Ramps - My Van

After a fairly worry free ownership of a Dodge Grand Caravan, modified to have pneumatic suspension by Van Action, it was good to upgrade to a mass produced product that is the Braun Rampvan. Because they manufacture tens of thousands of these each year, with dealership and repair support in most major centers, it gave me much greater confidence in the ability to have a problem diagnosed and fixed quickly, should one arise. When the pneumatic suspension system on my Grand Caravan developed a leak finding it was incredibly difficult and when it was thought to be found and repaired it was not long before the problem resurfaced.

It was an excessive source of anxiety for me because that van could not be driven without that pneumatic suspension. It functioned by inflating the suspension every time the van was to be used. If the compressor that inflated the suspension were to fail it would be mere minutes before the van would be unsafe to drive. I was never stranded anywhere but with the compressor cutting in every 60 seconds my concerns over it having excessive wear or overheating and failing completely were not without merit. With a Braun Rampvan the rear suspension is compressed each time the user wants to enter or exit the van. If this system were to fail the ramp may be a bit steep but the vehicle would be perfectly drivable.

The ramp on these vans can vary in steepness from a grade of 1:7 to a grade of 1:9, when parked on a flat surface. This depends on the distance the floor is dropped and the style of ramp. In the case of mine, a Toyota Sienna, the floor had to be dropped 12 inches, which resulted in a slightly more gradual incline than in my friend Paul's Honda Odessy which has a 10 inch drop floor, but a different style ramp that is steeper for the first third, then more gradual for the top two thirds. One good push will get you over the steeper bottom half of his ramp then the rest of your climb is easy. The ramp on my van has only a slightly steeper bottom half and requires just a little more than one full push to get over that hump. You cannot always count on being able to, but when the opportunity to park next to a curb or sidewalk comes, take it. Your ramp will be virtually flat.

These differences between vehicles and ramps can be difficult to determine which will work the best based on your physical ability. An authorized dealer should be able to provide you with demonstration models to try. Other technology, such as hill climber brakes, are available to assist in the process. They will be covered in the future and I hope to complete compiling a video we recorded the raw footage for to demonstrate the difficulty of climbing each ramp on each van by two quadriplegics of slightly different levels of neurological function.

If there's one thing I have learned about vehicles it is that necessity truly is the mother of invention. When I had a ramp I needed to be able to climb my determination made it possible in a short amount of time. The same could be said for difficult transfers and many other physical things I needed to be able to accomplish independently. Determination and practice go a long way.

Other adaptations to the vehicle will be covered in future posts.

Source: Authorized adapted vehicle reseller and modifiers.