Dward Farquar's Blob

• Jan. 26, 2006 - K-Boy's Kruzer

It's a wonderful world when you have wheels. My friend Keith has them on his wheelchair and on a very cool Toyota Sienna van. The traditional transportation for wheelchair user's has been a full size van built on a truck frame that was a small version of a city bus. The wheelchair occupant rode in the back like freight in a commercial vehicle. Not anymore. With the advent of the mid-size and mini-vans, we are now in the world of style and cool. (photo attached). The reason that sliding door is so low - drop suspension. A push of the button on the automatic opener and the door slides back while the right rear suspension drops like Roy Roger's horse, Trigger. Then a lightweight ramp swings out and down. It's a piece of work. The traditional ramp was like a Tommy-Lift on the back of a 5-ton truck. Real handy for getting a pallet out of a local delivery truck and on the ground. Then you notice that the floor is lowered to the level of the rocker panels - what! - and perfectly flat to make a good surface for rolling the wheelchair. And a gotta get me one of those upscale interiors. No rubber floor mats here. You won't be hosing this one out. Although there is no middle seat, the rear bench is the stylish and comfy Toyota cloth with nice carpet and seat belts. There's separate rear A/C controls and it looks like it's just a waiting for the kids with their very own cupholders, headphone jacks and LCD screens. And, of course, you gotta have the deluxe stereo with CD and a plug for your I-Pod. But getting back to the floor. It's the element that makes this van so different. Dropping the floor 4-5" is a major structural modification. This is a unibody, remember. There's no front passenger seat so the wheelchair rolls all the way up there to "SHOTGUN"  Not only can the K-Boy see everything any other passenger sees, there's no visual cue that he's anything but just another "scrub". A scrub that owns the ride. This car thing  - it's  a mystery - just sing along with the Beach Boys: "round round get around, I get around!"

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