Where I live out in the country, we have mostly dirt, mud, grass, and gravel between our outdoor areas. My sister has limited mobility and can’t get from place to place under her own power. The wheelchairs that are out on the market are great indoor means of movement but lack the ruggedness to get over the more rough of terrain. I decided that it wasn’t out of my realm of abilities to try and solve that problem by creating an all-terrain wheelchair.

Tracked wheelchairs are out there are being commercially produced, but they come with a HEFTY price tag. Often easily exceeding $10,000 in cost. You can see the dilemma here… While this homemade chair is definitely not up to the production quality of the high end “Trackchairs,” this technically does the same thing, just at a slower speed. I built this quite awhile ago now and it has withstood the test of time quite well.

I cover everything in quite a bit of detail in the video, but if you are left with any other questions, then please feel free to ask and I will be more than happy to give you an answer.

I hope that this project can be useful to everyone watching in some way. This chassis has so many more possibilities than just serving as a disabled mobility device. It wouldn’t be difficult to make the source of power a gas engine instead of an all electric system. In fact, I might just have plans to build a second one with that in mind… but I guess you’ll have to subscribe to find out!!

If you enjoyed this video then please consider helping me make this content by subscribing, liking, and sharing. I hope to upload projects as often as I can for you guys to enjoy and learn from.

Best regards,
-Tate

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25 Comments

  3. Omg, this is amazing!!
    If I started to actually try to make one of these and got stuck at any point, would you be able to offer guidance on those points? You’re so knowledgeable!!

  4. OMG, just add the niceties of seat that could lean back and legs up and such, you could do great selling/donating these for lots of disabled folks. I know for one, if my father hadn't passed away, he'd been extremely excited to gotten this since his chair couldn't go into many areas he wanted too go. Maybe swap out tracks for more road friendly with a attachment like tire chain to go off roading.
    The leaning back is for those that would be stuck in chair full time to relieve pressure.

  7. Cool brother. Having it remotely controllable even better. Nice work.

  8. Your Channel Is Awesome!!!! I Love What You Do!!!! That Was Real Cool What You Did For Your Sister!!!! I Love Your Little Fur-Baby!!!! Keep Doing What You Do Brother!!!!??????❤️❤️❤️

  12. A well cobbled together project. Nicely done! Bet your sister enjoys it, too… knowing her bro built it.

  14. I'd love to hear more about your sister. I'm no doctor, but you mentioned she "doesn't have ENOUGH muscle strength to walk" like she isn't paralyzed but needs to be stronger (or lighter).

    Well, while I was visiting my sister at college their gym had a pull-up machine that you stood on this platform and entered a number from like 5% to 95%. And you would get lifted by the platform so if you COULDN'T do a pull-up of your full weight, you could still lift a portion of your weight and just gradually increase that until you were stronger. Granted, that was for your arms, but if you need an idea for a video, perhaps you could build something like that to improve leg strength?

    I think they actually make something similar for babies called a "Jolly Jumper" but apparently they're actually BAD for babies because their spines aren't developed enough yet. I actually had a similar idea in mind to help fat people get outside and exercise where you fill a 15' cubic balloon with helium, attach it to a shoulder harness and go for a walk weighing roughly 250 pounds less! Perhaps you could skip the balloon and build a metal stand on wheels, with a harness that holds your sis up and let's her "walk" while supporting a fraction of her weight. Even if she just uses it inside, she should be able to get stronger eventually.

    Either that or just build her an exoskeleton. 🙂

  16. Ty soooo much my wife uses a manual chair and we live in North Carolina. The red mud here is so bad and she can't ever just go out and enjoy the country really. This is awesome and affordable

  17. I am convinced the disabled are our teachers. You could make a floating barge for this ' Track Chair ' to dock and board roll on from the back, onto a conveyor turbine paddle. You would never need to cross a bridge with such contrivance, even if you could walk… Genius.

  18. i clicked on this to see it in action…to see how it works in the field…oh well…still cool though

  19. it would be awesome for someone to make a downloadable plan for this, there are many people who could make very good use of a tracked wheelchair and commercial options are incredibly expensive 🙂

  20. Hey. I love this! Iam in a wheelchair and I have been since I was 15 and I just turned 55 in July. I have wanted a wheelchair that I could take in the woods ect for a long time. I have some power chairs with plenty of motors and parts. My question is do you think I could use old car/truck tires with the sidewalls cut off for tracks with a belt tensioner for a serpentine belt to hold it taught? Was thinking that I could use one of my old chairs and just retrofit it with tracks. Love your channel. Keep up the good work and I know your channel will grow.

  21. Why not use a conveyor belt wrapped over some roller chains driven by sprockets with tread glued onto the belt from old tires? Box in the front and the back to keep the belt from jumping off the chains. Two chains on each side spaced so that the belts stay flat.

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