Hello, everyone! We’re looking for a good car/truck model for a child with a portable ventilator and suction. He needs some pretty substantial cargo space. We will do body work to support the equipment if needed, but thought we’d see if anyone knows of a model with sufficient space out of the box. We’ve already ruled out the 12-volt Jeep Wrangler and the 6-volt Ford Lil’ F-150.
The equipment dimensions are:
Vent - 14.5"W x 8"L x 10"H
Suction - 9"W x 7"W x 8"H
He’s okay to travel with only the vent if necessary. We would welcome any suggestions or measurements on vehicles you think might work!
We’ve considered it, and we have one in our inventory. The child has extremely low tone, and the tractor provides no lateral (and little posterior) support. The seating support on that would require even more custom building than a cargo compartment for the equipment.
The family is leaning toward the big 12-volt GMC Denali for a whole host of reasons. Does anyone have access to one to measure the inner dimensions of the truck bed?
We used a kick board and pool noodles for raised back and laterals, added a 5-point harness (she had significant low tone)
And put a pool noodle that was sliced open on the bumper to contain the vent tubing leading back to the vent in the trailer. Velcro straps to secure the vent and other equipment, and off she went!
Hey! Ok to post this on the GBG site? Would rather ‘share’ if you’ve already posted it somewhere – its simply too awesome a car and sweeeeeet driver!
best, Cole
Hi Cole, thanks, yes, it’s OK to use there. The family signed a photo release waiver with Adaptive Sports Connection and they are so proud of her they would be pleased to see it used. You may remember the child, you made the referral to us and the family is very grateful for that. I have previously posted pictures of just the car on Go Baby Go Central Ohio (Facebook) but did not include the driver. Here I needed this picture to show how we handled the ventilator and hose. We have a couple more that I can PM you if you need them. The family requested the removable “fringe on top” as the child is sun-sensitive.
You’re right about the Ford and Jeep… I like Doug’s method of fitting the child first…Two cars we have delt with that might work…
We built the Peg Perego John Deere Ground Force Tractor with Trailer. The inside of the trailer is a very comfortable 13" x 20" x 12"+ (high). The negative is that backing up with weight in it will jackknife the trailer, empty it won’t. It could be avoided by disconnecting the Reverse. Two forward speeds. Top gear is faster than any ride-on car that we have tested.
We also built a Kid Trax Dodge Viper SRT 12V that is a bigger two-seater with a 130 lb capacity (Amazon $400). If you used the passenger side you would easily have 11"(side to side) x 18" (front to back) x 12"+ (high). Big car though, the overall length of the car is almost 5 feet. Great looking car! not too fast, always the crowd favorite.
Thanks for all of the recommendations! We always try to find the right car to fit the child and then modify from there. We’re not trying to pick one based just on cargo space, that’s one of many considerations including the child’s height & weight, tone, expected terrain, and aesthetic preferences.
For anyone who’s interested, we also considered the Peg Perego John Deere Gator XUV. We reached out to Peg Perego, who reported that the cargo bed is 24" wide and 17 1/2" deep.