Tag Archives: preventative maintenance program

wheelchair van straight talk – preventative maintenance

Wheelchair Van Repair Maintenance and Body Work

Winter Driving

Adaptive Equipment Installation, Repairs and Maintenance Inspections

Service Inspection for Wheelchair Accessible Minivans —

  • Check overall operating condition (abnormal noises, binding, grinding)
  • Clean and lube ramp hinges
  • Check tightness of ramp motor bolts /hinge bolts / rivets
  • Lubricate ramp pivot pin and bushings
  • Inspect and lubricate ramp drive arm
  • Operate ramp to ensure proper stow deploy switch adjustment
  • Verify manual operation of ramp
  • Clean door track & floor
  • Ensure drain holes are free of debris (lubricate all door hinges and locks)
  • Check door alignment and insure correct operation
  • Check sliding door harness for damage and proper operation
  • Inspect door operation cables
  • Inspect door full open switch
  • Test battery
  • Check kneel system operation, lubricate kneel chain & rollers
  • Verify operation of conversion with all switches and remotes
  • Check and adjust air tire pressure as posted on “b” pillar
  • Vacuum floor / clean ramp
  • Inspect and test transfer or jump-seat operation
  • Check all wiring for proper routing and condition
  • All interior and external lighting (including third brake light)

Scheduled Maintenance for Accessible Vans—Preventive maintenance plays a crucial part in the continued trouble-free operation of your adaptive equipment. All maintenance checks and repairs need to be pre-scheduled in advance. A scheduled check-up should be completed every six months. Most appointments are scheduled Monday through Friday during normal business hours. Please call us at 508-697-6006 to schedule your next service appointment.

While You Wait—Our entire staff wants you to feel at ease while we complete the maintenance and servicing of your vehicle. We provide comfortable reception areas with coffee and cable TV while you wait. For installations or repairs that may take longer then usual, we can have someone take you to a local restaurant or other destination until your automobile or van is ready.

 

Commercial Customers —VMi New England also provides maintenance, body work, automotive painting and repair services to commercial customers with ambulettes, paratransit buses, transport vans, and other wheelchair accessible vehicles equipped with Braun, Ricon, VMI and Maxon wheelchair lifts.

 

wheelchair van longevity vmi new england preventative maintenance program

Most every wheelchair van looks great on the showroom floor – when it’s shiny and new.

But, how will it hold up and perform after it’s out of the showroom?

2013 Toyota Sienna VMI Northstar wheelchair van longevity vmi new england preventative maintenance program

Over the past 27+ years we’ve put together a very comprehensive preventative maintenance program to address most if not all the things that can affect a wheelchair van’s reliability, durability, safety, and performance. Our goal is to make sure that you get the most you can out of your wheelchair accessible vehicle so that it will satisfy your needs for years to come.

The preventative maintenance program covers braking systems, exhaust systems, fuel systems, sliding door systems, suspension systems, electrical systems, and most important vehicle underbody.

wheelchair van longevity preventative maintenance program

Heres a van that rusted out due to no maintenance years before it should had

Most of the preventative maintenance program deals with the parts and pieces of a handicapped van that you’ll never see on the showroom floor. For more than 27 years we have been putting wheelchair vans up on hoists, removing body panels & interior panels, and our engineers have taking a hard look at what makes these handicap vans last. How were they put together? How were the wires, brake lines, and fuel lines routed and connected? How well was the fuel tank protected in the event of a collision? These are all important areas of our preventative maintenance program that you don’t want to wait until your handicap vehicle is broken down along side of a road in the middle of nowhere to take a look at.

Our engineers found some very interesting things that you should know about today, well before your van is rusting out or broken down on the side of the road. These are things that certainly help keep you safe and on the road, but when not addressed will cost you a lot of time and trouble years after your purchase, not to mention that they might also affect the vehicle performance and safety. Come to VMi New England and find out more!

We will take care of you and your van even if you bought it from someone else yesterday.

BraunAbility, Vantage Mobility, Eldorado, Amerivan, IMS, Tuscany

Our program can even help if you purchase a grey market converted van online.

Our preventative maintenance program can even help if you have a FMI Freedom Motors, AMS or Rollex wheelchair van.

As you learn more about mobility vans, we hope that you’ll also see that one company, Vmi New England, does it right — from top to bottom, front to back, even though maintenance does add cost to the vehicle. We think that our customers financial resources are well spent to ensure there van is going to last! Almost everyone has financial limitations and while most of us struggle to afford a vehicle alongside all of our other household expenses, you do want your new van to last more than 3 years before rusting and falling apart! At the New England Mobility Center, driven by Jim Sanders’s passion to always offer the best, longest-lasting handicapped vehicles for our customers, just doesn’t cut corners.

We invite you to come down and take a first hand look at how and why our passion sets us above any used car dealer or chain store version of a wheelchair van dealer. Come see a  complete line of side-entry and rear-entry vans for the handicapped, please visit our website: newenglandwheelchairvan.com.