Looks pretty nice.

 

Lift is installed!

Picked up our van yesterday and couldn't be happier with it. Looks like they did a great job, and my time with that loaner minivan made me feel a lot better about our decision to get the full-size van.

Have to say that Rollx is a classy outfit; they didn't seem to cut any corners despite shaving $4,000 off their bid to win the contract. They detailed the entire van, weighed it, replaced the payload sticker to account for the extra weight, and performed a 4-wheel alignment. Extremely pleased with how this all turned out!

 

Congratulations, great looking conversion, enjoy it

 

What's the cables on the doors for?

 

They installed those to hold the doors open for windy days or when parking on grades. They hook onto metal loops in the wheel wells.

 

I have power on mine, but when I remove the arms I use bungie cords, I like that, looks pretty cool, take care they don't marr the finish on days where the wind causes them to keep tugging against the wire.

 

Tom, congrats on getting your van converted, enjoy!

 

Yea, power doors are another $1500 and something i really need, had to cut a hole in the floor of the lift so i can reach through and open the doors and i use a couple shoelaces to pull them shut..

 

Very interesting Gman, that's a clever solution. We were fortunate enough to have a state program that paid for what we were asking for, and the sliding lift stows out of the way of the front door. We didn't want to have to bring the lift down every time we opened the door, and so far this works well for our situation.

Stuff is pricey though. Total conversion cost was around $10,860 if I remember right. Two out of the three bids were initially $14,000, and the place we chose cut their bid to get the contract.

 

My 73, friends gave me my Ricon 2000, and friends on another website came and put it in, luckily I can work the slider, I have the power motor for adding, but the slider has a bad place on the track, so I look to gull wing it in the future, but a slider is easy to operate than barn doors around the lift. Funding isn't available here, you gotta pay, used a settlement to move a lift and power doors from a previous van dad bought me, doors were $1000 to move, yet a year before they only cost $1000 to buy, that was installed too, lift was $2500, my seat base was $750 and after hearing about it, that was a miracle purchase.
Right now I'd take $3500 for my 99 E350, it needs coil packs, the power seat comes out, never sell that, they are hard to find.
Tom, that price ain't bad, lift prices are pretty high now, and today their cost is included in the install, they will not sell one unless they install it, government regulation. Yes, you'd not be happy with a mini due to room, after the conversion, they get no better mileage than a tuned fullsize due to the weight in modifications and I don't think they hold structure integrity as well, get in an accident with the mini, it'll be gone. Then room, you got kids, it's OK but as they grow it'll get extremely tight, thats not including their gear you'll haul. I have the vangater, the door is clear but they do not hold up as well as the hydraulic lift after years of service, I wore mine out you could say.

 

You're not kidding. They gave us a loaner minivan for the time they had our van in the shop, and it was enough to knock that idea out of my head for good. Payload was 950 lbs, so with three adults and Hannah we were overweight. With just Hannah, her chair, and her two siblings the rear axle was riding on the stops which made for the worst riding van I've ever driven. Handling was also kind of scary when loaded up...I had to swerve when someone almost pulled out in front of us. Had he gone for it we would have rolled a dozen times. I appreciate the convenience, but a converted minivan sure isn't for us! Here's the one we were driving...it was almost brand-new with 8,500 miles on the clock.

 

An acquaintance on FB had one, that Dodge was in the shop more than he drove it, always something, it was brand new. I was eyeing one at a shop, 2 actually, Honda and a Toyota, I got in one, then the other, I use a manual chair, after the 3rd time I realized, that ramp is steep and sux. When parking, my wheelchair lift, I cut the end corner edge from it, so I can roll on when a car is to close, you can't get on the edge of a ramp, and need a running start, so the result is, a ramp requires more room than a lift, so a mini is out in the real world.

 

After a year-and-a-half I wanted to give a bit of an update. I would caution anyone to stay the heck away from a Ricon SlideAway lift.

This thing has spent over four months in the shop for different issues. At last four hydraulic leaks developed, the first after about 9 months in service. Twice it was the lines that run under the sliding post, and each lift cylinder failed. The most recent was last week, which is why it's back in the shop.

We've also had a great deal of trouble with the mechanism itself. It started getting "notchy" in its operation after less than a year, and we started having difficulties getting it down a few months ago. They replaced the threshhold plate trying to fix this, with no success. Ricon never provided them a solution, and after going through it, they never got it any better. This was the last straw last week:


After all this time, Rollx has been great to deal with despite the repeated problems. We've probably put four or five thousand miles on their loaner vans over these months, but they've never hesitated to tell us to bring it in and swap for a loaner while they sort out the mess. It went in the shop most recently last Thursday for the above video and yet another hydraulic leak. I got a call from the service manager yesterday afternoon...after speaking with the owner they offered to replace it with the ClearWay lift. We agreed, and they have the new lift on order.

We're very grateful that they're forking over more than $5K to stand behind the product they sold, but it's disappointing that Ricon won't.

 

The Ricon S2000 in mine has yet to leak anything, it's a 1995 unit too, yet it doesn't slide, a friend has the clearway, it's as old as mine and heavily used, it doesn't fold anymore, the devices wore out and were removed, but could be replaced. Hydraulic is the way to go but less movement is even better, but that said, my Crow River is also from 1995 with some years of heavy use, it still works but the micro switches are buggy, along with the big motor sounds like the armature is burnt up.

 

Dang...one of those fold versions was what I was hoping to find.