Anybody live near MOON, Virginia 23119???

Hey, Goose - Do you still need assistance getting it to a trucking terminal?

Paypal x-fer sent. Good luck with the mod's. Hope to see some pic's as it comes along.
Scott

Did you still need my help getting it out of Moon?

Another $20 on the way

$20 by PayPal

Aaron

drop a check int eh mail this afternoon!! hope it works out well for u.

WOW, thanks for all the donations

Far as I know at this point, the shipper will be picking the chair up in Moon at the guy's house. The U-Ship website tracking tool doesn't seem to work for some reason, probably I don't have something set right... However I've done all that I can to get the shipper and the guy with the chair together, so will have to see how things go from there...

Gooserider

Another $20.00 sent through paypal. I've followed your journey and hope this helps. You, the mods and all members make this quite a special and personal site. Take care of yourself. If my time allows, I will try to make it to a work day. I am only a few towns north from you. Keep us posted.

Jon

Thanks.... Will probably do all the major updates over in the other megathread - I don't want to be to much of a distraction with a lot of non-hearth related threads...

Gooserider

Got some slabs running this week have less than 10.00 in there. Will shot some your way at the first of the week.

Will be sending some bucks your way when I get back from my daughters house next week.

Tom

Sounds great, I think we are close to getting stuff covered, will have to check w/ Mary-Anne when she gets back from doing some shopping as to what the total on PayPal is so far. I've also seen several saying the were sending paper checks via Snail. So far they haven't arrived, but I'd expect to see them within the next day or two...

Unless folks have objections, if we do go over I'll plan on spending the extra on the parts and such that I will need to finish the project.

Gooserider

+1....Steve

Just as a quick update, I just asked Mary-Anne how we were doing on the donations - she says that we've gotten $450.00 so far in the PayPal account. We also got one check in todays mail, bringing the total up to $470... This more than covers the shipping, and will hopefully make a good dent in the costs for modifying it...

I like the inspirational photo as well, The new chair won't be quite that radical, but it will be a significant step up from the current chair. According to the manufacturer specs, the new chair has 7 mph motors, while the current power chair only has 4 mph motors (confirmed by Mary-Anne clocking me in the chair) In theory this speed is about the optimum for balancing performance and battery capacity when using a 24 volt lead acid base battery system. The chair has two "group 24" size deep cycle gel type batteries as designed, and a lot of the work that was done in the modification design was targeted at keeping that battery size in order to maintain the desired distance performance. The current work that the guy running WheelchairDriver is doing involves using lithium batteries, and going to a 42 volt system, which looks like it will give him about 15mph with the 8 mph motors that he is using. However that seems to be a really experimental project, using VERY expensive battery technology so I want to give him a while to work the bugs out before I go that route (but I plan to design the ability to upgrade into what I do now...)

Gooserider

Goose - Excellent project! Sounds it will be a great improvement for you. Does this new design include any improvement for your seat (butt)? You previously mentioned that was a concern for you with what you are currently using.

BTW We are campers and I troll the used camper sites quite regularly. I never knew they made accessible campers. Roll-in showers, door lifts, etc.

Goose, How big do you want the "Sponsered by: Danno" decal for that sucker? Do you want it the size to represent my contribution (I'm guessing relative size given contribution would be .5"x.75", or do you have a certain area on the chair you need it to fit?

harhar.

And folks thought the inspirational photo was a joke..... Here is Burgerman's response to my posting a copy of the inspirational photo over on his site, WheelchairDriver.com -

We are talking a fellow who has a long history of dedication to the notion of moving quickly... I've seen stuff of his on building dyno testers, how to do home brew nitrous kits for your favorite vehicle (much easier than it sounds from reading it, especially if you are one of those still using a carb...) and assorted other stuff....


Other questions and comments...

Danno, I don't know just what sort of area I'll have to work with on sponsorship logos, as I don't have the chair yet, and thus don't know just what it has for artwork suitable dimensions. It LOOKS like the tubes on the main frame are an inch or two in diameter, and those would be usable. It may also be possible to have stuff on the sides and back of the battery box, though that won't be as visible. The seat back might also be possible, but it is likely that I will be putting a pack of some sort there, I usually do in order to carry some of the supplies I need for personal care issues....

Shari, they make a lot of accessible stuff, it's mostly a question of how much money you want to throw at a problem, or how much you are willing to rig up on your own without much help from the handicap industry...

