Nonnymus wrote:
> Mrs. Nonny uses an electric scooter for about any movement outside of
> our cabin, home or hotel room. In the past, I've posted about her
> Amigo, and how well it seemed to work for us. Tobie and Barb have two
> scooters- one that's relatively light weight and another that is more
> rugged and comfortable. In traveling with them, I have had a chance to
> compare their two with our Amigo and each has its strong points and
> weaker points. Tobie, I'm sure you will add to this, but I remember
> that Barb's ultralight scooter's main problem was negotiating ramps and
> thresholds due to its lack of clearance. Her large scooter handled
> those with ease, and we all admired the fact that it had a suspension to
> smooth out cobblestones and wood plank sidewalks. Our Amigo had about
> the same clearance as Barb's large scooter, and split the weight between
> the two.
>
> My reason for bringing this up is that in discussions with Tobie, Barb,
> Ermalee and others, we've kept looking for a second scooter for my wife
> that might have more features in the plus column and fewer in the
> negative, particularly weight. I finally purchased a second scooter for
> her to use when traveling by car, plane or ship, and think it has
> reduced several of the negative points seen in our other Amigo and
> Barb's ultralight. http://tinyurl.com/2769jv The best part is that
> it's sold at a local Pep Boy's Autoparts store and retails for $499 here
> in Nevada.
>
> I'll try to hit some of the key points and observations on the scooters,
> and hope Tobie will join in with his comments.
>
> For cruising in general and bathrooms in particular, having a short and
> narrow scooter is important. We've encountered ships with
> non-handicapped cabins that had doors too narrow to handle out scooter.
> In the case of Barb's big one, I can't imagine what Tobie would have to
> go through to get in inside a cabin with too narrow of a door- and he
> and I have both had to resort to leaving a scooter in a lobby or hallway
> at times. The Mega is narrower than any cabin door, at 19" and its 38"
> overall length makes it a snap to turn sharply between corridor and
> cabin. Inside, with the seat removed, it could even be "stood up"
> against a wall if desired to get more room in the cabin. The trade off
> is stability on hillsides, but Mrs. Nonny carries plenty of band aids.
>
> I load the wife's scooter into our minivan by placing the front wheel on
> the bumper, then picking up the back and shoving it in. That's about 10
> time quicker than using a lift, which takes up internal space. Tobie
> does this with his SUV as well, but also has the option for an external
> lift/rack for the larger scooter. It sure saves a lot of lifting, but
> my way is much faster. The downside is that I won't be able to do this
> forever, and if I'm not available, others have difficulty with the
> approximate 100# weight of the Amigo. Sure, batteries and seat can be
> removed, that's time consuming and it's still pretty heavy. The new
> Mega Travel Pal breaks down into two parts: seat and rest. Despite
> that, the heaviest part is only in the mid 60's, making it a snap for
> anyone to grab and toss into a van, suv or even car trunk.
>
> The seat does not have a fixed post on it, like the Amigo, so the
> scooter takes up much less vertical room for in standard car trunks.
>
> While the Mega's batteries cannot be removed, there's an external
> connector that can be unplugged to satisfy airlines for a positive
> electrical disconnect on overseas flights and PITA airlines like Alaska
> and American. The downside to not being removable is that you must pick
> them up each time with the scooter when loading/unloading, but they're
> sealed, gel-cell and are airline safe.Batteries are located between the
> tiller and seat, resulting in a raised ridge between the footrests. That
> can be a problem for someone with leg lift problems.
>
> The Mega's charger is external, and thus you don't have to lift it each
> time you load the scooter. Of course, that means it won't always be
> available. You plug it into a port on the side of the scooter.
>
> Ground clearance on the Mega is terrific, and when coupled with the
> shorter wheelbase, it handles ramps and thresholds like a champ. Tobie
> extended the footrest on Barb's, but I don't think that would be
> necessary on the Mega.
>
> To remove the seat, you merely lift up. To remove the post, you can
> either pull the pin, leave it inserted or place the pin high (swivel)
> position where it can just be lifted out. The tiller is very rugged and
> folds completely flat for in shallow car trunks. There's a convenient
> handle on both the front and back for straight lifting.
>
> Tires are foam filled and there are safety wheels in back to prevent
> tipping over backward on a ramp.
>
> For those of you who travel with scooters, you know how the airlines
> handle the "leave at the ramp, deliver to the ramp" situation. The gate
> agent makes sure you have a positive electrical disconnect from the
> batteries and then tries to push the scooter. In the case of the Mega,
> there is a nice, large, external lever in back labeled for neutral
> (freewheel) or motor engaged. An excellent safety feature is that if
> the lever is in neutral, the regerative braking is still engaged and as
> the scooter moves forward, it engages and prevents a "runaway," while
> letting the scooter be pushed as a slow speed unimpeded.
>
> Electronically, the scooter has regenerative braking, speed control,
> thumb operated speed/direction, volt meter and a horn, with backup
> beeper. The charger is automatic, tapering the charge as the batteries
> come up and then going into a trickle mode. There's an external button
> to reset the circuit breaker, should a long hill create damaging overheat.
>
> The warranty stinks: 90 days and Pep Boys won't take it back if
> something is wrong. OTOH, I found the one we bought to be very well
> made and ready to roll right out of the box. If someone has an interest
> in one, be sure to shop around. As with other "medical" equipment,
> there are jerks out there waiting to charge a fortune for the same thing
> you can get on Amazon.com, Pep Boys Auto, Target or other places that
> sell scooters. At $500, the Mega Travel Pal falls almost into the
> disposable category. Sure, you'd probably replace the batteries every
> couple years and might have some broken motor or controller repaired if
> it didn't cost too much. However, at the $500 price, coupled with a
> very weak warranty anyway, you'd probably just go get another if the
> batteries were about shot and something major happened.
>
> For the money and features, I honestly believe we've found an almost
> ideal compromise between weight, clearance, price, usability, features
> and quality. As time and experience progress, we'll post an update.
Nonny, I was considering one for Bill last January for our Med cruise
and I even went to Pep Boys and looked at one. With no experience, I
just didn't know what features were important, so I asked Tobie to look
into it. He stopped at a Pep Boys in FL and checked it out and gave me
a good report. So far, we have not bought one for Bill, but he's
walking less and less, so it may come to that. I appreciate your
report. Thanks.
Ermalee |