Projects The Goon Wagon build--Wheelchair accessible F-1

Jesus H Christ on a sidecar, that sucks big time my friend! But hopefully, from looking at the pictures you've posted, all is not lost. I can only compare the difference between what we did and what you've done but rest assured there is a difference and I'll do the best I can to explain it. It looks to me like you're ramp is pretty much spot on and looking good, but from what I can tell you haven't dropped the floor low enough further up the "runway". Take a close look at the attachments below and you'll see that the floor in the kripple kart is dropped a full 6 inches right up to the front seats, thus giving an extra 6 inches head room all the way through the rear of the truck. We managed to achieve this by cutting out all the cross members and remounting them Underneath the chassis rails using 2" x 1" box section, first bolted then heavily welded in place.
This then presents the problem of the differential sitting too close to the dropped floor and knocking when you go over large bumps. However if you look at the picture showing the inside of the truck you will notice a square of black rubber mounted to the floor over the top of the differential. We have actually cut a square hole in the floor which allows the differential to bounce up through the floor going over bumps and the rubber is covering that. If you were to look in the back of the Kripple Kart you would notice that the high point of the differential casing is permanently one inch above floor level making a "hump" in the rubber diaphragm. Also, our ramp is not designed to fold flat to the floor but is located at 90° from the floor and held in place by two heavy duty spring bolts in an upright position leaving the runway clear through to the front seats.
I'm not sure of the difference in depth between the chassis rails on an F1 compared to an F 100, but by mounting the cross members underneath it should give you a few extra inches headroom. I hope this clarifies things a little bit and give you that little bit of extra room to work with. Don't panic, man, it us several attempts before we got it right.

 

Nearly forgot, we also had to reposition the shock absorbers in a more upright position on the outside of the chassis rails, you can see that in the first thumbnail. I hope the Goon is doing okay, and if you drop those cross members he'll get in there one of these days.
Don't let the bastards grind you down
keep on keeping on
good luck
Paul

 

Hey Krip,

Thanks for the info. What type rear end are you using? We went with a '90s Ford Explorer for the rear disk brakes. Maybe that is where we went wrong.

 

Hey man, the kart has a Ford 9 inch differential out of a 69 Gran Torino with the original drums for brakes. The only thing I would say is that the F 100 maybe a little wider than your F1, but having said that if you managed to get the rear of the 90s Explorer under there I can't imagine that you wouldn't be able to make a Ford nine inch perfect somehow. Maybe worth a post at the F1 gurus on here to see if they know?
Paul

 

Thanks Brotha,

I'll start a thread for the F-1 gurus

 

I hope you come up with a good solution to get the Goon in that truck!

-the Goof

 

Ive seen some where the drivers door and floor are connected and slide out and down to the ground. Wheel chair is locked in place and lifted up and slid back in. Probly to expensive and door opening not big enough.

Or how bout we all get together and build one Bitchin lowrider wheelchair.

Bill

 

I hope we find a solution soon too. We are open to suggestions and ideas.

 

I could see a lower floor and air-ride rear suspension working to lower the floor height.

 

We lowered the floor several inches but, it was not enough my son is too tall. We need about 4 more inches so he can get in. The floor is pretty much on the rear end. We currently have a '90s Ford Explorer rear end. KripFink used a Ford 9 inch rear end from a Grand Torino. I wonder if the Ford 9 inch has a smaller yoke [i don't know if that is the proper term for the center part of the rear end].

 

hope you figure out a easy fix, if you worn't so far along you could have built it like the handicap buses they use in our transit system.
they use a truck 4x4 front axle ,trans and transfercase and a straight axle in the rear. this lets them run a verry low floor without clearance issues and frontwheel drive for winter driving.i know you don't get much snow in texas but we get plenty here.
i know this wouldn't help you now but mabe a idea for someone building one in the future reading this thread.
good luck hope ya get her going soon,great looking ride.

