somewhere on the forums here... You could also do some designing from scratch, which would have the potential of allowing the chair to be even more compact, especially in terms of height. BM has defined at least one optimal battery box as being 173mm wide, 520 long. and 240 high, to allow several different battery options - starting with two Group 24's and going to his monster Lithium pack... Given that box as a central core, it is basically a question of arranging the other bits around it.

ex-Gooserider