Mounting a wheelchair lift

[doc390]

Brainstorming here, Gang.

I'm considering mounting an electric swing-out wheelchair lift in the cargo area. Physically, there's enough room behind the rear seat for my wife's electric wheelchair (Pride Jazzy). That means no other major mod's to the cargo bay besides the crane itself.

An '05 Rocky Ltd.'s not your usual choice for a wheelchair-vehicle, but it has possibilities. At least I can transfer her manually into the passenger seat. With the crane mounted, I could drag the chair along, too. It weighs almost 300#..... too much to easily throw in & out by hand.

I considered an outside carrier mounted on the receiver hitch. Problem there's I can't use a rear platform from the hitch with the spare tire in place. I'd need to use a hitch extention that would end up being too long for that much weight. It'd create too much bending moment on the hitch frame.

Anyone have any experience with any kind of full-thickness bolting in the back? Fabrication's not a problem... I just haven't seen any mod's to the cargo bay of a KJ.

All comments welcome. TIA

 

[Se7enLC]

Brainstorming here, Gang.

I'm considering mounting an electric swing-out wheelchair lift in the cargo area. Physically, there's enough room behind the rear seat for my wife's electric wheelchair (Pride Jazzy). That means no other major mod's to the cargo bay besides the crane itself.

An '05 Rocky Ltd.'s not your usual choice for a wheelchair-vehicle, but it has possibilities. At least I can transfer her manually into the passenger seat. With the crane mounted, I could drag the chair along, too. It weighs almost 300#..... too much to easily throw in & out by hand.

I considered an outside carrier mounted on the receiver hitch. Problem there's I can't use a rear platform from the hitch with the spare tire in place. I'd need to use a hitch extention that would end up being too long for that much weight. It'd create too much bending moment on the hitch frame.

Anyone have any experience with any kind of full-thickness bolting in the back? Fabrication's not a problem... I just haven't seen any mod's to the cargo bay of a KJ.

All comments welcome. TIA

How about a ramp? It may be just me, but it doesn't make much sense to go through the hassle and expense of installing the wheelchair lift if you can't even have a person IN the wheelchair at the time (I thought that was the point of the wheelchair lift?). Wheelchair lifts make a lot more sense in the vehicles with raised roofs, so that way the person can use the lift to get into the vehicle and then either ride in the chair, or transfer to a seat at height, rather than having to be lifted up a few feet.

I bet you could fashion a pretty good ramp that can fold up and fit inside the jeep (or sit on the roof). Is 300 lbs too heavy to roll up the ramp, do you think? I was thinking either heavy sheet metal with L-channels for support, or possibly plywood. You could get hinges with locks, I bet, or just use normal hinges with some kind of stopper (so the only way to fold it would be to turn it over and fold it). Another option is to use piping, since you can screw/unscrew piping to make the folded parts reattach pretty quickly (like how a foldable miltary shovel handle works).

Another option would be to just find companies that make ramps for pickup truck beds and trailers and see if they would work.

http://www.pickupspecialties.com/Loading_Ramps/loading_ramps.htm