 

You guys are finding out why FWD minivans are so popular for this. I don't have any pictures, but I've seen two early panels converted to FWD for handicap access. One was a '50-'51 F1 that used an '80 Eldorado drive train with a dropped minivan rear axle, which made room for a radical floor lowering.

-KK

 

Hope you get it worked out.I have a new lokar through the floor gas pedal I will donate.. If you can use it send me your snail mail address.

 

The builder is suggesting we drop the floor 4 more inches and using an Air Ride suspension. His thoughts are that if we drop the floor some more. The Goon will fit better and in order to avoid the rear axle from hitting the floor when driving we drop the panel Goon can drive in and park. After he is settled in we can inflate the bags and have more clearance between the floor and the rear axle.

He suggested we go with one of the kits sold by Speedway but said to look around first.

Any suggestions? There is not much room for large bags between the ramp sides and the wheels. see pic.

 

texas deuce, I think i know you! I used to work at Advance autoparts off of 107. You have a tattoo of a model a sedan? i think you were interested in a truck i had. Mr. Hinojosa was my shop teacher too. If there is any way i can contribute to the build let me know! and if your not who i think you are.......ill still help any way i can, let me know anyways!

 

Hey man, yeah i remember you and yeah its me. Still here doin' the same thing. Mr. Hinojosa and his son [San Carlos Hot Rods] are building The Goon Wagon for us.

Thanks for the offer to help. Let me know how you want to help and we'll figure it out.

 

looking goodto get more clearance put some small body pucks in lift the body up a lil from the frame every inch counts

 

Body pucs?.....tell me more. where do i find them? who makes then? what exactly are body pucs?

 

Im not much help on this one, except to say that Im always stoked to see you guys makin progress! Keep it up!!!

 

I would also think if you can raise the body up a couple of inches it would give you more clearance around the rear-end and drive terrain. hopefully that will give you the extra clearance you need to get your son in the vehicle. how much more room does he need for every inch up you go you should be able to lower the floor that far down i would think. hope you don't have to raise it up so high the frame sticks out from under the body to far.

 

thanks Crease....

Buck--- we need about 4 more inches so hopefully after dropping the floor and raising the ride height with the airbags will help.

I'm gonna look into those body pucks cowboy mentioned.

 

I think he is referring to hockey pucks some people use them for body mounts. could use some square tube with the rubber mounts put on them to increase body height. Your boys machine will be really cool i like it.

 

thanks i'm gonna look into your idea and i'll share with the builders

 

go to a 4 wheel drive shop ask about a body lift they are are hard kind of plastic u can cut toem with a hack saw i have a set for a ford pick up that are 4 inches tall i can get u a part number the are warn black dimond 4 inch body lift for a 73 - 79 ford pick up

 

years ago on monster garage they did a handicap bulid and they bulit a bubble in the floor right over the diff that might help some too

 

here is a link there is a 2 inch and 3 inch at the bottom of the page

http://www.suspensionconnection.com/cgi-bin/suscon/scan/fi=products/st=db/co=1/sf=category/se=Body%20Lifts/op=eq/nu=0/sf=veh_make/se=Ford/op=eq/nu=0/sf=model/se=Ford%20F150/op=eq/nu=0/ml=25/tf=category/to=x/tf=veh_make/to=x/tf=model/to=x/tf=description/to=r.html

 

I think that would probably the the best option, along with the air ride.

 

im kinda stuck on the suggestion of the lowrider chair. surely it would be easier to lose four inches in the chair with maybe hydrolics or air control than to redo the chassis. do you need four all the way to the pilot house?

 

lowrider chair would be kool but i dont think that i or anyone else is willing to aleter a $25,000.00 power chair

 

Just an idea...

Put a Vista Cruiser roof glass in the top with a mild "skin lift" to get the last couple inches you need. Use just the glass, NOT the wagon roof.

See attached pic for the glass reference. Thank you Carnut.com for the pic, btw

Good luck guys!