Monday, March 18, 2024

Off-road wheelchair allows people with disabilities to go absolutely anywhere

An American YouTuber and entrepreneur, Zack Nelson, has developed an off-road “wheelchair” to allow people with disabilities to travel absolutely everywhere. Affordable, light, fast, and electric, this device is (finally) a useful invention.

With his wife, Cambry Kaylor, herself in a wheelchair, they have developed this new all-terrain wheelchair that helps her to drive into hard-to-reach places that she had never dreamed of before. And it turned out to be so convenient that now the couple plans to establish mass production of the vehicle that they call ‘Not-A-Wheelchair’ – The Rig.

Off-road wheelchair allows people with disabilities to travel absolutely everywhere.
Off-road wheelchair allows people with disabilities to travel absolutely everywhere. Credit: notawheelchair

Cambry said thanks to her husband’s invention, she can now travel many kilometers and not get tired, as well as reach places she had not planned to go before.

This invention started from a simple observation: all-terrain wheelchairs are often expensive and very slow. “The toughest challenge when developing ‘Not-A-Wheelchair’ is the price. We wanted to create something that is affordable for everyone. Finding quality components, and a simple enough design at the cheapest price possible took quite a bit of time,” Zack told Bored Panda in an interview. “But I think we have something now that everyone will be able to enjoy, at a fraction of the cost of other ‘off-road wheelchairs’ currently on the market.

Zack Nelson with his wife, Cambry Kaylor.
Zack Nelson with his wife, Cambry Kaylor. Credit: notawheelchair

This small all-terrain vehicle is a marvel to discover nature, under all conditions: snow, sand, the seaside, hiking trails, it has its place absolutely everywhere. The Rig is capable of driving 16-32 km/h (10-20 mile) range with one battery, and 40-56 km/h (25-35 miles) with two batteries, of course, depending on terrain, the weight of the rider, and weight of the cargo. In addition, it has a speed of up to 20 km/h (12.4 mph), and is completely electric, and therefore very quiet and easy to maintain.

Released a few days ago, you can already order and customize it as you wish, for a price of $4750. This could be a useful invention to enable people with reduced mobility to discover the beauty of nature without having to think about all the complicated logistics upstream.