Ramp accessible to wheelchairs

Ten years ago, I founded a Wheelchair Ramp manufacturing company. Over the course of building and selling 250,000 aluminum portable wheelchair ramps, I've seen some mistakes made by my customers. Due to the size and weight of this kind of product, returns could be very expensive. So I'd like to share some of my observations.

Mistake # 1 - Buying a ramp that is too long

You should always choose ramp length according to a 6:1 ratio: every inch of vertical rise requires 6 inches of ramp length. This ratio would work for over 95% of customers - power chairs, manual chairs, scooters, and walkers.

I often hear this: I'll go with a little bit of a longer ramp to have a better incline.

Ramps of shorter length are not affected by this. For example, from a 3' ramp to a 4' ramp, the increase is over 30%, which would make a noticeable difference. However, for longer-length ramps, the incline does decrease that much unless you increase ramp length significantly. For example, most people can tell the difference between an 8' ramp and a 10' ramp, but not between an 8' and 9'. There are very few ramp manufacturers who offer a 9' ramp, for this reason.

Longer Ramps could lead to a few unexpected problems:

you spend more money for little gain

transportation difficulty - especially if you store the ramp in a van or SUV

you may not find enough space in a parking lot to unfold a ramp longer than 9'.

Mistake # 2 - Ramp won't clear the steps

Most houses have a front porch and a threshold that lead into the front door. Customer measures the rise of the porch and the threshold and uses the combined rise to choose a ramp, only to realize that the ramp hits the porch and won't touch down on the threshold. There are many online calculators that can help you solve the clearance problem.

However, if a house has a long porch or a low threshold, the ramp would have to be very long - so long that it is not practical. The right approach is to build two ramps: one from the ground up to the porch, and one from the porch down to the threshold.

Mistake # 3 - Door width on minivans

If a minivan has doors on both the driver and passenger sides, always use the door on the passenger side because it is wider. Most vans made in the U.S. can accommodate wheelchair ramps up to 30" wide without a problem.

For foreign vans (Toyota's, Honda's, Nissan's, Mazda's, and Kia's, etc.), the doors are wide on the top and narrower on the bottom. For example, Honda Odessy has a 30" wide door opening at the top but only 26" wide at the floor level. For vans with insufficient door openings, going from the back door is a good alternative. Using the back door requires a longer ramp due to higher rises.

Mistake # 4 - Buying a Wheel Ramp you don't need. Small rises do not offer much room for error. Buying a prefabricated ramp does not guarantee a good fit. For small rises under 4", the best way to bridge it is to use plywood. For example, splitting a 2x4 diagonally makes two ramps. You can also use 2x4's, 2x6's, etc. - all available at the hardware store for maybe a few dollars.