3 Tips for Choosing Better Wheelchair Wheels

• Health & Assessment

Written by Invacare bloggers

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When configuring your wheelchair, one of the easiest things to overlook is the importance of the kind of wheels you&#;ll need. The choice you make will mostly depend on where you primarily use your wheelchair, be it indoor or outdoor, plus the terrain and the activity involved. And making the right choice can be crucial.

Someone with a pain condition really needs to limit the amount of vibration, and other users may value speed as part of their sense of independence. Below, we will discuss all the facts and details about wheelchair wheels, tyres and casters you may need to make an informed decision that will undoubtedly make an impact on your day-to-day life. Hopefully, after reading this little manual, that impact will be a positive one.

The smoothness of the ride, speed, manoeuvrability, and control are all related to the wheelchair wheels, tyres and casters, probably more than you think. But choosing these components is not a straightforward task, obviously. So, it&#;s wise to get an expert, such a therapist or healthcare professional to help you select the combination that meets your lifestyle, performance, maintenance and affordability needs.

1. Wheelchair wheels components and considerations

Manual wheelchairs usually have two sets of wheels:

• A pair in front,

  called caster or steering wheels

  ;
  

• And a pair in the back

  called drive wheels

  .

Power wheelchairs may have up to three pairs, depending on the type of drive technology:

• One drive pair

  ;

• One or two caster pairs (in case of a centre wheel drive).
  

Wheelchair rear wheels are made up of a tyre, rim (and hand rim on manual chairs), spokes (or mags), and a hub. The hub is the centre of the wheel, the spokes or mags connect the rim to the hub and the rim is where the tyre is mounted. Hand rims are used for pushing the wheelchair.

Spoke wheels look like bicycle wheels and the spokes are usually made of metal. They usually have 24 or 36 spokes. The spokes can be crossed or radial spoked.

Mag wheels are made of synthetic materials and usually have less than ten spokes.

Rear wheels of manual wheelchairs are normally equipped with quick release axles for easy handling during transportation. Caster wheels are usually fixed mounted on the chair with screwed axles.

Important factors to consider when selecting the appropriate type of wheels for you is their weight, and the environment you will be using them in. Spoke wheels are usually lighter than mag wheels, but they do require more maintenance. They are also less suitable for moist surfaces. Mag wheels are almost maintenance free, but they may be affected by extreme temperatures.

2. Wheel sizes in regard to wheelchair sizes

Wheelchair wheels come in various standardised wheelchair sizes:

• A standard manual adult wheelchair drive wheel

  size is 24&#; (approximately 61 cm);

• A standard power wheelchair drive wheel

  size is 18&#; (approximately 45,7 cm);

• Caster wheels

  for manual wheelchairs start from 3&#; (approximately 7,6 cm), but much more common and practical for everyday use is 4&#; to 6&#;.

The wheel size diameter as well as tyre width affects comfort and required effort to move the wheelchair. Therefore, you should select a drive wheel that will allow you to sit comfortably in the chair, and at the same time it should require minimum amount of effort to propel it.

Electric wheelchair drive wheels are smaller, and the tyre is made of stronger and thicker material. You can learn more about Invacare electric wheelchairs on this page.

Alternatively, there is also a way to enjoy effortless power of electric wheelchairs without sacrificing all the benefits of your manual wheelchair. And all it takes is one extra wheel. The Alber e-pilot can transform your standard manual wheelchair into an electronically powered hand bike, capable of speeds of up to 20 kilometres per hour, with an impressive range of 50 kilometres per battery charge. 

Alignment and truing

The alignment of the wheels is very important. It affects how the wheelchair rides, its directional stability, the wear on the tyres and the effort required to propel it. You need to consider the following three aspects:

• Camber

  on rear wheels is the inward or outward tilting of the wheels on their vertical plane. It is used to make propelling the wheelchair easier by getting the hands closer to the body during propulsion. It mostly applies to people who are self-propelling and

  provides better lateral stability as well as finger protection when passing doors

  .

• A critical alignment issue is toe-in and toe-out

  (the off-parallel relationship between the two rear wheels). You should avoid these misalignments, as they will

  dramatically increase rolling resistance

  and the

  wear on the tyres

  . Also, the directional stability will suffer, especially in case of toe-out.

• Truing (aligning) a wheel

  is required when a wheel wobbles when spinning on its axis. Mag wheels are trued upon fabrication and remain true unless they are exposed to extreme conditions. Spoke wheels are more vulnerable because various conditions get the spokes distorted. Such problems have to be repaired by a qualified wheel-repair technician.

