My NEW (USED!) Quickie F55s Powerchair - Start
 

I bought a tatty old powerchair, and tidied it up to look like a new one, and modified and improved it as I went along.  This chair cost me £500 (900 US Dollars) and about  £100 to "repair/modify"  That's a cheap chair but takes a little work. But its BETTER than just a new one...

How?

My OLD original F55s powerchair is getting a bit old in the tooth now, so I wanted a new chair.  After looking around at ALL the options I came to the conclusion that I could not justify buying anything else other than ANOTHER Sunrise Quickie F55s.  There just isn't any other chair out there that's as good for both indoor and outdoor full time use. Believe me I looked at rather a lot of powerchairs and wheelchairs over the past few years!   That's not to say its "perfect" because its FAR from it!  But its the closest to a good design let down by a number of annoying "cost cutting" and bad engineering practices along with useless programming...

So knowing that I will need to "fix" its little issues (again) I decided to "fix up" an old (read cheap!) F55s powerchair offered to me by a guy called Owen.  I bought it on the strength of a couple of photos, that didn't exactly inspire me!  I offered £500 and he accepted.  The guy obviously has a sense of humour with orange, blue, red. yellow tyres fitted!  And flowers painted on the sides, and a day-glow orange Golf ball for a joystick...  See pics. None of this really mattered because I intended to rebuild everything anyway.  This chair is older than my own F55S powerchair. (here and here - also on this site)
 

The F55s powerchair has a bunch of design problems that turn a really excellent chair into a useless almost unusable device...    Below is a list of its issues, some of which are related.

• Its Centre of gravity is far too far forwards.  This particular one has a Recaro seat making it much worse still.  It causes serious control issues, batteries to die fast, overall chair length to be too long.  Easily fixed!  This may be a "legislation / safety thing but it buggers up a seriously good chair...
   

• Recaro seating is a bit of an afterthought...  Its FAR too high as well as too far forwards, but both these can be fixed easily.  So WHY don't "they" do it already???
   

• Programming is nothing short of dangerous (my own opinion of course, for legal reasons but I have now reprogrammed so many other desperate peoples that obviously most other users seem to think so too...) It makes the chair all but unusable.  This requires the PP1b programmer to fix, and a little knowledge. Takes about 15 minutes.  But the PP1a programmer that most service agents have CANNOT do it - regardless of what they tell you.  This programming issue effects almost EVERY chair, not just this one...
   

• Control pod mounting.  It uses a stupid "swing away" hinge.  This consists of a single rivet that soon wears and allows the pod to flop about uselessly, and causes control issues!  Easily fixed though. So you have to ask yourself why they don't do it already???
   

• It uses "Swing away" footrests too, like many powerchairs do.  Whilst they may be a good idea for some people most of us can't stand so need to "transfer" by sliding to car seat or bed.  Well they are in the way, and can't be removed because the weight of my legs is on them!  Plus they make the chair look like it came out of the ark, they take up too much space while trying to turn, as they stick out and are simply too wide.  When will they learn that every inch, and every pound REALLY count when you don't have a choice?  And every one you see is twisted and bent... Weak design as well.
   

• Motors...  Use open bearings (shielded only, allowing carbon dust, water in but not the rubber greased for life sealed ones, as would be expected.  They run dry of course! And expire as you would expect!  So fit sealed bearings! They are cheap. So why don't the manufacturers do this???  Brushes last around 2 years total if you use it all day every day, and are actually available (whoohoo) - Nothing else is though, so if ANYTHING goes wrong with motor or gearbox or cush drives you have no choice but to replace all as one unit.  You don't want to know the price...
   

• The "cush drive" fits onto both the motor and the gearbox shafts the same way. A "D" type drive, or if you prefer a shaft with a small flat in it.  Well its useless and wears out causing that familiar clunk / clunk as you turn left right.  If you take your chairs motors off and remove these BEFORE they wear, and refit using permanent stud lock or bearing lock (I use the "green" Loctite) they never will wear...  But you only work this out when its too late! Parts are of course unavailable! so prevention here rather than cure is your only option.  They last 9 months to a year on my powerchairs if you do NOT Loctite them first!
   

• Gearboxes - They come with two factory built in defects... You CAN fix them though.  After a few weeks you will begin to notice that your chair goes clunk/clunk as you go left/right...  Its not in your mind its caused by a very small amount of backlash in four places!  But its enough to drive a full time user to distraction.
  
