transporting a mobility scooter

tuffty

Hello,
I'm looking for advice on the best system to load and unload my mobility scooter from my car.
At present, I have a boot scooter which as I'm sure you know breaks down into multiple pieces, for supposedly easy transporting. However, my carer is female and of a certain age where I worry about her having to handle the weight of a couple of the sections. We have a large SUV so the sections have to be lifted higher than a normal estate. I'm at the stage where I prefer to sit in the car and wait rather than unload and assemble the scooter for me to be able to join her.
My first thought was a self-loading, Quingo Flyte.... on further investigation I will lose the use of five seats which leaves us no room for our dog to travel with us and indeed no room for luggage etc. We would also need an extension to fit an SUV which would also have to be carried with us.My next thought would be to have a hoist fitted to lift the scooter into position without any physical effort.
Does anyone have any advice regarding using a hoist system and does it also come with a downside?
Changing my car is an obvious solution but I love my car and suits me well so I need to work around my present car.
Thank you for reading this essay and all advice is welcomed.

SethLaa

Hi @Tuffty, I have a hoist fitted in my Estate car, apart from removing the seat and dropping the steering column everything else is simples. The Hoist came 'free' with the car but a private sale costs around £1500 although shopping around may get you a better price. I needed to drop one of the back seats so as to easily load the Scooter but once in theres loads of spare space. I hope this helps you, Best wishes from @SethLaa

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @tuffty, and welcome to the community! I hope the above advice helps. You may also be interested in reading further about various hoists and lifts that can be used in this way. Let us know how you get on!

Roysmokie

Hi @tuffty, I came on here to ask for help changing batteries on a friends scooter and saw your post, I think I can help. I have a Quingo Flyte scooter that I bought after my Pride GoGo got too much for me to lift. I have a 4x4 and it is great in that.  Here is a video showing it in action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qgpJbGFyWEn. 
I bought mine from Quingo as a manufacturer refurbished item, it was/is in good condition and had only 12hrs use logged. It cost £2700 plus finance costs. This was a mistake. The scooter is great but if I had searched ebay etc I could have saved 1 to 1.5 £k. So in conclusion I suggest you look for a used one on line. Hope this helps. Roy

exdvr

Hi @tuffty....I'm in exactly the same situation as you and the Motability lease on my Skoda Yeti [which I love] is due to end very soon.  I've been looking around and although the reviews are not as good as the Yeti's I think I'll probably settle on the Citroen Berlingo Flair automatic with a scooter hoist included. Huge boot without having to move the back seats.  Hope this helps.

flowerpotman

Hi @tuffty, I've been following your thread. In my opinion your best option would be a hoist. Expensive, yes but worth every penny. Buying second hand fron eBay etc is cheaper if you can get someone to fit it? Because a new A frame is required to fit your specific car. Something the seller omits to tell you at the time. Also you are not told that the manufacturers only sell to authorised fitting companies. So beware of second hand units. My comments about buying second hand may or may not be useful . Best regards,  flowerpotman.

poppy123456

flowerpotman said:

Hi @tuffty, I've been following your thread. In my opinion your best option would be a hoist. Expensive, yes but worth every penny. Buying second hand fron eBay etc is cheaper if you can get someone to fit it? Because a new A frame is required to fit your specific car. Something the seller omits to tell you at the time. Also you are not told that the manufacturers only sell to authorised fitting companies. So beware of second hand units. My comments about buying second hand may or may not be useful . Best regards,  flowerpotman.

HI,

As this thread was started by tuffty in 2017 then i hope by now they have successfully installed what's right for them.

flowerpotman

Apologies, looked for a date of the thread and couldn’t see one so thought it was new.

exdvr

exdvr said:

Hi @tuffty....I'm in exactly the same situation as you and the Motability lease on my Skoda Yeti [which I love] is due to end very soon.  I've been looking around and although the reviews are not as good as the Yeti's I think I'll probably settle on the Citroen Berlingo Flair automatic with a scooter hoist included. Huge boot without having to move the back seats.  Hope this helps.

Following on from my previous post I did get the Citroen and it has performed really well with the hoist.  Great mpg 50+ out of a 1600 diesel automatic.   Build quality maybe not as good as previous Motability cars but still ok.

Hope you got something to suit.