Hi
Read an article in the hospital waiting room about a Luggie - has anyone used one?
Would like to be sure they are useful as they seem to be about £1800. My husband has a boot scooter but to be honest it is a bit of a fag to put together. The main chassis weighs 23kg, which I think is about the same as the total weight for the Luggie.
Thanks for any reports.
B
Here’s the website:
They look great… watch the video on website… looks a bit tricky folding it etc but perhaps easy after some practice. Anyway I think they look wonderful for travelling.
Pat x
Another very similar is the Mobie. I think they are a little overpriced.
I have owned a luggie for a bit over a year now and it has revolutionised my life
I absolutely love it. It is so small and zippy and I can go wherever I would have gone had I been still walking because it is no wider than my body. Such a relief to not go through a dress shop taking half the display down as I go through! And my knuckles love not getting scraped on doorframes.
I can get it in and out of the boot literally single-handed. I am currently nursing a busted shoulder and I can still get my luggie in and out of my boot by my self. I have a blanket in the boot that I drape over the lip of the boot to protect the paint and then I lift the front wheels up on to the boot edge, bend down and lift the other end up and wheel the luggie in and swivel it to fit as it slides in. So at no time do I have to actually lift 23kgs. It just levers in really easily.
The beauty of it is that it doesn’t need to be put together every time you use it. The seat just collapses down onto the chassis and the handle bar lies down on the seat. I don’t fold mine up completely, I leave it in the open driving chassis postion, just with the seat and handlebars collapsed. I also like the fact that if you come to a curb that has no cross over for scooters you can hop off and pick up the front handle and tow it like a suit case on wheels up over the curb. It actually has those little suitcase wheels as well as its normal driving wheels especially for this purpose
The battery life is about 5 hours on flat terrain. It does cope with gentle short hills but it isn’t designed for rugged, hilly out door use on a regular basis. I have another, much bigger scooter for that. The luggie really comes into its own in shopping centres, around the local streets, at the hospital (airports!!!) etc
Since having my luggie I have been able to take my daughter to the Zoo where I wore her out for a change! I took it to Queensland for a holiday which was brilliant and my daughter and I are able to go and do mother daughter shopping trips again without me collapsing from exhaustion. I would be lost without it. I use mine nearly every day.
For me it has meant freedom and independence
B
Thank you for that Belinda. I’m now seriously thinking of getting one!
Pat x
Well, certainly is food for thought. Not sure that my husband misses the shopping though!
Thanks for the feedback.
Regards
Based on your post Gelinda I now see that for many people they will be well worth the money. They are not for me I need something different - horses for courses.
Some vital statistics of light weight scooters:
Luggie — weight 55.5lbs incl battery, width 17.5in, length 40in, turning circle 38in
Mobie — weight 48.6lbs incl battery , width 17in, length 39in, turning circle 25in (I think this is incorrect given the wheelbase)
Travelscoot — weight 35lbs incl battery, width 17in, length 37in, turning circle not given, think it is about 35in
A friend of mine Patrick — www(dot)aid4disabled(dot)com — owns one and was kind enough to give me the following review:
Travelscoot
Advantages
Very light, 18 KG
Easy to fold up and put up for use
Manoeurvable
You do not feel disabled when driving it
Fun to drive
When folded about the size of a golf bag
Distance of about 8 miles at a max of 4 mph
Battery recharges in about 5 houes
Possible to carry two batteries, one as a spare
Well made, rfobust structure
Tool kit of Allen keys supplied
Can be used indoors and outdoors
Owner in Germaqny responds to queries very quickly, nothing is too much trouble.
Disadvantages
Brakes could be better
Poor manual supplied when bought
No reverse gear, this is not really a problemnot a problem
You need to be able to use your legs
3 wheeler and has a high center of gravity
Inherently unstable unless a weight carried in the base basket
No UK agency, everything must be done through owner in Munich
I have now also bought one and agree with much of what Patrick says.
Yes but the Travelscoot is so much inferior to either the Luggie or the Mobie on so many levels.
I test rode a Travelscoot and for me it was useless. The lack of reverse gear was a real drawback and the brakes were scarily bad. You really need to be able to plant your feet quite hard to stop quickly. I also found due to its 3-wheel design it felt quite unstable when cornering.
For my level of disablity I found it unsuitable and felt vulnerable and unsafe on it. And my legs aren’t good enough to use it. You do actually need quite good legs for the Travelscoot which seems odd for a mobility scooter.
But for someone wanting an uber-light weight scooter more for fatigue management and not because of major mobility issues it could be a good choice.
Isn’t it great that there is so much choice nowadays and we aren’t all limited to the old clunking NHS style manual wheelchairs?
B
Thanks again for the further thoughts. So difficult to get one that does the job.