3. What about tires?

Wheelchair tyres can be pneumatic (air filled), solid and flat free (foam, urethane or rubber filled). Depending on the desired terrain use, they may have anything from a deep profile (like Mountain bike tyres) to a flat profile. As a rule of thumb, you need to know that tyres affect how easily the wheelchair will roll over specific surfaces. The harder the tyre, the easier it will be to propel the wheelchair. The softer the tyre, the harder it will be to propel it. Here are your choices:

• Pneumatic tyres

  will go flat if punctured and will go soft even without any damage, because the valves will lose air constantly over time, similar to a bicycle tyre, but they have a shock absorbing function when going over kerbs or other obstacles, hence they provide a softer ride on uneven ground. High pressure pneumatic tyres (7 to 10 bar) provide the best ride on flat and even surfaces, because the contact surface to the floor is smaller, hence the driving resistance is low.

• Solid tyres

  are almost maintenance free and they are unlikely to wear out in the life of the wheelchair, but you&#;ll be in for bumpier rides. To learn how to fit a solid wheelchair tyre, see the video below. You will have the advantage of a flat free tyre, but on the other hand it can never compare with the good driving performance of a fully pumped high pressure air tyre.

• Flat free tyres

  are pneumatic tyres that are filled with a semi-solid material. They are not subject to flat tyres and give a softer ride than a solid tyre.

How to Fit Wheelchair Tyres:

For more solid tiresinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.

Once you&#;ve bought some new tyres, you&#;ll need to get them fitted. If you can do it yourself, you&#;ll save a bit of time, and gain the satisfaction of being able to maintain your wheelchair yourself.

 

Here&#;s a video guide to fitting a solid wheelchair wheel:

For more about wheelchair tyres, read our article &#;Wheelchair tyres, options and maintenance&#;.

Conclusion

There are pros and cons to each type of wheelchair wheel and hopefully, after reading this brief guide, you&#;ll be able to better decide what works for your specific needs. An average user may not notice all the differences mentioned, but a very active user will. You may need to consider having more than one type of wheels, depending on the use habits and cost. Wheelchair sizes will also be an important factor in the choice, as well as quite a few other more or less technical elements, so you may find this thorough and detailed resource very helpful. Or you may find that you need high performance wheels which are not meant for the average wheelchair user. The sky is your limit, so enjoy the sweet choice that lies ahead.

 

Kirk Williams is a photographer, filmmaker, athlete, travel junkie, entrepreneur and public speaker. In the 12 years since he sustained a C6-7 SCI, he has ventured all over North and South America in his custom-built Campervan. He is the founder of Impact Overland, a travel blog that is raising funds to help supply wheelchairs to those in need. Follow him and see his work on Instagram @kirkscamera and
@impact.overland.

I am often asked why I use knobby tires on my wheelchair. Since most manual chair users roll on a skinnier tire, my knobbies stand out. It&#;s a style thing, sure, but they&#;re not just for style points. &#;I spend a lot of time off the pavement, and the knobbies are easier to use on that type of terrain,&#; I usually answer.

Wheelchair users also sometimes ask where they can get a set, but that question requires a much more involved answer. Wheel size, chair geometry and rolling resistance are just a few things to consider when selecting tires, and the simple act of putting wider tires on your chair can have a big impact on its fit and performance.

My attempts to fully answer that question have become something bigger &#; a guide to everything you didn&#;t know you needed to know about selecting the right wheelchair tires for your life. I hope that after reading this, you will be able to better understand the nuances of the various options for wheelchair tires and make an informed decision about which setup best suits your needs.

Rim-Tire Size Hack for Summer/Winter Street/Off-Road

My activities tend to waver from urban wheeling to off-road, and living in California I frequently go from the temperate foothills to the snowy Sierra mountains. In my quest for maximum efficiency, I strive to always have the right tires on my chair.

I use 1-inch high-pressure for urban wheeling and 2.1-inch knobby tires for off-road or snowy conditions. The problem is, I use the same rim for both, and the diameter of a 2.1-inch knobby tire is significantly larger than a 1-inch tire. This means one set of tires or the other causes the back of my chair to be too high or too low, which throws off both seating position and the front caster angle.

However, there is a hack to work around this.

As you can see in this side-by-side comparison, going from 1-inch to a 2.1-inch tire on the same size rim greatly increases the diameter of the wheel.

A 2.1-inch knobby tire mounted on a 24-inch 540 rim has a nearly identical diameter to a 1-inch tire mounted on a 25-inch 559 rim. Hence, I set my chair up for my 25-inch 559 rims and keep my 24-inch rims with knobby tires in the back seat of my car for easy switching to match the conditions of the day.

This same hack should work on a 25-inch 559 rim and 2.1-inch mountain bike tire matching up with a 26-inch 590 rim and 1-inch tire. I&#;m currently using 2.4-inch knobby tires I got at a local bike shop, and they work fine.

The one size I&#;m not sure this hack works on is 24-inch 540 rims with a 1-inch tire as I haven&#;t had a chance to compare it with the diameter of a 2.1-inch mountain bike tire on the next smaller rim, 22-inch 501. If any readers have, please let me know at .

