ECV and Car Rental vs Bus Questions

[Castillo Mom]

I have so many questions, I don't quite know where to begin.

Basically I've been dealing with severe bilateral foot/ankle pain on and off for the past few years. I knew it was probably arthritis but hadn't really addressed the issue with a physician until recently. I managed my pain with OTC meds (which don't help much) but just kept pushing myself between my work schedule and being a single mom with 3 active teenage sons to keep up with.

I finally had x-rays done and saw an orthopedic specialist last month who told me that I have advanced arthritis in both ankles and feet as well as bone spurs and was very surprised I've held up this long without seeking medical attention. I know, I know, I shouldn't have waited so long but I've always been the type to just "suck it up" and keep going. It's been a little difficult for me to accept as I'm only 42 and realize that with time my condition will only get worse. Bottom line is that I have to deal with this now.

Last trip to WDW I rented an ECV every day we went to the parks. We also go to DL as we're annual passholders and I rent an ECV there every time we visit which is at least once a month, sometimes more. Obviously this has added up to a lot of $$$.

I just purchased DVC so there will be many more trips to WDW in our future plus our trips to DL as we only live 15 minutes away. So here are my questions/concerns that hopefully the kind folks on this forum can help me with:

1. I know I should purchase an ECV vs renting. Can anyone recommend a reputable company?

2. Does anyone know the maximum speed of the ECVs at WDW or DL? I need something to gauge what speed I should consider.

3. For those who make yearly trips to WDW or annual passholders - what have your experiences been with bus transportation? I'm very hesitant to use the buses due to so many negative experiences I've heard from some ECV users from others waiting and getting frustrated at the time it takes to load/unload a disabled person. I in no way want any sort of preferential treatment nor am I looking to get ahead of anyone waiting for the bus. I'm thinking of renting my own car so that I can avoid any uncomfortable situations altogether. What are your thoughts/opinons?

4. Has anyone had any problems with their ECV battery dying in the middle of park touring? If you charge it at the parks, how is that done?

Sorry for all of the questions. I know I'll probably have more later. Thanks in advance.

 

[popgfd]

You've asked too broad a range of questions. But you should check with your insurance provider as you can get some help depending on your policy and PCP. DW has a battery chair by Invacare for local use in house or drivingand it is excellent. we also bought a used scooter to take to WDW --we fly SW out of Providence. She rides the scooter to the plane and gate checks it.

we have rented a car but once and my 30 something DD's and DIL's can handle the in/out of the car. we use the buses since ME came into being and have had a couple of problems... but i only was really PO'd once over 20+ trips. so overall the buses are fine.

ALL ECV's have a dial showing rabbit and tortoise. i'd advise go to the middle and then adjust according to your groups walking speed. don't do fastest speed because you will bounce into walls and people.

So buying a used ECV will save a lot of money and always be available to you. charge the battery each night--and make sure it is charging b/c some outlets don't work.

Disney treats disabled with ECV's very well and just assume you will have a magical trip. [if your battery dies, then have one of your kids push which happened to us once.

hope this helps and have a great time.

Pop

 

[wdwmickey]

I can only give you my experiences on my last 2 trips I used a wheelchair in December 2007 and an ECV in October 2008. I used Disney transportation and didn't have any trouble (okay- 1 cranky driver out of 18 total days, at least 2 drivers per day). I drove the ECV at a little over turtle speed (1/4 to rabbit) to match my daughters walking pace & so that I wouldn't hit anyone who darted in front of me--you do know that ECVs are invisible right

 

[Bete]

I've started to research this topic myself for my husband. I haven't bought yet.

I do know the weight of the person will influence the range you can travel on a battery charge for a lighweight, travel scooter. Also, weight will influence the incline you can take being on the scooter. The heavier you are the less of an incline it will handle.

I'm leaning towards having two batteries for a lot of reasons. It will give you more of a range and a longer time using your scooter without recharging it. The most important reason is to make sure you have a backup for any problems that might come up. It would be a real bummer to not be able to use it when you need it.

I feel one of the most important considerations is to have a scooter that is airline friendly and that includes the battery. My suggestions here are all airline friendly.

There are not too many places, if any, that you can go to see these travel scooters or try these scooters out before buying one.

I've narrowed it down to three scooters, right now. One scooter has the best weight lightness, but it doesn't run on an ignition key. That concerns me for safety and security reasons. I don't want a child trying to use the scooter, nor do I want someone walking off with it. So, you need to secure/lock it like you would do a regular bicycle when you are parked with it. This scooter is the lightest one I found at 35 pounds. It's called a Travel Scoot. At best it goes 6 mph and has a maximum range distance of 8 miles on one battery charge. The cost here is $1925.00 If you want an extra battery the cost is steep. By looking at video and such I feel this scooter is a little unstable, but that's just my opinion. I don't have any experience on it to say this but it's how I feel. It cannot go in reverse which is a downer to me. Also, I would think if you are using it for a long time in one day it doesn't look very comfortable to be on for long hours. Again, I don't have real experience on this scooter. I do see this scooter as a very easy answer to take everywhere easily. It fits very easily into most car trunks.

