Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

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Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby bryansshort » 01 Feb 2019, 04:06

Hi,
Does anyone have, or have knowledge of Tom Kilmore's powerchairs? I wonder why he is using lead acid instead of lithium batteries and wheelchair instead of forklift controllers.

At the moment I use a national health wheelchair in the house, an RGK titanium rigid frame which lives in the car, for going out (deployed by a Robostore), a PowerTryke for going on holiday, a small scooter for getting to the garage and around the garden plus a Pride Ranger scooter for Music festivals which I attend in an old RV, Pride Ranger on the back. Now at 60 and with torn rotator cuffs, a left leg Hip Disarticulation and a massively shattered right leg I'm finding it harder to manage and keep my independence. To sum up everything that's wrong with what I have... The NHS is no good outdoors especially as I get weaker, the RGK is becoming harder outdoors, the PowerTryke would be no good in the mud at a festival, the small scooter has little range and power so would be no good at a festival nor could it go in my present car, it could not go on a train or plane. Nothing will go in the RV so I use an office chair, it's also getting harder to get in and out of. The Pride Ranger will go most anywhere but not up to a restaurant table or in a small shop.

If I switch to a powerchair I'll have to change my car to a van type WAV like John has and something like the BM3 will do away with the indoor chair, the small garden scooter, the RGK and the PowerTryke. I have a Sunrise F55 doner chair but haven't got around to doing anything with it.

I have seen some discussion about tilt and lift making a chair less reliable and I certainly wouldn't want to do that but at the same time both the BM3 and Tom Kilmore's chair seats are lower than what I have now so whilst that would give me more stability out and about I'd like the lift to reach kitchen wall cupboards, supermarket shelves and to be at eye level with other people.

Thanks for letting me explore my thoughts here, any input would be most welcome.

Bryan
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby Burgerman » 01 Feb 2019, 14:24

Hi,
Does anyone have, or have knowledge of Tom Kilmore's powerchairs? I wonder why he is using lead acid instead of lithium batteries and wheelchair instead of forklift controllers.


He doesent understand lithium well enough. And 101 reasons not to use fork truck controllers!
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby rover220 » 01 Feb 2019, 16:38

Burgerman wrote:
Hi,
Does anyone have, or have knowledge of Tom Kilmore's powerchairs? I wonder why he is using lead acid instead of lithium batteries and wheelchair instead of forklift controllers.


He doesent understand lithium well enough. And 101 reasons not to use fork truck controllers!


nor would alot of potential clients.
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby ex-Gooserider » 05 Feb 2019, 06:10

Tilt and lift, etc. don't inherently make a chair 'less reliable' beyond the way adding more features to almost anything adds to that list of things that can break... Anything that can go wrong will, and the more moving bits there are, the greater the chance that one of them will break at any given time...

The big problem with lift, tilt, etc. from a chair design standpoint is that they add to the weight of the chair, and since they have to be up high, and take up more room, they raise it's center of gravity, making it less stable...

The BMx chairs are all designed for maximum performance in terms of speed, agility and to be as compact as possible... This means that they are very 'tippy' and far less stable than the chair manufacturers and the standards people would ever accept (Will skip the argument about how good or bad this is for now....) If you raised the seat height to make room for more mechanical bits and added their weight, the result would be seriously unsafe....

Chair design is a compromise - BM chose to sacrifice all the fancy features to gain performance, which works, but in order to be safe when adding tilt and so on, you would need to increase the size and limit performance to regain stability... Nothing 'wrong' with that, you just need to be very much aware of how adding features changes the design requirements for a chair....

From what I've seen of Tom's chairs, (just pictures) he seems to be aiming at a more generic audience, so is less radical in his designs than BM is...

