Porto Mobility Ranger SpacePro XL Carbon Fiber Lighweight Foldable Next Generation Electric Wheelchair (Carbon, XL Wide Seat)

This well designed product has provided trouble free service for over two years. It has changed our living habits from being isolated at home due to my severe arthritic conditions, back to world travelers once again. Easy to fold and load into the trunk or onto any public transportation provider. Taking the Mrs. on walks is so rewarding; I had forgotten how pleasurable that simple action could be. We always believe in the old expression; buy a quality product, to obtain quality results. This chair epitomizes that statement. I have recommended this item to family and friends alike. I would give this product three thumbs up, but only have two to offer for now. My original fear of the stigma associated with being in a wheelchair quickly vanished and went by the wayside as soon as I realized its numerous benefits. Power and comfort as stated by manufacturer with absolutely no regrets by the purchaser.

This is an excellent power wheelchair. There are a few things that could be improved. I also have some comments that will be of interest to potential buyers.The horn is very weak. It doesn't sound like a horn. More like a bip-bip than a beeep-beeep. Even if you hold it down, nobody notices. What's really needed is a powerful, loud horn, with an ah-ooogah sound. People will pay attention to it.The green LEDs are hard to see in sunlight. It would be better to replace them with the red LEDs.The top speed is really fast, which is part of the reason why I bought this wheelchair. I suggest starting off with it at the middle speed setting until you get used to it, or you'll bump into walls when entering an elevator. The middle setting is also the speed at which most people walk.If going through a 24" or 28" door, set it at the slowest speed, or you'll bump into the doorframe or scrape your hand, as I did.It is heavier than the stated weight, probably because that weight doesn't count the weight of the batteries. It comes with the batteries installed, so you may need more upper body strength to remove it from the box. I had to cut the corner of the box to remove it.The charger comes in the bag under the seat.The chair makes a kind of grinding noise when you are turning, probably because one wheel is going backwards while the other wheel is going forwards. This does not seem to be a sign of a problem, just a little worrisome the first time you hear it. But, it does give the chair a very good turning radius, almost as though it were turning in place.The armrests are molded with carbon fiber. This means that if you want to attach a cane holder or bag holder that assumes a round part of the frame, it won't work. There are rounded parts of the frame toward the back, however, which seem to work.To lift up the arms, you have to flip a small latch on the side. This wasn't mentioned in the user manual. The user manual also didn't show how to attach the back seat cushion. It is easy to figure out with a little trial and error.The seat cushion works well. I didn't need to buy a memory foam replacement.I was able to drive it on grass and gravel. However, when there was mulch on a wheelchair ramp, it didn't work well because the mulch would slip underneath the tires, causing one to lose control a bit.It would be nice if they sold an accessory cup holder. I bought a third party cup-holder, which sort of works, but it would be nice to have one that is designed to use the same slot as the wheelchair controller.A backup camera accessory you could buy would be nice. There are third party backup cameras, but it is unclear if one can attach them to the wheelchair and still be able to fold it. It is also unclear if one can plug it into the wheelchair power or whether one has to use a battery-based backup camera. Probably the latter, as I couldn't find an accessory power outlet.A standard size backpack can fit over the back of the chair. That works well. Specialized wheelchair bags don't seem to work as well.The ability to charge the wheelchair with the batteries installed is nice. However, the plug is symmetric, so one has to fiddle with it to plug the power into the wheelchair. It is easier if you release and lift the arm when trying to plug in the power.Overall, I really like this wheelchair. It works well and is fun to drive.

This is first chair like this. So far so good, the chair operates perfectly, I’m the problem. There will be a learning curve for me. There’s an error with the description, it does not weigh 43 pounds, I think it weighs a little closer to 55 pounds or more.

