Wounded Wheels Restoring Heroes and Hot Rods Wounded Wheels - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

“Restoring Heroes and Hot Rods”

Wounded Wheels

Wounded Wheels

Restoring Heroes and Hotrods

Wh Who a

• and

nd Wh What t We We Are

• A federally recognized 501(c)(3) public charity
• Modifying iconic American muscle cars
• Intended recipients are paraplegic/tetraplegic and bilateral above-the-knee

amputee/multiple amputee combat vets

• We are applying engineering and design concepts to commonly available

resources that provide accessibility for disabled veterans in new ways

• The manifestation of some of these concepts are demonstrated in a 1970

Chevelle SS

• We want to create a forum for bringing together people, concepts,

innovators, needs, and solutions to pave a way into the future for creating products and features that have never been created for the betterment of

• ur disabled veterans
• Our wish is to provide a vehicular mobility degree-of-freedom similar to

individuals without disabilities and profoundly change the lives of these selfless heroes by returning to them the ability to drive the car of their dreams.

• Enemy use of IEDs results in increased numbers of major-limb and multiple

amputations

• The effect of these injuries is far-reaching and long-lasting
• Current options for transport sacrifice the “WOW” factor for functionality
• Typically a stock van is modified to accommodate a wheelchair
• Two configurations
• Config 1. Occupant drives in through the rear hatch via ramp or lift

– Wheel chair acts as passenger seat

• Config 2. Wheel chair occupant transfers into vehicle seat

– Wheel chair loads separately

• Ingress / egress is time consuming and strenuous
• Not a preferred vehicle for styling / appearance

WH WHY

Wounded Wheels

Restoring Heroes and Hotrods

The Pros and the Cons

Cons ns of the e Muscle cle Car…

• Not everyone wants one
• It’s not as convenient as a mini-van
• Headroom during ingress and

egress and degree of difficulty are suboptimal

• No airbags
• It has poor gas mileage
• It’s not a family car
• It isn’t as comfortable as other cars
• It may not be great in bad weather
• It’s heavy

Pros of the Muscle Car…

For The Individual

• It provides a sense of what was
• It returns them to a better time
• It creates some normalcy in their life in

ways unavailable to them before now For The Car

• It’s powerful and sexy
• It’s fun in ways that a minivan can’t touch
• It’s an iconic American muscle car

For The Future

• It’s blazing the trail for new ideas
• It’s the first in a future of product

developments that pushes the envelope

• It’s creating new avenues for better ways
• f life

Cu Current ent Prot

• totype
• type

Wounded Wheels

Restoring Heroes and Hotrods

Car Modifications

• A standard component system that will be integrated into a modified car

chassis with factory quality and includes:

• Hand-operated vehicle controls
• Power wheelchair docking base
• Folding wheelchair ramp/ floor modification
• Modified power wheelchair
• All controls are operated independently by the wheelchair occupant
• Designed to allow ingress / egress in approximately 2 minutes

Third Door and Ramps

Problem: There was not enough room to get a wheelchair into the Chevelle with the current door configuration. Solution: We cut into the driver’s side rear quarter to create a third door. Problem: How does the wheelchair get into and out of the Chevelle? Solution: We added a servo-actuated ramp and it took a several attempts.

In the drIver’s seat

Problem: There was not enough height in the Chevelle for

• ur chair to fit in the driver’s

spot. Solution: We cut into the floor and created a modified floor section and platform to lower the wheelchair into the driver’s spot.

System Integration

We’ve had many challenges in creating this amazing vehicle, but if it were an easy thing to do, someone would have already done it. Several other modifications were made to the Chevelle to make it

• complete. They include a new door

latch for the third door as well as the driver door and interior controls for the third door and the ramp.

Wounded Wheels

Restoring Heroes and Hotrods

The Future

After building the Chevelle, we learned many important lessons. You can read more about them in our essay “On Building the Chevelle”. Our current project is a 1972 Dodge Challenger. We are modifying this vehicle to be accessible and drivable by a tetraplegic or multiple amputee veteran. This will require significant design reconsiderations from our first prototype. We hope you will continue to support us in our endeavors and our efforts to make others consider what might be possible to make the lives of our wounded veterans a little better.

Wounded Wheels

Restoring Heroes and Hotrods

Thank you!