Adjusting Your Mobility Scooter or Powerchair

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Adjusting your Scooter or Powerchair to fit you

For your immediate comfort, ease of control, and to prevent future strains or injuries, it is most important that your scooter or powerchair is adjusted to your individual requirements to optimise your comfort and control of the machine.

Seat Adjustments

All scooters have height adjustment for the seat. Your seat should be set at a height which allows your thighs to be fully supported parallel to the base of the scooter, with your feet firmly on the footplate. Most mid-size Class II scooters and all Class III scooters have seats with forward and backward adjustment. The depth of the seat base from front to back should allow for almost the full length of your thigh to be evenly supported by the seat, but leaving enough room so that your calves do not catch the seat behind your knees.

If you are particularly short and even with the seat at its lowest adjustment it is still too high for you, we can build up the foot plate of your scooter so that your feet will be firmly in position on your raised footplate. We simply remove the mat, which is usually held in place by Velcro, and use it as a template to cut as many sheets of 3/4" plywood as are necessary to gain a satisfactory height. Having painted it black to match, we then secure the extra footplate to the scooter base and glue the mat in position for a professional and discreet finish.

There are two styles of seat - the half or low back, and the Captain's seat. The back support on a low back seat is usually fixed in one position and offers no adjustability. The back support on a Captain's seat is much higher and is usually adjustable in angle like a car seat with lever/s at the side.

In addition, the majority of scooters also have adjustable width arm rests which can be altered to accommodate a change in weight or to allow for winter clothing.

Specialised seating is available for powerchairs and you will need an assessment to ensure the most comfortable seating is provided with your new equipment. Many manufacturers now supply modular chairs which incorporate after sale width and depth adjustments so that your chair grows with you removing the need to replace equipment just because your weight has increased or decreased.
Tillers and joysticks

Most tillers, (the steering column and handlebars, incorporating the controls), do not have height adjustment, but will move forwards and backwards to accommodate your arm length. The tiller should be set so that your hands fall naturally on to the handlebars without making you stretch or lean forward, and without cramping and making it difficult to turn the tiller. A handy tip for those who regularly fold the tiller down, so that the scooter can be transported is to find the most comfortable position and using a correction fluid or bright coloured varnish, mark the position on both sides of the tiller, so that you will always get the same position first time to save you keep having to bend down and make readjustments.

The same principles apply to powerchair seating, and similarly the joystick pod should be positioned so that your hand falls naturally to reach it. If for any reason the adjustment of the chair will not accommodate your exceptionally short or long arms, our factory-trained engineers can make custom modifications to your armrests in our workshops.