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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby expresso » 05 Feb 2019, 06:26

From pictures I think his chairs look great even his tilt lift chair is nice looking and not much higher than others they look better and can't notice they r even there I am used to 21 floor to seat. So seems normal to me. Lower I feel like I have to look up to everyone and harder to transfer alot of users need those items now u have to offer them on a chair today.
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby Scooterman » 05 Feb 2019, 08:34

I seen and had a go in one of Tom’s chairs. I think they’re excellent and worth the money compared to a new dealer chair. Tom is really concerned about keeping his chairs affordable. But he was telling me the lift/tilt module is really expensive, and adds about £2k to the price of a chair, although I may not have remembered the figure exactly.
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby expresso » 05 Feb 2019, 16:54

thats great you are close to Tom - even though its 2K extra - its still worth it - at least for me - i would add those features on the chair if i was doing a chair - - if someone dosnt need it - then they can save and still get a great chair -

his Tilt lift dosnt look bad at all - you hardly see it when its down and its clean and neat from what i remember last i looked at his website

we need someone like Tom here in the states doing that - i would think its not easy to get started in making chairs here in the states - most use insurance to get them - would be very few who would buy them right out - thats too bad -

if i had no choice and had to buy - i would - even if make payments on credit card etc, would be worth it - i hope hes doing good and able to keep making a great chair at a reasonable price for people -

i wouldnt be able to purchase one here from dealers at the prices they charge - its insane - and its a shame also - they can cut that price in half and still make a good profit if they wanted and really cared about us in that way - but they dont and wont - :(
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby Burgerman » 05 Feb 2019, 17:26

Its because they are all businesses. Their job is not to care about you but to make money, pay staff, please shareholders.

Toms prices are actually in line with UK mass produced chairs. E.G same RETAIL price as my salsa would be if I didnt buy it cheap.
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby expresso » 05 Feb 2019, 18:30

yes i know everyone has to earn a profit - but its ridiculous if you want to charge a person 40K for a wheelchair even if they are not using insurance and out of pocket - that cant be achieved - who can afford 40K - 10K to 15K - is still alot but if you get your title and lift and a high quality chair - it may be do able - a little downpayment and then credit the rest and pay it off as much as you can each month -

some may not be able to do even that - so its either insurance pays or nothing for many of us.
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby Scooterman » 06 Feb 2019, 09:32

expresso wrote:thats great you are close to Tom - even though its 2K extra - its still worth it - at least for me - i would add those features on the chair if i was doing a chair - - if someone dosnt need it - then they can save and still get a great chair -

his Tilt lift dosnt look bad at all - you hardly see it when its down and its clean and neat from what i remember last i looked at his website

we need someone like Tom here in the states doing that - i would think its not easy to get started in making chairs here in the states - most use insurance to get them - would be very few who would buy them right out - thats too bad -

if i had no choice and had to buy - i would - even if make payments on credit card etc, would be worth it - i hope hes doing good and able to keep making a great chair at a reasonable price for people -

i wouldnt be able to purchase one here from dealers at the prices they charge - its insane - and its a shame also - they can cut that price in half and still make a good profit if they wanted and really cared about us in that way - but they dont and wont - :(

Hi Claudio,
I think Tom prefers to conduct most of the communication via email, so being abroad is no great disadvantage apart from shipping and taxes. He's a one man band so the time spent meeting clients is time he's not building chairs.

I felt a little bad not buying a chair off him, but I will one day, perhaps in a few years as something more robust/off-road than my chair, and depending on my health and whether he is still making them. It would have been my first powerchair (I've always had scooters). And I felt his chairs were too good for my first chair and I wasn't sure of the spec I needed so when BM bought his Salsa I decided to buy a used one off eBay so as to have something to learn on and tinker with. Then when I come to buy one of Toms chairs I would know precisely what I needed from a chair. And I only met him the once and emailed him the following day after sleeping on it.

But he really cares about his chairs and offers excellent after sales support. I get the impression it's part business and part hobby/passion for him, his wife is a quadriplegic (sorry if that's not the correct term).
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby CPguy » 21 Mar 2019, 17:59

Tom has renamed his company in Jan, 2019 and is on this years NAIDEX trade fair: http://www.naidex.co.uk/exhibitors/the- ... r-company/.
My rides:
1 BM2/BM3 with 120 A R-Net and Odessey (Lithium in 2016)
1 SKS Swiss VIVA (spare, as only NF22 size battery)
2 Progeo YOGA (for traveling)
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Re: Tom Kilmore Powerchairs

Postby CPguy » 21 Mar 2019, 18:04

My rides:
1 BM2/BM3 with 120 A R-Net and Odessey (Lithium in 2016)
1 SKS Swiss VIVA (spare, as only NF22 size battery)
2 Progeo YOGA (for traveling)
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