  1) the wheel fits on the round shaft with a small "square key" to transmit the power.  This is fine for a load in one direction. But you actually go left/right, forwards/backwards hundreds of times every day. So although it had only a very very small amount of free play when new, it very soon wears. Minute amounts of movement here cause a clunking and a sensation you feel rather than hear at first and its horrid!  And it gets WORSE with time slowly.  They do this from day one.
  
  2)  There is a big gear that fits on this same shaft INSIDE the gearbox and it too uses a similar key...  The problem is now compounded, and is much harder to fix.
  
  3)  The "cush drive" wears where the thing fits on the motor, (the rubber shock absorber meant to "smooth" the motors pulses, shown on the end of the gearbox input shaft in both these pictures.  This one though is "fixed" on with serious "stud lock" by me.!  If you don't do this they screw up eventually and then cannot be fixed.
  
  4)  And Ditto the gearbox...  
  To stop the clunking and noise you must fix ALL of these problems together.  A keyway should NEVER be used for reversing cyclic loads. Ask any good engineer. But they are here!  But lots of wheelchairs do this...  I told you they were designed by idiots? There IS a fix though.
   

• There are lots of MASSIVELY overweight (weight matters!!!) and over complicated bits that are simply bewildering.  For example there is a "bar" that holds up the front of the seat.  Its made from SOLID steel bar, encased in a bit of thick wall steel tube and has machined and shapes ends, and uses four bolts, four washers, four nuts.  It doesn't do much, but I can hardly lift it! Why???  I just replaced it with a single alloy bar with two holes drilled in it!  Lighter, cheaper, neater, does not rust, no need for paint, cheaper to produce...  There are lots of strange bits like this.  (Idiots??? Or is there a reason I can't understand...)

If they sorted these issues out as I do on this page then this would be by far the best powerchair for active users as an in / outdoor chair.  But we all know how wheelchair companies love advancement, or constructive criticism. Beats me why they don't ask me!  But there you go.

What I intend to do to this used F55 powerchair:

1. Strip and rebuild its motors and gearboxes PROPERLY so the damned thing is smooth and quiet, with bearings, brushes, etc.  Now Done.  See HOW
   

2. Strip and clean everything PROPERLY, and have any parts that are not perfect either replaced or modified, improved, or powder coated or all three!
    

3. See if I can get on with that Recaro seat. It may not be compatible with my backside, but we will see!  And move it rearwards by 4 inches, and lower the back of it 1 inch, and the front by a massive 4 inches!  At the moment as standard its 27 inches from the floor and leans backwards far too steeply!  Who designs these things anyway Now done. See HOW
    

4. Throw away those awful antique footrest hangers - fancy paint does not make a good design...
   And saw off those ugly mountings >>>>
    

5. Throw away that awful curb climber.  I can get up bigger ones without it anyway after reprogramming and moving the seat back.
    

6. Design, construct a LIGHT cheap SMALL narrow, rubber mounted single footplate - >>>>
    

7. Pull all those Nancy stickers off - they look gay..
    

8. Throw away the front lights, (C of G, Weight) because they are cheap nasty, heavy, oversized, and unused.  If I really wanted lights I would fit tiny light carbon fibre LED powered ones from a Motorcycle catalogue.  But I don't!
    

9. Fit a "parallel" type pod mounting, they may be heavy but they actually work.
    

10. Replace the "arms" and mountings as these are (as usual on this design) worn and rattle about. The locking pin wears in the alloy of the arm.
     

11. Throw those multicoloured tyres away. Fit proper (black) pneumatic front ones, and tubeless "trailer" wheels/tyres on rear.  These are less puncture prone, bigger diameter (so faster) and CHEAP!  On home made hubs, so as to eliminate that backlash "keyway" problem for good.
     

12. Fit 100 amp controller in place of the 80 amp one (I happen to have one...)
     

13. Reprogram totally so it drives like it should have from the beginning, with PROPER control. (Drive it like you stole it!)
     

14. Then I hope to use it while I REALLY go to work on my original F55S CHAIR...  That one will be 48v, 270 amp robot controller, on board Honda suitcase silent generator, etc...

OK I am rebuilding now super clean of course and properly!