&#; Bob Vogel

Continue Reading

The Maddening World of Tire Measurements

Let me start by saying that tire size is confusing. Until recently, there were no agreed-upon standards on how to measure a tire, so we were left with a mishmash of measurement systems from different countries. Here in the U.S., we follow the imperial system, which uses inches. What is flawed with this system is that it measures the outside diameter of a tire, and the outside diameter changes based on the width of the inflated tire. That&#;s one of the reasons we&#;ve reached a nothing-makes-sense world where a 25-inch wheelchair rim fits a 26-inch mountain bike tire.

Fortunately, tire and wheel manufacturers across the world have finally gotten on the same page and use a two-number system that does a much better job of keeping your head from exploding. Both numbers are in millimeters and the first refers to the tire width &#; the bigger the number, the wider the tire. The second refers to the inner diameter of the tire. In this system, a 1-inch wide tire that fits a 25-inch wheelchair rim is designated a 23-559, while a 2-inch-wide tire that fits the same rim would be labeled a 54-559 (see below for a list of conversions for common wheelchair sizes).

Imperial Vs. Metric Common Wheel Sizes

Common wheel size conversions are as follows:
22-inch = 501
24-inch = 540
25-inch = 559
26-inch = 590

Continue Reading

The good thing about this system is that you know the tire will fit as long as the second number matches your wheel size. But. That doesn&#;t mean it&#;s always a simple swap. Remember how I said different widths change the outer diameter of a tire? That&#;s important for wheelchair seating.

Wide = Tall

Simply put, a wider tire is a taller tire. These days, most manual wheelchair frames are measured and built to fit narrow tires, so if you put a wider, mountain-bike-style tire on your chair, it will raise your rear seat height.

Take a look at the side-by-side photos below where I show the same 559-rim-size wheels with both a Schwalbe Marathon Plus (25-559) and a Kenda Small Block Eight (54-559). Do you see how much taller the Marathon is on the same size rim? If you look closely, you&#;ll notice the center of gravity changes along with the angle that the casters meet the ground. By putting on a wider tire, I have raised my seat almost an inch &#; a huge change when it comes to chair setup.

• Kenda Small Block Eight (54-559)
• Schwalbe Marathon Plus (25-559)

Many people opt for two sets of wheels: one setup for indoors and pavement, the other for off-road wheeling. That way, you can pop the off-road wheels on if you&#;re going camping, on a hike or to your kid&#;s soccer game, without having to deal with the width and rolling resistance of off-road tires when you don&#;t need them (see Rim-Tire Size Hack above for more info).

It is common to use a size smaller rim with a knobby off-road tire to match the original-sized skinny tire/wheel diameter. Note that when you put on wider tires, you may have to space them farther out so they don&#;t rub on your side guards or clothes. Similarly, you may need to make minor brake adjustments depending on the tire/wheel combo.

For example, if you&#;re currently using a 559 (25-inch) wheel with a skinny tire and you want to switch to the Kobra, you need to buy a 540 (24-inch) wheel to put the Kobra on to keep the chair angles close to the same.

Finding the Right Tire for You

Clearly, there are a lot of factors to consider when selecting tires and every decision comes with trade-offs, but taking the time to consider your tire width, weight and rolling resistance can have a huge impact on your ability to navigate your environment.

Check out these four common wheelchair tires &#; all of which I have used &#; and the pros and cons of each. There are many other options out there, but hopefully this comparison will help you decide which style works best for you and your lifestyle.

Schwalbe Marathon Plus

Intended for city streets, asphalt and sidewalks, this tire offers decent flat protection.

Pros:
&#; Low rolling resistance
on hard surfaces
&#; Flat protection
&#; Lightweight
&#; Narrow chair

Cons:
&#; Sink into soft ground
&#; Slip in snow
&#; Harsh ride quality

Kenda Nevegal

Recommended for off-road conditions where traction is critical, including snow, mud and sand.

Pros:
&#; Superior off-road traction
&#; Float over soft ground
&#; Rugged look

Cons:
&#; Higher rolling resistance
&#; Heavy weight
&#; Knobs can catch on clothing
&#; Wide chair

Kenda Small Block Eight

Recommended for on- and off-road use where you want off road capabilities without sacrificing a lightweight feel.

Pros
&#; Low rolling-resistance for a knobby
&#; Light weight for a wide tire
&#; Black sidewalls

Cons
&#; Mark floor and hands with black
&#; Only available in select sizes
&#; Not thorn resistant
&#; Wide

Kenda Kobra

Recommended for a mix of street and off-road pushing, including gravel, grass and dirt.

Pros
&#; Low rolling resistance for a wide tire
&#; Fast on road and still functional off-road
&#; High-pressure

Cons:
&#; Heavier weight
&#; Gray color and colored sidewalls
&#; Wide chair

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