As one example, I'm working with Mass. Rehab on trying to get me back into the workforce. As a first thing, they have agreed that whether I get sent for some sort of training, or try to work, I'm going to need a way to get there, so they want to help me get an adapted vehicle. I've had a "driving evaluation" where they figure out what I need for equipment, and came out with the recommendation for an adapted minivan. We will have to pay for a new or very lightly used van, and the state will pay to have it adapted - the companies that do the adapting, which involves lowering the floor among other things, get about 30K to do the conversion.... :bug: If the automakers would build something that was suitable from the beginning, the result would be much more suitable, and the cost would be about the same as any other similar vehicle, plus the costs of adapting to a given customer's particular handicap needs. (Mine are relatively minor as such things go...)

I've heard about the adapted campers, some are supposed to be pretty nice, although at least some only work well if you have a very compact chair - mostly a problem of needing enough room to get around in the passages...

One of my other challenges is to figure a way to get me in and out of our swimming pool - I didn't open the pool last year at all, and have essentially said that if I can't use the pool, I'm not going to open it this year and go through all the hassles of keeping it up. This means I need some sort of lift, and I want one that doesn't require another person to work it (Yes, this means I want to be able to go swimming by myself...) An "official pool lift" that allows self operation is about $4K and up... I've been debating the idea of getting a 1-ton rated chain hoist, and a "trolley" to use on a swing-set style gantry - I can get the hoist and trolley for about $100 from HF, and maybe another $100 for pipes and fittings... I just need to figure out how long I need to make the top pipe, and then what size I need to be able to carry the weight... Of course this approach isn't "man rated" and isn't a "medical device" so the price hasn't been hyper-inflated...

As to my seating issues, I've been "trialling" some different cushions w/ mixed results. The best I've found is fairly comfortable, but is miserable to transfer on and off of, and is hard to do pressure relief on, as it's an air cushion that conforms to my butt no matter how I shift around... There's another cushion that gets a great deal of favorable comment on some of the websites which I'd like to try, but my seating vendor doesn't seem to have a demo cushion available, and says they want to try me on other stuff because the one I've suggested doesn't give them as much profit margin....
The new chair doesn't have anything explicitly intended to address the seating, as most of that lies in the cushion, however part of the design improvements I'll be making include replacing the hard, narrow tires the chair was built to use with wide and soft ultra-low pressure ATV type tires, which should seriously smooth my ride when getting off perfectly flat surfaces. Others have said that just reducing the bouncing around that a standard powerchair delivers can greatly improve seating related issues.... Right now I have a kind of weird problem, in that I chronically have a lot of discomfort from my left ischial tuberosity (one of your sitting bones) which usually suggests a potential pressure sore (which is VERY bad news medically) but I show no signs of developing one. I also show no signs of asymmetric posture or other such issues when I get pressure mapped, which "should" mean that I don't have a reason why I'd be sore on one side but not the other.... :-S

Gooserider

Several years ago I saw an automatic pressure relieving cushion - seat had several 'zones' that would inflate/deflate to shift loading around. Not sure how long between pressure point changes but might be worth looking into.

I just had a custom flexible water jacket made for relatively cheap money (<$500) - the same process could be adapted to a seat and pneumatics.

Aaron

I'm trying to avoid going to the powered cushions, they exist but are incredibly expensive, and if they fail at the wrong time can be a serious problem. Mostly they are used for the serious quads that are unable to pressure relief any other way. I'm also less than thrilled with the all air cushions, like the Roho "High Profile" that I'm trying right now. It is comfortable, but really difficult to get on and off of it because of the air shifting around which makes the surface very unstable. It is especially bad if transferring up into the chair from a lower surface, as soon as you get on at one corner the air transfers into the rest of the cushion and makes a "wall" that causes further progress to be very difficult....

What I'd like to try is a cushion made by Supracore called a "Stimulite" It gets a much greater percentage of rave reviews on some of the disability sites than some of the more popular brands. It does a sort of ventilated honeycomb design that is supposed to be both supporting and breathable. One of the problems with most other cushions (and I think a good part of my problems) is that they are not conducive to air circulation, so it becomes a problem to keep the skin dry if you sweat a lot; and moisture is a major contributor to skin irritation and breakdown...

Gooserider

Got the chair, news on this, general updates and a proposed "Work Day" over on the big thread - http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/53792/P440/

I'm going to lock this one in order to keep the number of threads down a bit - please reply on the other one if you feel so inclined...

Gooserider