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'88 Blazer 2016 Changes. Not many....Yea.

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TREA18

TREA18

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TREA18 submitted a new Build:

'88 Blazer 2016 Changes. Not many....Yea.

I've known about this truck for 12 years and thought about buying it many times because of the wheelchair lift. Well last year I got more serious and searched the web and found ck5 - needless to say I had to buy it.
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Before cutting.
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And after some rust repair cutting and cage.
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Kert at Diy4X fixed me up with this Rock slider / Wife and Kids step.
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And the lift open.

I just had to pic whore it here hopefully you like. I know axle upgrade a lift and bigger tires would be nice but here it is so far:D Those will have to wait .

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Click to expand...

Read more about this build here...
 
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Sure turned out nice, Tony! I'm digging the new color!
 
that is a a SICK wheelchair lift. Ive never seen one like that which loads into the driver side door. All the ones ive seen were built into a sliding door on a van, or the rear hatch of a hatchback of sprinter, or the rooftop carrier thing.

I used to work designing and building custom wheelchairs. Im guessing the "grate" part of the ramp folds up behind you, but im at a loss on how exactly the base plate which you lock into slides laterally.

But very bad ass... to me thats gotta be the coolest part of the truck. although i am jealous of the full convert chop job :)
 
Thank's I'm pretty happy with the out come. It's almost a little to nice. I liked driving it when it was a little beat up and not feel like everyone thinking he must be loaded to have a truck like that. I actually don't have that must stuck in it. There's not a lot of demand for an old 88 blazer with a wheelchair lift:D But now I'm pretty sure it's the only wheelchair access full vert blazer in the world so who knows what it's worth.:laugh:

As far as the lift goes - the cylinders pull the platform to the door hieght and electric window motors drive it sideways into the truck.
- Then another set of cylinders by the floor pull the chunk of metal that I was on and it folds vertically beside my platform (When the door is closed you can still see part of that metal just below the door) and thats it. I hope that makes since.
 
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Yep that is a sick lift.
Any idea who the manufacturer is? I work at a specialty hospital and our Assistive Tech group would love to know about that lift.

A lot of our truck driving patients just have to muscle up into the driver's seat, then they have a camper top on a piano hinge with a electric lift so it flips towards the passenger's side and a little crane to pull their chair up into the bed.
 
A small company in Smiths Falls Ontario, Canada named KVB Mfg. built the truck origanally. The guy was an engineer and started by building one for his daughter who was paralyzed in an accident and this truck was built at the same time for a friend. They used stainless in this one though:D He grew to the point of putting them in extended cab pickups and SUV'S I have a 2002 yukon as well (this is my fun truck and backup vehicle when the yukon is in the shop 140,000 miles on it:() all chevy/gmc/cadillac/and even hummer trucks. I hope to keep the Blazer around forever. They closed up shop this spring because his health is not good. I had a minivan once and put 198,000 on it but nothing was built tough enough on it and when I saw the cylinders come out of one of these trucks and start to lift it off the ground I thought now that's a wheelchair lift.
 
description was perfect. although i see a small rub..... you mentioned you were looking at doing tires and lift later, im assuming that would also raise the platform off the ground, could be an interesting engineering project to adapt the lift to a lifted truck. maybe airbags in the suspension? or a second set of cylinders to lower the primary set? im certain it can be overcome. but i agree, its pretty awesome to have the only vert blazer with a lift.
 
Do you need the lift? Are you in a chair too? If not you could probably sell that lift for some decent coin for some upgrades. nice color too.
 
That is a sweet looking truck, chair lift makes it even cooler. Hand controls too. Very cool! :waytogo: I'd like some pics of the hand control for the throttle. :D
 
Yeah, just when you think you have all the things figured out that you need to do to lift your truck, you find one like that where you have to figure how to put a lift kit on the wheelchair lift. Longer cylinders I guess.

J.
 
Yeah, I need the wheelchair lift. I've been thinking about a offroad/highway truck that I could remove the top for about 20 years and thought I'd have tear a jeep apart and start from scratch (design wheelchair lift that would put me in a truck with very little room) and a lot of other ideas $$$$$ so it hasn't happen. This truck has sat there, and I know the lift and how to fix it and find the full vert conversion on here, and the mind started turning. I'm an addict, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg. Plus I think it's a lot cooler than a jeep oops I'm mean heep:D

The rims are 16*8 wrapped in 265's and the wheelchair lift can pick up the truck about another 3 or 4 inches so there is some room to lift the truck someday and go bigger tires.

The hand controls push pull on the left of the steering wheel. Actually I pull towards my lap for gas and push to brake. I'll try to get a better pic.
 
i stand in awe of the man that designed that system... he even designed it in preperation for a 4in lift!!! :bow:

i have to agree, when looking at how to engineer a lift system the major problem was available vehicle options that were easy to get into, large enough to handle the lift assembly, and still qualify as a daily driver. One of the reason the conversion van became the quintessesial wheelchair accessable vehicle. I couldnt even imagine trying to cram this system into a heep. Not to mention, having already rolled a heep, which led me to my M1009. Seeing as the heep almost put me in a wheelchair, cant imagine id feel that comfy factoring already being in a wheelchair. the blazer is a much heavier, and more stable platform, while still being nimble enough to easily manuver through the woods and trails.

also i cant tell from the pics if your chair is manual or power, but with how heavy many power chairs can be, the larger Blazer will be better suited to carry it than the heep.
 
Mines a manual with power assist. The chair and I way about 180-190???
The guy that owned it 15 years ago used an electric and I know just a power chair weighs over 200. With the equipment on the left lets just say the ass sags to the left rear, but I'm sure thats not a huge suprise on a 88' blazer. With the top off it sits better though.

I have tons of pictures of the whole build on my facebook page if anyone is interested. Tony Rea Peosta, Iowa
 
It's an iglide and I threw there frame away after the first year and had a machine shop build me a new frame and bolted all there stuff on it and I love it now. They stopped make that chair too, but I like the Tailwind by Next Mobility if I need to buy a new one. Hopefully not for awhile. I also see things on it I'd like to through away and rebuild:mad: Can't build them right the first time but that might be more my problem then theres.

Sorry about the wheelchair addition of this thread if anyone is confused:confused:
 
havent had the pleasure of the iglide.

but yeah, basicaly my job was what youre talking about. the stock chairs had great equipment but the design sucked. i was tasked with "fixing" them to suit each customer. Actually enjoyed working with quickie from sunrise medical (can not tell you how great it was to walk into the waiting lounge my first day of work and ask "so who's here for the quickie"). the complete chairs were pretty humdrum, but the frame sets were actually very modular, and with a parts catalog in front of me i actually put together some pretty cool stuff.

Been a while since ive been in the business, have they put GB (gearless brushless) motors on power asisted manual chairs yet??? those GB motors from Invacare were impressive pieces, got them up to 12mph with a 200+lbs chair.... imagine what you could do with a 10lbs manual chair :D
 
You know I'm not really sure about the motors. The push rims connect to censors and tell the motors how much to help out. Myfirst couple of chairs where quickies and they did have a lot of adjustments to get the chair comfortable. Just another rig to share. I got help from my father in law and a local hydraclic expert and put this rig together. The mower on the front is connected with two ball hicthes. Just unhook them and cruise around with the tractor/cart. I call it the cart.

MOWING.jpg

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Thanks - The color was a tough decision and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm painting the hard top black but I don't see myself driving it much in bad weather. Only if I need to because of my other vehicle is having troubles or something like that.
 
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