Engineering your Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle

Choosing the vehicle to be converted

Before embarking on a new vehicle conversion, we look at a wide range of factors to ensure that the wheelchair accessible vehicles we offer are the best in their class. At Constables we constantly seek out new car and van models that can be transformed into user friendly and practical wheelchair accessible vehicles combining the best of their original specification and performance with the best that Constables engineering has to offer.

Each wheelchair vehicle is developed to meet our very strict design criteria. This not only incorporates innovative ideas from our development engineers, but also takes into account comments and observations from wheelchair users and industry experts alike. This whole process helps to ensure that our wheelchair accessible vehicles not only provide good accessibility but also offer exceptional user comfort.

Our considerations include:

• Is the original car economical and environmentally friendly?
• Does it offer a choice of engines to appeal to different drivers?
• Is the car easy to drive and manoeuvre?
• Will the wheelchair user have good visibility through both the front and side windows?
• Is there enough headroom for wheelchair users?
• Can the interior cabin space be maximised to leave enough room for other passengers, luggage and special equipment?
• Can we engineer the vehicle conversion to accommodate a low angled ramp to make wheelchair entry and exit as easy as possible?
• Can the interior design offer seating flexibility to provide a more sociable approach to wheelchair travel, whilst also addressing the requirements of other passengers?

Engineering the conversion

Once a vehicle is selected, our engineers use their extensive expertise and engineering experience to design a conversion that meets all of our considerations. By lowering the floor and designing a neat, compact and gently sloping ramp, we are able to offer the very best solutions for wheelchair travel. We even take into account the location of anchoring restraints to maximise wheelchair safety, whilst making it easy for carers to operate. Any new parts that are specially engineered for these wheelchair accessible vehicles are manufactured to meet or exceed the Original Equipment Manufacturer's quality specifications.

Tested and fully checked

Before any Constables' wheelchair accessible vehicle is offered for sale, we build prototypes which are fully tested to prove our engineering and design concepts. All of the changes we make to the body of the vehicle and its components carry full Low Volume Type Approval for your peace of mind. Constables also operates a full ISO 9001:2008 quality system to ensure that each part of the vehicle design, build and administrative process is fully monitored.

More information about our quality guarantee

The Critics Review

At Constables we have been building wheelchair accessible vehicles for decades, so we know that the ongoing feedback from our customers provides vital information to help us identify changes that will improve the wheelchair car. We're open minded and always willing to listen because we believe that by doing so, we can continue to offer you the best wheelchair accessible vehicles on the market. Of course we don't expect you to take our word for it, so we will be delighted to bring one of our conversions to your home or workplace so that you can try it out for yourself. And, should you have any questions or queries, our sales team are on hand to offer advice on the most appropriate vehicle for your needs or circumstances.

Download the 'Engineering Experts' Brochure(PDF Format Size: 1Mb)