Another scooter I've come across is called a Lexis Light. It weighs 54 pounds. This scooter has a range of 5 to 10 miles on one battery charge and can travel a maximum of 4.8 mph. You can break down the scooter into two pieces, one at 28 pounds and the other at 26 pounds. You can also leave it in one piece and fold it down. The cost of this scooter is $1695 and it includes a lot of extras. From the same family of scooters is one called Easy Light. It's very similar to the Lexis Light, but it only folds down to one piece; it doesn't breakdown. The cost of the Easy Light is $1895 with a lot of extras. From seeing these scooters I feel it's more stable, but it's much heavier than the Travel Scoot. Overall, these scooters are still considered to be very light. A second battery for these scooters is more reasonable compared to the best battery that Travel Scoot has to offer. These scooters fit pretty easily into most car trunks, as well. They would take up more space than the Travel Scoot.

The classification travel scooter can have weights that exceed 100 pounds. Some of these heavier travel scooters break down to 4 or five pieces.

You need to do some searches and see for yourself what might suit your purposes. Good luck.

When you get one and use it I would love to get your review of it, no matter what kind you buy.

I hope others will chime in. I sure would like to hear of other good options myself.

 

[Castillo Mom]

You've asked too broad a range of questions. But you should check with your insurance provider as you can get some help depending on your policy and PCP. DW has a battery chair by Invacare for local use in house or drivingand it is excellent. we also bought a used scooter to take to WDW --we fly SW out of Providence. She rides the scooter to the plane and gate checks it.

we have rented a car but once and my 30 something DD's and DIL's can handle the in/out of the car. we use the buses since ME came into being and have had a couple of problems... but i only was really PO'd once over 20+ trips. so overall the buses are fine.

ALL ECV's have a dial showing rabbit and tortoise. i'd advise go to the middle and then adjust according to your groups walking speed. don't do fastest speed because you will bounce into walls and people.

So buying a used ECV will save a lot of money and always be available to you. charge the battery each night--and make sure it is charging b/c some outlets don't work.

Disney treats disabled with ECV's very well and just assume you will have a magical trip. [if your battery dies, then have one of your kids push which happened to us once.

hope this helps and have a great time.

Pop

Thanks so much for the info. I have Kaiser and already know that they won't cover the cost of an ECV however, since I'm a salaried employee I'm eligible for supplemental medical through Fiserve. I've already contacted them and I was told they'd consider my request with a letter documenting medical necessity from my physician. I have a feeling the request will be denied but my doctor says we should give it a shot anyway.

I won't need the ECV for everyday use, mainly for situations where I would need to walk for more than 2 hours or so. Last night I did some shopping for a little over 2 hours and was in quite a bit of pain once I got home. I have good days and bad days and have been torn over purchasing but my doctor is recommending it at this point.

I can only give you my experiences on my last 2 trips I used a wheelchair in December 2007 and an ECV in October 2008. I used Disney transportation and didn't have any trouble (okay- 1 cranky driver out of 18 total days, at least 2 drivers per day). I drove the ECV at a little over turtle speed (1/4 to rabbit) to match my daughters walking pace & so that I wouldn't hit anyone who darted in front of me--you do know that ECVs are invisible right

LOL, I know what you mean about invisible ECVs. I try to be very careful when I use one and fortunately haven't run anyone over yet!

I've started to research this topic myself for my husband. I haven't bought yet.

I do know the weight of the person will influence the range you can travel on a battery charge for a lighweight, travel scooter. Also, weight will influence the incline you can take being on the scooter. The heavier you are the less of an incline it will handle.

I'm leaning towards having two batteries for a lot of reasons. It will give you more of a range and a longer time using your scooter without recharging it. The most important reason is to make sure you have a backup for any problems that might come up. It would be a real bummer to not be able to use it when you need it.

I feel one of the most important considerations is to have a scooter that is airline friendly and that includes the battery. My suggestions here are all airline friendly.

There are not too many places, if any, that you can go to see these travel scooters or try these scooters out before buying one.

I've narrowed it down to three scooters, right now. One scooter has the best weight lightness, but it doesn't run on an ignition key. That concerns me for safety and security reasons. I don't want a child trying to use the scooter, nor do I want someone walking off with it. So, you need to secure/lock it like you would do a regular bicycle when you are parked with it. This scooter is the lightest one I found at 35 pounds. It's called a Travel Scoot. At best it goes 6 mph and has a maximum range distance of 8 miles on one battery charge. The cost here is $1925.00 If you want an extra battery the cost is steep. By looking at video and such I feel this scooter is a little unstable, but that's just my opinion. I don't have any experience on it to say this but it's how I feel. It cannot go in reverse which is a downer to me. Also, I would think if you are using it for a long time in one day it doesn't look very comfortable to be on for long hours. Again, I don't have real experience on this scooter. I do see this scooter as a very easy answer to take everywhere easily. It fits very easily into most car trunks.