These are the first two sentences in the manual: “The company reserves the right to make any changes and improvement [sic] without prior notice. It reserves and also the property of models and forbids their reproduction, even partial.” That was my first clue not to expect much from the manual, and it didn’t exceed my lowered expectations. It is confusing, poorly written, repetitive, and self-contradictory.Nevertheless, through trial and error, I’ve figured out how to use the wheelchair.Mechanically, it’s well thought out, well-constructed, and sturdy. The mechanical parts operate smoothly. I wish the arms were longer (I’m 6’ 2”), since the front wheels are extended well beyond the front of the seat, probably in search of greater stability along the pitch axis. Seated in the chair, I can easily reach the two levers that control whether the rear wheels are connected to the motor or not.Leaving out the control system, electrically the chair is well executed. The twin motors are strong enough to deal with serious inclines, and the electromagnetic braking is effective.The control system is where the chair, ahem, stumbles. The left two buttons are mislabeled in the manual. It says they are Speed up and Speed down. They only indirectly control the speed. As far as I can figure out, the control system has no idea how fast the two driven wheels are turning. What the buttons control is the power delivered to the motor. If you are on a surface whose slope is constant, then the buttons do control the speed. But you’ll need to hit Speed up to maintain your speed if you go from level to climbing a hill. That’s pretty intuitive, but the speed/power confusion can bite you in a big way in some circumstances.Let’s say you’re going straight ahead, and the path you’re on slopes from left to right. Since the real wheels perform both steering and move the wheelchair forward, you’ll need to angle the joystick slightly to the uphill side to go in a straight line. This will apply more power to the downhill wheel. If the wheelchair knew the speed of the wheels, that would be unnecessary. Now let’s say you want to turn in the uphill direction, and at the same time the path slope changes direction, so if the left side was uphill, now the right side is uphill. I find it very difficult to stay on the path in that situation; the chair has a tendency to leave the path on the new downhill side. And if you’ve turned the control labeled Speed down too far, the wheelchair won’t apply enough power to keep that from happening.Now that I understand this, I can avoid paths where I know that’s going to happen. But it makes me reluctant to explore new territory without scouting it out first, since the turning circle is not tiny.The other control issue is the joystick sensitivity and linearity. Ideally, you’d want a linear response through the entire range of displacement away from the center position. That’s not how it works. At first, nothing happens. A little more displacement gets you power that comes on quite suddenly. Further from that, you get a little more power, but the range from the lowest power that moves the wheels on level ground to the highest power you can get with the joystick hard over is not nearly as great as I’d like it to be. The net of all this is that it’s very difficult to make precise, controlled movements in tightly restricted spaces, and you’d better make sure your hands and feet aren’t going to get bashed.In many circumstances, these control issues aren’t going to be an problem. I’m restricting my usage to places where they aren’t a problem. For those uses, I’d give this sucker a five.But the control issues strike me as a missed opportunity. What would it cost to have speed sensors on the wheels and have the controls labeled speed actually control speed? And what would it cost to have the joystick sensitivity be linear with a large range? Not much, I think. Then sidehills would be less of an issue, and the chair would be precisely controllable in tight quarters.[Added after 3 months of use. ]Battery charge indicator is highly nonlinear. For a long while, all the lights are lit up. When the first green light goes out, the chair is already not as peppy as it is at full charge. When all the green lights are out, it's downright sluggish. I use fastest "speed" outdoors, and the middle one indoors. It's hard to change batteries; the release takes a fair amount of force and is hard to find by feel. A more positive locking mechanism for the batteries would be a big help. I've decided that changing the batteries is enough of a hassle that I charge them in place.[Added after 14 month of use] Battery capacity is dropping. I used to charge once a week, and now I need to charge every 4 or 5 days. To make it easier to charge in place, loosen the know under the right arm of the chair and rotate the armrest 180 degrees, so that the socket for the charger cable is on top. The index marker is not up. Feel the index marker on the cable and turn that up, then plug it in. You can even do it in very dim light. There have been complaints about rubbing. To avoid that, move the joystick so that the chair can go slightly forward or slightly backward as you spin it around. WIth practice, I can now navigate sidehills that gave me difficulty before, but there are side slopes that the chair just can't handle.

They sent me a main board, now it’s Great. Also helped with my old chair bearing went out. Both are fine now. New one is great.First computer box didn’t, the new one lasted 5 mos.Too much money, maybe they have a better batch. That lasted 4 mos, sent me another bad one, now I have 3 and January will be a year still sitting. My old one is almost exactly the same. All things are interchangeable. He said Warranty was over., but can help me for $700. MORE It’s been sitting here since 8 mos!

This chair has been great. Very easy to use and has helped my wife be able to get out and enjoy life more. Customer support is also top notch.