wheelchair ramp + wheelchair = 'doorway' dolly

amber

amber

Active member
there's lots of posts about the feasiblity of using a wheelchair as a dolly. it does work
with some fiddling, but how about taking it a step further? the film we're making is
filmed half outdoors, with all of these smooth dolly shots. on all sorts of terrain. of course smooth + tracking shots don't go so well together when it comes to being outside, also my crew is small, and i can't
lift a whole lot myself, or bring along much extra lifting power. so i thought of
wheelchair ramps. They're surprisingly light, normally made of aluminum, which isn't
so promising, until you realize that they can hold alot of weight, and are made to
be suspended in the air. Some of these ramps are up to 10' long, others are 'telescoping'. If the ramp has bumps, a lightweight piece of 1/4" plywood can be brought along. of course the longer the ramp, the longer your vehicle needs to be.
anyone thought of using a wheelchair ramp like this, or heard of anyone who has done it?
I do realize that one of the downfalls of this idea could be the noise factor,
luckily for me we're not expecting to record sound on location...

what do you all think?

amber
 
I remember using the wheelchairs at school as a dolly for our class projects that had to be filmed on campus, but never used and/or had access to a portable ramp like that. We would grab all the cardboard boxes we could find around campus and break them down and lay them wherever needed like the parking lot, or across some grass and whatnot. Wasn't the greatest mind you, but it worked.

The more I think about it, the only ramp I can think of that you described is like the ones you find on the back of a U-Haul or something. Guess I drank more beer than I thought last night lol.
 
ramp pic

ramp pic

here's a link to one type of ramp, it's supposed to be seamless, so it doesn't
require an extra piece of plywood, but at 8' lengths its difficult to move around,
without the right vehicle. This website also has the telescoping type, and other
models.

http://www.discountramps.com/home_access_ramps.htm

yes, its a wheelchair 'ramp', but really i don't necessarily want to hang it in the
air... rather it would be needed to lie down on the ground and just give us
a smooth surface to dolly on. we would only prop it up where need be.

the more i think about it the more its possible we wouldn't even use a wheelchair,
a tripod dolly could work, too.
 
I hope I understand what you are looking for, but I was very impressed by the system used by the Brothers Tuttle on their DramaFest entry:
01-07-07_05_600x400.jpg

This setup seems lighter than the ramp you are talking about; the heaviest part is the dolly itself and that's just plywood.

And keep in mind that a tripod dolly isn't really supposed to be used as a dolly.
 
brilliant

brilliant

thanks for the tip jmc, the Brothers tuttle dolly does look quite light,
also, its interesting that
you posted it as i was thinking
of doing something similar with the ramp idea (i.e. using jacks where
needed...)

why isn't a tripod dolly supposed to be used as a dolly?
it seems as though on a the right platform a tripod dolly
would have more manueverability than the other type,
and demand less crew.

but then again i've only used the super fancy ones you find in cable
tv studios and the like.
 
Arson, that's what it looks like.

Amber, the reason a tripod dolly isn't that great is because they don't have the expensive wheels like the studio ones, and you don't have a super smooth floor like a studio. It's just for moving the tripod around between shots.
 
it looks like on the brothers tuttle rig they used some sort of scaffolding support for the "legs" of the platform? Clever idea, I think that would be a better system than the wheelchair ramps, maybe cheaper too...It also looks like maybe they used aluminum tubing for the rails, instead of PVC? That seems like it would add to the overall stiffness of the rails. Good idea.
 
jmc said:
I hope I understand what you are looking for, but I was very impressed by the system used by the Brothers Tuttle on their DramaFest entry:
01-07-07_05_600x400.jpg

This setup seems lighter than the ramp you are talking about; the heaviest part is the dolly itself and that's just plywood.

And keep in mind that a tripod dolly isn't really supposed to be used as a dolly.
Click to expand...

Basically its two pieces of unistrut attached to two 4x4s at the ends. The metal pipe (conduit) track, sits on top of the unistrut. On each 4x4 Jon drilled two holes for some metal pipes (usually used for wood clamps) to be used as feet. On the bottom side of the 4x4, placed on the pipe, is a clamp with a multi-disc clutch (the ones that you press down on, slide, let go and then lock into position) that will lock the 4x4 to the desired height. Then for extra safety Jon put some bolts through each 4x4 that would add extra clamping power to each pipe.

For your idea, you could just take our concept, and use a piece of ply wood instead of the metal pipes... that is if you want a solid and flat surface.

Jeremy Tuttle
 
extra insight

extra insight

thanks jeremy!

its a very clear photo, but its nice
hearing even more details from the
horses mouth.
 
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