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Man Designs An Off-Road “Wheelchair” So That His Wife Can Go Places She Never Imagined
In hopes of getting his wife to see more, Zack Nelson created a hybrid wheel chair so she could go places she could not before.
(TMU) – In the USA alone, there are around 2.7 million people who are bound to a wheelchair. Most of us take our abled bodies for granted at times. We don’t think twice when we climb stairs, or go for a walk in nature.
Meet Cambry, for almost all her adult life she has been wheelchair bound, unable to get around like her able-bodied friends, she’s been restricted to the pavement.
In hopes of getting Cambry to see more and be less restricted, her boyfriend at the time, Zack Nelson, created a hybrid wheel chair so she could go places she could not before. He merged two electric bikes and put a seat in the center. The best part was, it worked, and Cambry was able to experience a new found freedom thanks to the awesome creation Zack made for her.
The new spliced bike creation allowed Cambry to tackle obstacles that would normally be impossible in a regular wheelchair, and she could go on for miles without her shoulders hurting from pushing herself along.
It’s a year later now, and Cambry and Zack are not only married, but they have begun mass producing the “Not-a-Wheelchair“ – the amazing off road vehicle has taken a year to perfect.
Choosing an adaptive off roader for disabled people doesn’t leave you with many options, the couple have said. They can cost as much as a regular car or are just insanely slow. Zack and Cambry came up with their design which is light and quick and comes with a long range, but it was not all easy and smooth sailing. Cambry explained:
“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. 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.”
‘Not-a-Wheelchair’ is definitely not an indoor machine, so Cambry still uses her normal wheelchair for inside their home but any time she and Zack go to the park, or on a hike, she jumps in The Rig. “Its silent, which means that we can all still talk and chat while she rides next to the group,” her husband explained.
During these trips, ‘Not-a-Wheelchair’ really showed what it’s capable of. “We have taken The Rig to Hawaii twice for testing. The bike has to be shipped with a freight company before we go, but we ship The Rig about a week before we fly out ourselves, and it’s waiting there for us when we arrive. All this travel was before COVID was a thing. Luckily, we also live near mountains and snow with long wide flat trails to try the bike out on.”
More info: notawheelchair.com | YouTube
