Answers
Find yours below. Anything we could not answer honestly is off the page, so ask us that one directly.
The vehicle
A standard vehicle rebuilt so a wheelchair user can get in and travel in it. The floor is lowered, an opening is cut and reinforced, and a ramp is fitted, either a manual fold-out ramp or a powered retracting one. The user comes aboard in their own wheelchair, and then the chair and the person are secured for the drive.
Three ways in, and the choice is usually made by where you park and whether you want to drive.
Side entry
Ramp out of the passenger door onto a lowered floor. The one that can put you at the wheel, or up front beside the driver.
Rear entry
Ramp out of the back, chair up the centre. No clear space needed beside the van in a car park. This is the one we build ourselves.
Lift
A powered platform instead of a ramp, on a full-size van. No ramp angle at all, which is what a heavy power chair often needs.
Usually, but it depends on your chair, so it is worth checking rather than assuming. Here is our rear entry RAV, short for Rear Access Vehicle, in numbers. Overall height is the one to measure your garage against.
Floor opening
35" × 98"
Entry height
57"
Interior height
58"
Lowered floor
10"
Ramp capacity
1,200 lb
Overall height, approx.
77"
Side entry varies by platform. Power chairs are the tight ones, on height and on weight. Check your chair
Two ways, and they suit different people.
Tie-downs
EZ Lock docking
We fit both, along with Q'Straint and Sure-Lok restraint systems.
Yes, in our own shop in Chilliwack. Transport Canada authorises us to build and certify disabled access vehicles under National Safety Mark L43, in four classes including Final Stage Body and Equipment.
Most places selling an accessible van are reselling somebody else's conversion. See the accreditation.
Checkable, not claimed
Authorised to build and certify disabled access vehicles.
We are the only wheelchair accessible vehicle dealer in the province that is also on that list.
Whichever comes first, on a new Sidewinder minivan conversion.
Transport Canada's National Safety Mark registry and Sidewinder's published warranty terms. Check each one at its source
Warranty & service
No. We work with the vehicle manufacturer, so the conversion does not compromise it, and every unmodified component can still be serviced at any dealership for that brand.
Ask the dealership to call us before they diagnose it: the fault is sometimes in the conversion, not the van. A pre-owned vehicle may have a balance of factory warranty left, depending on age and mileage.
Here are the exclusions next to the cover, because you ought to know both before you buy.
Covered
Not covered
That term is for a new conversion. On a pre-owned one, ask what is left on that particular van and we will tell you straight, including when the answer is none. Not sure a shop counts as authorised? Call us before the work starts, not after.
Yes, and on the conversion as well as the van underneath it. Most general repair shops will not touch a conversion, which is how people end up paying for hours of the wrong diagnosis. We are an authorised dealer for VMI, Bruno, Ricon and Sure Grip, so parts come through us directly. What the shop covers.
Paying for it
You are buying two things at once: a van, and a conversion built onto it. Nearly all the variation sits in the conversion, so one published figure would be wrong for almost everyone reading it. What drives the cost
Yes. Government and non-profit programs help with the cost, and most people arrive knowing about one and none of the rest. Every one of them wants a quote, a spec or a letter from us anyway, so we handle that part.
The ones worth knowing by name. None of the first three is money off the purchase price.
One bit of order almost nobody mentions: register for the fuel tax refund first. The ICBC discount wants that registration letter before a broker will apply it. Get it the wrong way round and you make the trip twice.
Where we are
44658 Yale Road West, Chilliwack, open Mon – Fri, 8:30am – 4:30pm. Customers come from across the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley, and plenty from further. The people who built the conversion are the people who work on it.
Call 1-888-266-2299 ahead and we will have a particular van ready for you.
If you are still not sure
Most people do not know their own measurements, and that is normal. Come in with the chair and we will take them, against the van you are actually considering.
The warranty terms and dimensions above are Sidewinder's own published figures. Funding figures live on the funding page, each linked to the program's own source. Government rules change, so check anything you plan to rely on.
Contact
Come by the shop and bring your chair, or just start with a phone call. Either way you'll be talking to someone who can answer the question instead of taking a message.