Below is the new 8"x 3" trailer wheel fitted.  This comes very cheaply with a strong tubeless 3.5 inch wide tyre already fitted. Its about an inch or so "bigger" than the stock F55s tyres, giving a higher top speed, better ride due to more sidewall, and less or zero punctures due to its stronger carcase and tubeless construction.   Kinda makes you wonder why they don't just fit these as stock doesn't it...    It fits using a 20mm Taperlock fitting, so that the typically worn keyway, and gearbox / wheel backlash problem is eliminated.   And a specially machined (by me) V belt pulley so I can bolt the wheel straight on...  Also shown in this picture is the new "anti tip" wheels, which came from a new £5 skateboard!   They are smaller, harder, lighter, fit straight on, look better, are harder wearing.   And make a nice whooshing sound as you wheelie!   Those trailer tyres look better than stock ones do as well as they are "chunkier" and definitely better than those multicoloured foam ones were!  All those stickers are gone too.

That skateboard wheel!  I use these while wheelying sometimes the full length of the street. Every day. They don't last very long!  

But they DO last a damned site longer than those nasty rubber ones that it came with...

This picture shows the 20mm "taperlock" that clamps to the shaft.  And the V belt pulley before it has been machined down and "tapped" to allow me to fit the wheel

    (After machining - click)

Now, with the seat moved back by 4 inches or so, when you reverse to a wall its the headrest that touches first.  And it was lowered 4 inches at the front and around 2 inches at the back as well so that transfers were easier, and the seat height is the same as a "standard" seat version at 23 inches at the set front from the ground. 

It makes for a VERY compact powerchair now those awful swing away footrest efforts are chopped off! 

Also the arms are 2 inches closer together now due to losing those 2 one inch thick unnecessary side plates.  On a Recaro seat they just get in the way, and make the chair wider than need be.  And as I already said the narrower, and shorter a chair is the better!  Its amazing how much difference an inch here, or there really makes.  Shame the manufacturers don't quite get this...  Saves some more weight too.  

Ughhh ORANGE tyres!  That Owen guy had no taste!

While size is very important, I have a box with all the overweight or unneeded parts in it. (except wheels of course)  Now I can't lift it!  Really.  There are brackets, oversized bolts, all that rubbish I cut off the seat frame, curb climber, swing away footrests, lights and indicators, etc etc...  WEIGHT matters.  It effects both performance "usability", range and therefore battery life expectancy, hill climbing, carpet and tyre wear (which in itself requires some power!)  Must get off this soap box...

Don't worry those orange tyres will soon be gone!

New footrest plate.  Nice & small (I drew around my training shoes rear half) compact, light, small & will soon be fitted.   Shown here it is sat on the new front black tyres. On it is the rubber (car exhaust) rubber mounting blocks.  They are simple small cheap light strong things. 6mm & 8mm threads.

It will be rubber mounted to help stop the jolts from bad roads and surfaces causing me to have muscle spasms.

Now with this fitted the furthest thing back is my head, or if fitted, the headrest. (I may take it off.)  The furthest thing forwards is my toes. And they are as tucked back as its possible to be.  This means it can turn in a TIGHTER space than most manual chairs because the wheels do not get in the way.

OK THEN!!!  Time for a break!!!

For fun, I fitted my home built Radio Control interface, and it was just "borrowed" from my 4x4 Robot Powerchair (Here) 

I have not got the footrest fitted yet, and it still has those horrid coloured front tyres, but who cares! 

There is actually a real reason for this messing about, in that I can work on this purple chair, and move it about, such as onto the vans lift for easy access like a car ramp!  And I can plug the same "box" into any Penny and Giles control system on any chair and drive it home, or to my workshop.  Or I can scare my dog, and cause strange looks as an empty powerchair zig zags all over the shopping centre avoiding walking obstacles...  I took it for a walk to the pub last night!  Anyway, not bad for around 600 UK Pounds so far, and it looks like new, and then some with all the crap stripped off and shortened etc.

Download the short 5 Mb movies below, it looks very odd! The downloads may be slow, because they are living on my desktop computer and its connected via NTLs cable...

Right click, choose "save target as" to save.
1 movie
2 movie
3 movie
4 movie

Playtime now over!
 

All information on this site is © of the respective writers & contributors, & John C Williamson
Email burgerman@ntlworld.com   -  20 Westlands Ave, Grimsby, N. E. Lincs, DN34 4SP, UK.