What You Should Know About Wheelchair "Turning Radius"

What You Should Know About Wheelchair “Turning-Radius”

Imagine a point midway between the rear wheels. It would be just behind the wheelchair seat.  This is the point the chair actually rotates “about”, so the footplates are the furthest point away from this point. This is the measurement that we will be actually discussing. Thus, a "mid-wheel-drive" chair always appears to have a "better" or smaller turning-radius number. Also, many claim it is "more maneuverable", as well, which is extremely misleading. Given a “poorly-

programmed- or-weak" electronic-controller can appear more maneuverable, as well, due to better control responses because less power and torque (turning) is needed, on the specific spot, with a “mid-wheel-drive” chair.

The real limiting factor in "tight-situations” is the total-length of the chair, from corner-to-corner, the longest measurement you can make. This is all that is important.  It dictates whether you can turn in a very tight space. The thing that stops the turning in a tight space, like a corridor or a small area, is NOT the quoted "turning-radius" but the total-length of the chair. 
The “tightest-turning” wheelchairs are the ones you can reverse, up to a wall and your head touches it before anything else does!  This is one of many reasons the seat was moved back on my own “rear- wheel-drive” chair. The reason is that the furthest thing away, in front of you, is your own feet.  The chair in this situation is not the issue. Your seating position relative to the other features of the chair is all that matters.
If you have well “tucked-in-feet”, in addition to "short footplates", the total length of your chair will be much shorter than any “front-wheel” or “mid-wheel”-drive chair. “Mid-&-front” wheel-drive chairs all have a pair of extra-wheels in the back and a big base that swings behind, as well. This makes the total-length of the chair longer requiring a wider area to maneuver.
If your head is touching one wall and your feet are touching the other, then the chair is not in the way. The turning radius for “rear-wheel-drive” chairs are normally huge compared to the mid-wheel-drive chairs, thus making the mid-or-front-wheel-drive chairs not as desirable as originally believed. For facts, “Seeing is believing”.





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