Whilst navigating drop kerbs may be the limit of what some mobility scooters can do, other scooters can go further. It’s important to remember that, as a general rule, smaller scooters are often engineered mainly for shopping trips. With folding scooters, this basically applies across the board. Take the Motion Healthcare eDrive for example. When it comes to scooters for the park, this auto-folding product boasts an exceptional 3″ of ground clearance. That is about as good as ground clearance gets for folding mobility scooters, particularly automatic folding mobility scooters. Still, it wouldn’t be recommended for use on loose gravel, unless going at very low speed. Short mowed grass on the other hand? So long as the park terrain isn’t too hilly, that can work.

Gradient

That matter about hilliness neatly brings us on to our next point. And this point is gradient. There is a big variation, even within particular mobility scooter classes, in terms of maximum gradient. In this case, maximum gradient, whether it is for scooters for the park, pavement scooters, or any other variant, refers to how steep a slope the scooter can safely handle. Just like with drop kerbs, slopes need to be approached at right angles. That is to say that slopes need to be approached head on when driving a mobility scooter. Because your scooter, and more important, you, will come off better doing things this way.

LuXe Mobility specialise in producing mobility scooters which can handle steeper slopes than other manufacturers’ products. This is perhaps one of their key selling points. Even their small X200 boot scooter, pictured below, will be coming on to the market with a 12° maximum rated gradient.

Tyres – Choosing the Right Type for You

Now, most small mobility scooters, and we’re including folding scooters in this category, have solid tyres. Due to being solid, they are often referred to as “puncture-proof” tyres. Puncture-proof tyres are obviously desirable for navigating jagged, uneven surfaces. However, even when they are combined with suspension, they tend not to be as comfortable for the user as pneumatic tyres. So, if you are interested in scooters for the park, or for more rugged terrain, pneumatic tyres might be the way to go. Mid-sized, or larger, mobility scooters do often have pneumatic tyres.

Medium mobility scooters also have an advantage in terms of suspension. Suspension on those larger scooters has more space to get big and bulky enough for greater needs. In the next article, we’ll take a look into medium-sized mobility scooters and the sorts of terrain which they can handle.