Mobility Scooters

A mobility scooter is a device used by people who have difficulty walking or getting around. These devices are sometimes called personal mobility vehicles. They carry a single person in a sitting position and can be used indoors and outdoors, but some types of scooters are better suited for outdoor use than others.

Mobility scooters are electric powered and need to be plugged into the wall the charge. Over the years, the range and speed of these devices has greatly increased and some are able to travel faster than 10 miles per hour over distances greater than 40 miles. Of course this is on the high end and most have a range that is closer to about 10 miles per charge.

The user of a mobility scooter will sit in a chair that sometimes resembles an office chair. There are some of these devices that have high backed chairs, while others have a much lower back. The chair is mounted off-center and towards the rear of the device. While sitting, the scooter is controlled by a set of handlebars that extend from the front of the scooter.

The handlebars can be adjusted to be brought closer or farther from the user and this allows them to be used by people of differing size. These devices can be a great way to allow an individual who has difficulty walking to explore the World.

Travel Scooters: These scooters are very lightweight and designed so that they can be taken with you as you travel and go on vacation. To help make them as lightweight as possible, they often lack features, support less weight, and have a shorter range. They are also not as well suited to outdoor use, but will preform well over tightly packed flat surfaces.

Most scooters are designed so they can be disassembled, but a travel scooter is built with this in mind. The individual pieces are easy to handle and lightweight. Usually the heaviest piece will weigh less than thirty pounds, so it is seldom difficult to move or transport these devices.

Heavy Duty Scooters: These are actually in many ways a polar opposite of the travel scooter. A heavy duty scooter is designed to be driven virtually anywhere. They have a tremendous range, top speed, and very high weight capacity. Larger tires, improved suspension, and dent resistant bumpers allow these devices to preform very well outdoors.

Like travel scooters, they can be disassembled, but the heaviest piece often weighs more than a hundred pounds, so most people use a scooter carrier for their vehicle to transport a heavy duty scooter. Also because of their size, they might not work as well in the tight quarters of a living room, but can be used indoors and out.

Traditional Scooters: These fall in between the travel scooter and the heavy duty scooter. They have more features, support more weight, and have a larger range than a travel scooter, but they are less robust than a heavy duty scooter. They are well suited to both indoors and outdoors terrain and cost less.