Type: rigid manual
Material: titanium
Add-ons:
-side guards
-Spinergy Spox wheels w/knobby tires
-3-inch foam cushion
This is a custom-made version of the TiLite TR, but besides the lack of adjustability, most of the features should be either identical or similar.
The first thing I noticed about this chair is how easy it is to push compared to my old clunker. I was able to push with ease and I don’t remember being overly tired when using it, besides obvious situations like going up a hill or slope. It may have something to do with its weight (the frame is around 7 lbs., and the total weight was around 15-17 lbs.) but my old chair was only about 4-5 lbs. heavier, so that may not be the reason for the ease of use.
The frame and the wheels work together in a way that turning works for you instead of against you. The casters are tucked in behind the footplate in a way that you can make tight turns without ramming into anything. As well, because the caster wheels are behind your feet, it can make you feel like you’re more in control. My old chair had the casters further up front and it kept ramming into things when I turned, which made me feel like the chair was working against me rather than for me.
The other thing I noticed was that it’s slightly narrower than my old chair. For narrower doorways, this chair will likely give you about one more inch of clearance, which can be a nice advantage to have when you’re in a place where every inch counts, like a store.
Car loading is perhaps the potential weakness of this chair. While a TiLite ZR, for example, has Z-like frame, the TR and TRC are slightly boxier, especially with an extra bar connecting the bottom of the seat to the casters; it dips lower than most other chairs like it. This extra bar can prove to be annoying because when you life the frame into the car, that bar can hit the steering wheel on the way in.
Some models of the TRC may have slight problems with add-ons. For mine, installing side guards’ mounting brackets proved to be tricky because the only suitable area to mount the bracket was blocked by a horizontal bar that runs under the seat (going left to right), so some compromises had to be made.
I highly recommend installing Spinergy Spox wheels; I had my TRC both with regular wire wheels and Spinergy wheels, and the chair seems more synchronized with Spinergy wheels.
– Gordo