25/11/2024

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Traveling With Your Mobility Scooter

Traveling With Your Mobility Scooter

Using an electric mobility scooter is a great way to improve your mobility around the house, but they can also help you get out and about again. If you are a senior citizen or someone with limited mobility, you can certainly understand how important it is to go out, socialize, and have fun. Fortunately, electric scooters can help you by allowing you to do just that. With a mobility scooter and the means to transport it, you will be able to go where you want and keep up with your friends and family.

The simplest solution for making sure you can travel with your mobility scooter is to purchase a scooter specifically for travel. Portable travel scooters can be compacted or broken down into several pieces to fit in the trunk of a car. They are then reassembled quickly and easily when you’ve arrived at your destination, so that you can get on and ride the rest of the way. Travel scooters are very useful for that reason, but they also have some limitations. They’re lighter and less robust, and typically won’t be appropriate for off-road outdoor use. Also, their maximum weight capacity is usually 250 lbs, and you probably shouldn’t buy one if you weigh 220 or more. If you’re a larger individual, you feel more comfortable and stable on a mid-sized or heavy-duty scooter. Unfortunately, those can be a bit more difficult to transport, but there’s a solution for that, too.

You can buy a lift that attaches to the rear of your vehicle to transport your scooter. This method is appropriate for scooters that are too heavy to lift or too large to fit in your vehicle. There are several types of scooter lifts: hand-operated lifts which won’t break the bank, inside-vehicle lifts that move the scooter from the ground to inside an SUV or pickup truck and back, and outside-vehicle lifts that store the scooter behind the vehicle.

Hand-operated lifts are basically a platform mounted to the rear of the vehicle that can be tilted and extended to ground level so that it creates a ramp. Simply get off of the scooter, drive the scooter up the ramp, return the ramp to the horizontal position, and secure the scooter. This type of lift is the most inexpensive, but it can be awkward to load since you have to maneuver the scooter up the ramp while you’re not riding it. Outside-vehicle lifts are similar, but the platform stays horizontal and lowers to the ground at the touch of a button. You can simply drive onto the platform, get off, secure the scooter, and raise the platform back up with another press of a button.

Inside-vehicle lifts are a great choice if you have a truck, van, or SUV. Van and SUV owners should immediately take notice that once your scooter is inside, they can be left there and still be protected from the elements. Of course, if it’s summer or winter, the extreme temperature will still affect the battery life, so you should only leave the scooter in the vehicle during the moderate seasons.