Wheelchair Tippers

[Barb]

How old were you or your child when you took the tippers off of the chair? C is 9 and I have seen younger kids with them off so I am wondering if this is something I should start to deal with.

[eng188]

I dont think it's really an age issue. I mean, as a teen, all my chairs were tipperless, but as an adult, my only chair had tippers. There's so much more involved.

[Barb]

I forgot to say thank you for the advice on this. I do not think he is near ready

[Dodger67]

I never had tippers on any of my chairs. I learnt to balance at about 8 years old. I have a small scar where I got a couple of stitches on the back of my head to remind me of the experience! :p

My current wheelchair setup is to have the main axles as far forward as possible. This puts the centre of gravity just a short distance - less than 5cm (2 inches) - in front of the axles. My chair weighs 23kg (50 pounds) including the seat. I weigh about 70kg (154 pounds) but there is less than 10kg (22 pounds) downforce on the front wheels when stationary on a level floor. Thats a 90% - 10% weight distribution between the rear and front wheels.
It allows for very precise control and easy tilting even while going downhill at high speeds.

I have very strong upper body so the backrest is really short - it ends about 10cm (4 inches) below the bottom edge of my shoulderblades. To give you a good idea of how low that is - If I were a woman, my bra strap :p would be about 5cm (2 inches) above the backrest!

Setting up a wheelchair for optimum usability for an active user is quite complicated, consider getting someone experienced to help. You should be able to find people who know at your local sports club. There's not much anyone can teach basketball players or sprinters about wheelchair setup.

I hope everyone is aware of the rule that for permanent users a wheelchair seat must be as narrow as possible to minimise lateral movement which causes chafing and pressure sores!

[Barb]

Wow. You have an incredible wealth of knowledge on chairs. In order for him to wheelchair race he needs to be able to have a regular chair without tippers so that was sort of our motivation.

What kind of chair do you have?

[Dodger67]

The knowlege comes from almost 40 years of using them!

My chair is a conventional type, but it's custom fitted to me and has a heavy duty stainless steel frame, thats why its so heavy! Costs 5-6 times as much as a "standard" mass production chair but its worth every cent. (The economics is probably different in your country)

For racing your son should have a chair as light as possible. As he is still young and has a lot of growing to do it won't make financial sense to get a custom built dedicated racing chair. Which is of course a totally different thing from a regular chair. The sports club should have people who can advise you.

BTW - Ernst van Dyk, the world marathon champion, was in the same high school as me - he's just a couple of years younger.
See http://www.ernstvdyk.co.za/ If your son is serious about racing I'm sure Ernst would welcome "fanmail".