Putting Automotive style seat on chair base -- possible?

[barefooter64]

I'm wondering about putting an automobile seat on a power chair base. We have an older Permobil M300 with a corpus seat on it. For short term use the seat is fine. But for occupied transport or longer times in seat it's not cutting it. We have an older VW touareg which we bought because the seats were very comfortable for her. I'm considering getting a used VW seat from ebay and going through the effort to get it safely mounted to the M300 with as much of the articulation working as possible. When the HR/BP goes off being able to get her legs up and recline is important.

The situation/background:
My spouse is ambulatory but can not stand or be seated for very long before pain in her legs gets bad and/or her heart rate and/or BP goes nuts. To complicate matters she has considerable nerve pain which makes being jostled around painful. Over the last 10 years her condition has deteriorated to the point that we're trying to get a transit XLT outfitted to carry her occupied chair. The XLT now has Q-Straint anchors and belts in it. We've done two test drives. First trip showed that the ride was way too rough and caused her much pain from the jostling. Rural Arkansas roads aren't very smooth. Second trip was better with the changes listed below but not good enough.

To try and deal with the roughness i did two things for the second test drive: 1.pneumatic drive tires which are the same width as the original foam filled tires. 2. added a two inch thick latex cushion for the seat. I found some wider pneumatic tires on ebay that i think would cushion the ride even more but I'm holding off buying them in hopes there's other ways to deal with the situation.

[Burgerman]

Yes its possible to fit vehicle seats. Not sure it would help though.

[barefooter64]

The thought is that having springs as found in automotive seats would do more to dampen the motion than the foam comfort cushions. The ride in the seats in the transit is much more tolerable than what she gets while in her chair..

After some more looking at the chair and the seat I'm now seriously considering something like a tractor seat suspension would be a good option and would be loads easier to install.

[Burgerman]

Everything helps a little. But only a little. I suspect that driving slowly would be the most effective.

[hobie1dog]

Suburban seats-very comfy

[rover220]

i have retro fitted recaro seats in the past to several different chairs.

[foghornleghorn]

The thought is that having springs as found in automotive seats would do more to dampen the motion than the foam comfort cushions. The ride in the seats in the transit is much more tolerable than what she gets while in her chair..

After some more looking at the chair and the seat I'm now seriously considering something like a tractor seat suspension would be a good option and would be loads easier to install.

A proper automotive seat will be a lot better than the corpus seat. The springs in the bottom make a huge difference.

With regards to a tractor suspension seat you will find it adds a lot of height. I had a London taxi suspension seat base to look at and the seat base frame was 270mm high, then the actual seat bolts on top. Too much really.

rover220 has mentioned a Recaro seat but they aren't so readily available in America as here.

Whatever you fit needs good lateral support for cornering, and head support.

[Burgerman]

They are offered by many manufacturers here when you buy. They use the ergomed for good but expensive reasons. Its here: http://www.recaro-seats.co.uk/ergonomics/ergomed-e.php

[F55]

Anybody that has spent a long time in a Recaro seat wouldn't call it comfortable. They are designed for a purpose and do it very well but comfort certainly wasn't in the remit. They remind me of the Jay cushions that again aim to serve a purpose but anybody paralysed with feeling will tell you they aren't comfortable.

Comfort doesn't necessarily mean a great fit and posture enhancing but it does mean your pain levels remain lower for longer stemming from the pressure through your rear end.

[Burgerman]

Theres no way to have a sensible seated height and also have good springing or foam. These are thin. So the chair works in a safe stable fashon. Car seats may be, or if comfortable probably are not thin...

[F55]

No, exactly so a decent air cushion would be your best bet to keep height and bulk down but give more comfort than a Recaro or similar slim seat.

[steves1977uk]

I've fitted a Recaro seat I had to my Dietz chair, but had to get a seat board made since the standard one wasn't wide enough. Just got to work out how to fit the lateral supports.

Steve

[barefooter64]

We did another test run yesterday with latex pads and a better pillow under her head. All in all it was a better experience. On the way back to the house we stopped and i let some air out of the tires. She said that made a noticeable difference.

Thanks for all the responses. I don't think we're done with working through the issues.

Something like the Suburban seats would be good. Leg articulation might be an issue though since the seat is so much thicker than the cushion.

The tractor seat suspension is max 2.75" thick and provides an adjustable 1" of spring dampened travel.

[slomobile]

If you aren't trying to get insurance to pay, you might have better results ignoring medical wheelchairs completely. Find the best suspension seat for her. Then figure out how to put motors, wheels and batteries on. Do batteries last. You can have a custom weird shaped pack put together from individual cells crammed into nooks and crannies if you need to.

https://ullmandynamics.com/suspension-s ... ckey-seats

https://seaspension.com/

https://www.isriparts.com/request-quota ... 6834e7a283
https://www.isriparts.com/products/seat ... 6834e7a283

https://www.iboats.com/shop/springfield ... at%20seats

https://www.scheels.com/p/smooth-moves- ... %20Fishing

[slomobile]

I found this https://purple.com/seat-cushions/office-chair at a truck stop, and it made the miles much easier. It does add some height, so the backrest needed to be raised to match my back curve. It is super soft, but the gel will melt if it gets much over 105F.

[ex-Gooserider]

Definitely possible to put an automotive seat on a power base - in fact many of the 'mobility aid' type chairs (i.e. low end Pride, etc). are doing exactly that - I've seen labels on the bottom of a couple of seats from Pride that are the from the same company that supplies auto-seats to the Detroit auto industry...

However the Pride seats were basically foam 'buns' on a plywood base, so a real auto seat w/ springs might be better.... Ditto softer tires, chair suspension if it has any, etc...

ex-Gooserider

[barefooter64]

Long delay due to numerous issues... but... Here's what we're working on/with now...

I built an angled frame with furniture springs to provide motion dampening and an improved angle over the flat pan of the chair. So far it's shown to be an improvement over several inches of memory and latex foam. Angled sides are oak to stand up to the springs with cross members of pine.

Taking it out for a test run later today. Then have 6-8 road hours to do on Tuesday.. fingers crossed.

[slomobile]

I hope that goes well! Good work.
Just in case she starts to bottom out on the pine crossmembers, you may be able to remove them completely by bolting a steel plate between the oak sides and the T track directly beneath them.

[barefooter64]

Thanks for the input.. I hadn't thought about using the T-slot.

The trip went well. The springs did the job as expected and so far bottoming out hasn't been an issue.

The issue on this trip was the Transit becoming very unhappy with it's turbo so now it's in the shop... Climbing into the Ozark mountains with an engine running in reduced power mode wasn't fun.