How to Choose the right Portable Mobility Scooter Hoist?

The Problem

If you rely on your mobility scooter, electric wheelchair or powerchair, it is only natural that you want to take it with you everywhere you go. Unfortunately, this can often be a problem. While smaller travel scooters and folding electric wheelchairs fold up for convenient transport, 90% of the time, they are still too heavy for the user to lift independently. 

Slightly larger portable or pull-apart models allow for easier lifting and/or loading as each piece is lighter. However, bending low and dismantling a product can often be challenging.

Furthermore, the smaller portable mobility aids, while very handy and cleverly designed, don't offer the same comfort features as larger scooters or powerchairs.

Portable Hoist Solutions

This is where scooter hoists or wheelchair hoists come into play. Three possible solutions will solve the above problems.

1. Quingo Flyte & Docking Station

An innovative product that loads/unloads in less than 60seconds. The Quingo Flyte is a medium scooter that folds down and drives up a telescopic ramp, which is fitted in the car via the docking station. The Quingo Flyte and Dockingstation come as a set and are not suitable to be used with other products. Some bending and lifting are required.

2. Portable Hoists

These are separate products that use different lifting techniques such as strap lifting or scissor lifting to assist in lifting products to reach your boot. These products will get transported in the boot of your car along with your mobility aid. The Solax portable hoist requires to be loaded/unloaded from the boot and set up before it can be operated. The maximum lifting weight is 30kg.

3 Installed Hoists

As the name suggests, these hoists get installed in the boot of your car. Both the business and technicians must complete a registration process and be licensed to perform this work under Western Australian law. These vehicle hoists come in different sizes and lifting capacities and offers a strap lifting design and a lifting arm. They can be installed in most makes and models. However, they are not compatible with Utes Sedans Vehicles that have split tailgates Products that weigh over 200kg

How to choose your mobility scooter hoist

Your decision of which mobility Scooter hoist or Wheelchair hoist is right for you will often be governed by the size, dimensions, and type of product you want to lift, your abilities and the kind of car you want to lift it into.

If a portable choice is the best solution for you, click here to view our current range of mobile scooter hoists available, including videos on how they work.

If a Vehicle Hoist is a better option, continue through the below flowchart to narrow down your selection. Or you can click here to read through Vehicle hoists in more detail. If you have multiple mobility devices that you would like to lift with the installed boot hoist. Use the larger and heavier one when your work through the below.

What happens next

While the above guide gives you a good indication of which product would best suit you, your vehicle and your needs, we highly recommend you get in touch with us to discuss this in more detail. If possible, visit one of our showrooms to allow us to measure your car and understand your needs thoroughly. 

Information that we will require to perform a thorough measure and quote includes

• Make, Model and Year of your Vehicle. Please inform us of any extras that your vehicle may have. This will allow us to quote more accurately.
• The Make and Model of all products you wish to lift with your SmartLifter boot-hoist

We will create a drawing of your vehicle and how the hoist would fit your car boot based on the above information. We will supply you with detailed measurements and a schematic drawing similar to the example below of a Toyota Land Cruiser 2009-2013.

Further, we will supply you with some installation instructions. This will allow you to see what work will be performed on your car and ensure you are comfortable with this. Below is an example of what these would look like

We will also talk to you about retraining options (optional extras) timeframes and leave you with a written quote for your consideration. 

Turn Around times

To avoid any unnecessary modifications to your vehicle, we like to use vehicle specific fitting kits when available. These have to be ordered in from AutoChair, the manufacturer in the UK. These get airfreighted to us, but turnaround times can vary, given the current situation worldwide. Currently, we ask to allow up to 8 weeks from the order until installation. We hope to speed up this process as the world returns to a more normal situation. 

Installation Timeframe

Timeframes for installations can vary. While we can perform most installations in about half a day at our workshop, some more complex installations can take a whole day.