Wheelchair lift removal?

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WriterMs said:
My van was a county bus with a commercial wheelchair lift. My brother-in-law happened to work with a man who wanted the lift as a replacement or source of spare parts for the one he had in use for his wife. I got some money out of it and the man was thrilled. And this is in a fairly rural area, not a big city.

I would give one big warning about the electrical: be sure you know what "fail-safe" systems are in place. My van had something wired such that even after the lift was removed, something triggered a lock-down as if the lift was in use and we could not get the van to stay in gear and go until we figured out a work around by slamming doors and such -- I still don't think we know how exactly the system decided to "allow" us to drive it.

So my next move was to take it to a shop specializing in computer/electrical issues. It cost another few hundred dollars to have him go in and disconnect everything except what I knew I wanted to keep. If in doubt, shut it down.

My van also had rows of seats bolted down throughout the van. I kept the two that made a bench seat directly across from where the lift had been so that I could have passengers with legal seat belts if I wanted to. Plus, with a thermarest cushion, it makes a decent small couch. I'm attaching a photo to give you an idea of the space within such a van.

It took a couple of weeks on the local Craigslist to sell the discarded seats but they did fetch another couple of hundred dollars.

I put a small kitchen "island" cart I already owned into the space on the passenger side between two iron support bars (where the lift had been) so the space is very usable. There is room left in that niche for me to stack my two small coolers and use that gap also as a pass-through for loading grocery bags and such.

a computer issue that could probably be solved by contacting the lift manufacturer, since the lift was installed after market. Vehicle manufacturers don't install the lifts
 
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