Wheel chair lift hacking / reuse for solar tilt?

[BennysTire]

Personally I'd think hydraulic is overkill for panels. You could use 12v linear actuators or hand crank or even air cylinders and all would be cheaper to make function than the hassle of modifying the lift. Just my thoughts.

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[BennysTire]

You can use a porta-power hand pump inside the bus with a hose running to the lift cylinder on the roof. Then you can manually lower without climbing on the roof.

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[o1marc]

Originally Posted by BennysTire

I don't buy a bus unless it has a Ricon wheelchair lift.
They are rated for much less capacity than they actually handle. And they have a relief valve to prevent damage to critical components.
I use them for lifting 1000 pound tires and heavy garage equipment frequently.
I would not recommend trying to widen them. Easy enough to lengthen or shorten.
The seatbelt safety, door safety, and even park brake safety are easy to bypass making the pendant live at all times.
I've even bypassed the 12v pump and plumbed the lift into a air/hydraulic foot pump.
The lifts are not power up, power down.
When the lift is lowered, the fluid is released to the reservoir. When raised, fluid is pumped into 2 cylinders.

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And what would your concern for widening one be?

[BennysTire]

Originally Posted by o1marc

And what would your concern for widening one be?

The "L" shapes all over the lift components make the structural rigidity of the lift. They keep it from racking sideways when you're lifting a wheelchair with the bus on a hill or lowering the lift onto uneven ground. The two lift cylinders are plumbed into a tee fitting before the pump so there's a reliance on the rigidity to synchronize them.
As soon as you widen the lift, which requires stretching the base plate and the platform, the twisting forces are exponentially greater through the leverage of the mechanisms...
I'm sure it can/has been done. But knowing what I know and doing what I've done with these lifts, I can't see widening being that good of an idea.
Better off getting a used Tommy Gate at that point...

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[miscrms]

Ordinarily I would agree, it is overkill. But the price is right, and I’ve got about 500 lbs of panels and probably a couple hundred pounds of unistrut to deal with. Even breaking it up into sections anything else I’ve looked into has ended up being more expensive.




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[o1marc]

Originally Posted by BennysTire

The "L" shapes all over the lift components make the structural rigidity of the lift. They keep it from racking sideways when you're lifting a wheelchair with the bus on a hill or lowering the lift onto uneven ground. The two lift cylinders are plumbed into a tee fitting before the pump so there's a reliance on the rigidity to synchronize them.
As soon as you widen the lift, which requires stretching the base plate and the platform, the twisting forces are exponentially greater through the leverage of the mechanisms...
I'm sure it can/has been done. But knowing what I know and doing what I've done with these lifts, I can't see widening being that good of an idea.
Better off getting a used Tommy Gate at that point...

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I guess I'll just have to show you then. I get more accomplished when people tell me it can't be done. The tommy lift is external and the WC lift is internal, I don't want it to show hanging off the back. It's just a matter of properly bracing it all.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by miscrms

Ordinarily I would agree, it is overkill. But the price is right, and I’ve got about 500 lbs of panels and probably a couple hundred pounds of unistrut to deal with. Even breaking it up into sections anything else I’ve looked into has ended up being more expensive.




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When a 20lb object in the bed of my truck slides from one side to the other in a turn you can feel the truck move when that weight stops on the other side. Don't know as I would want 1000lbs of weight on my roof that high.

[miscrms]

Yeah, it’s not ideal, but there it is. Certainly no worse than folks that build full steel roof decks. And at least with a 20,000+ lb bus it’s not going to change the CG much.


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[BennysTire]

How often will you be tilting up? Do you stay parked long? If not often and you're already planning on having to climb the bus to lower the panels, why not like a farm jack setup?

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[BlackJohn]

If you section the panels off into groups could you use something like a chain driven sprocket from a bicycle say, well two of them,one topside and one bottom, and a 2 or however many dc motors which reverses easily to raise and lower even from a remote inside. The engineering needs a bit more work but easy electrics.

John