Another scooter I've come across is called a Lexis Light. It weighs 54 pounds. This scooter has a range of 5 to 10 miles on one battery charge and can travel a maximum of 4.8 mph. You can break down the scooter into two pieces, one at 28 pounds and the other at 26 pounds. You can also leave it in one piece and fold it down. The cost of this scooter is $1695 and it includes a lot of extras. From the same family of scooters is one called Easy Light. It's very similar to the Lexis Light, but it only folds down to one piece; it doesn't breakdown. The cost of the Easy Light is $1895 with a lot of extras. From seeing these scooters I feel it's more stable, but it's much heavier than the Travel Scoot. Overall, these scooters are still considered to be very light. A second battery for these scooters is more reasonable compared to the best battery that Travel Scoot has to offer. These scooters fit pretty easily into most car trunks, as well. They would take up more space than the Travel Scoot.

The classification travel scooter can have weights that exceed 100 pounds. Some of these heavier travel scooters break down to 4 or five pieces.

You need to do some searches and see for yourself what might suit your purposes. Good luck.

When you get one and use it I would love to get your review of it, no matter what kind you buy.

I hope others will chime in. I sure would like to hear of other good options myself.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. I'm going to look into the 2nd ECV you mentioned. I'm looking for a middle-of-the-road model. I did see one on Costco.com called Shoprider Dasher 3. The price is $799 and includes S&H. The only thing is that it doesn't look all that comfortable. The seat back height looks a little low and I'm not so sure about the leg room.

Samsclub.com has quite a few models that I'm looking into. I haven't done a price comparison with other sites yet though.

Once I get my ECV I'll be happy to give a review. I wish you well in your search also.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Hi and to disABILITIES!

I would suggest checking out the following web sites, pridemobility.com, shoprider.com and rascalmobility.com. All three of these companies make good ECVs in a wide range of sizes and power.

The Disney ones are built specially for Disney and have a top speed of about 2MPH. I personally have a Pride Celebrity-X which has a theoretical top speed of 6.5MPH.

The bigger ECVs tend to use two U-1 batteries which weigh about 24 pounds each and will allow you to run around at maximum weight and maximum speed for about 25 miles. The total weight, including batteries, for the medium to large ECVs tend to be in the 150 to 200 pound range with a capacity of about 350 pounds in the seat.

The smaller ones tend to weight 100-125 pounds and have a capacity of about 250 pounds. They have a single battery pack and will not have the range of the larger ones.

I have a friend who once ran out of power in one of the smaller ECVs. We found an outlet and plugged it in for about a 1/2 hour. They are not took hard to find.

But you might want to go to a mobility store near where you live and look at and discuss the various models available.

When I bought my new ECV I also bought a lift at the same time. I had narrowed down to three models of lifts and about five models of ECV and I sent a request for proposal out to about ten dealers, giving them the choices I was interested in. I got back a good range of prices and went for the low bidder.

And it appears that the bus drivers are improving.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

One other thing. Even if your insurance will not cover it, get a prescription from your doctor and that will make it a medical necessity and save you the sales tax if you are getting it from a mobility store.

And yes, Costco has good prices but if you go to a dealer you can actually see and try out the various scooters and they also have repair facilities.

 

[Castillo Mom]

Hi and to disABILITIES!

I would suggest checking out the following web sites, pridemobility.com, shoprider.com and rascalmobility.com. All three of these companies make good ECVs in a wide range of sizes and power.

The Disney ones are built specially for Disney and have a top speed of about 2MPH. I personally have a Pride Celebrity-X which has a theoretical top speed of 6.5MPH.

The bigger ECVs tend to use two U-1 batteries which weigh about 24 pounds each and will allow you to run around at maximum weight and maximum speed for about 25 miles. The total weight, including batteries, for the medium to large ECVs tend to be in the 150 to 200 pound range with a capacity of about 350 pounds in the seat.

The smaller ones tend to weight 100-125 pounds and have a capacity of about 250 pounds. They have a single battery pack and will not have the range of the larger ones.

I have a friend who once ran out of power in one of the smaller ECVs. We found an outlet and plugged it in for about a 1/2 hour. They are not took hard to find.

But you might want to go to a mobility store near where you live and look at and discuss the various models available.

When I bought my new ECV I also bought a lift at the same time. I had narrowed down to three models of lifts and about five models of ECV and I sent a request for proposal out to about ten dealers, giving them the choices I was interested in. I got back a good range of prices and went for the low bidder.

And it appears that the bus drivers are improving.

Thank you!

I'm definitely drawn to the larger ECVs because they seem to look sturdier to me and seem like they'd be more comfortable.

I'm definitely going to check out the sites you suggested.

One other thing. Even if your insurance will not cover it, get a prescription from your doctor and that will make it a medical necessity and save you the sales tax if you are getting it from a mobility store.

And yes, Costco has good prices but if you go to a dealer you can actually see and try out the various scooters and they also have repair facilities.

Thanks for the suggestion to get an rx. I didn't know one could save on the sales tax that way!

 

[Mary976]

We order some of DD's wheelchair accessories from www.spinlife.com. They sell ECVs as well and have helpful info on their site about all their products.

Mary