The iBex

The iBex

The iBex is a safe, wheelchair enabled, pony drawn all terrain vehicle. It allows wheelchair users access to the countryside, not just on roads and prepared tracks, but anywhere a quad can go, and quite a few where a quad can't.

The safety comes from the instant release system. This releases the pony, transforming a pony drawn vehicle which is dangerous, into a piece of garden furniture, which is safe.

The ultra low floor, under 200mm, (8” to old fogeys) means the centre of gravity is low and therefore safe. It also makes loading wheelchairs easy, and with the jack and pulley system, requires no lifting to get any wheelchair into the iBex.

Seats are optional, so if a wheelchair is unnecessary, the iBex can be a single seater, two seater or OK for three friends. Children can be crammed in till they complain. They can fall out the back, 200 mm or over the sides 600mm but at the front it is 900mm.

 Wheelchairs are secured with four, 500kg straps and are totally solid.

The iBex is a three wheeler, with two non steering front wheels and a fully castoring off set rear wheel. This gives the stability of a four wheeler as balance does not require the presence of the pony, but without the four wheelers tendency to jackknife on tight turns and the turning circle of a two wheeler. It can reverse easily, turn in its own length and goes anywhere.

The low centre of gravity gives low ground clearance which would be an issue if the wheels drove the vehicle. But the pony is pulling and has his own quad traction and over large rocks, ruts and dunes, the iBex behaves as a sledge with a smooth HDPE bashplate.

Releasing the pony applies the brakes, so even on steep slopes, pull the rope and you stay where you are. The brakes cannot be applied by the user. Since ponies will pull ploughs through the ground, stopping the wheels on a lightweight vehicle doesn't make much difference, and I don't want anyone using the brakes rather than the release rope as a safety device. The brakes can also be operated by thee breeching for steep slopes to help the pony.

The iBex is the same width as a quad, 1100mm, but weighs 60kg. It is tough, reliable, can clip to the back of a pony trailer, fits any sized animal and is insanely good fun.

The History of the iBex gives some details of the design process, and the Risk Assessment goes into more details about safety.

The iBex History

The iBex has evolved since 2000 when I first started building wheelchair enabled, pony drawn vehicles. Its name derives from Bex who has tested the last five or six variants that have appeared since Organic Arts at West Town Farm, Ide commissioned the first operational version which appeared in the spring of 2011.

Bex is the most recent in a long line of brave/stupid people who have tested the iBex and its predecessors. Jeannie, Ari, Damian, Zed the biker, Sara and Sarah Piercey all tested the vehicle in the days when it looked a lot less pretty, and was a lot less stable.

I drove a version from Exeter to London in the summer of 2010, a hairy and wildly educational experience, and on my return ripped the vehicle to bits and rebuilt it yet again, but I knew that I had the heart of a safe, stable system.

John the Blacksmith turned my ugly, badly welded, functional vehicle that would cope with most things, into a beautiful vehicle, beautifully welded, that would cope with anything. It is now lighter, stiffer, stronger, smaller externally, with more internal space and it handles like a dream. I take it out cross country, driving from a wheelchair, trying to flip it over, and fail. Even the ugly, heavier, early version drove to the top of Rowtor on Dartmoor.

This spring, the iBex will still be working with Organic Arts at West Town Farm, providing access to a beautiful organic beef farm for all those with mobility issues. School groups where one person is in a wheelchair can go all round the farm together. The only problem is that every other kid wants to try out the wheelchair access system.

An iBex will be working at Seal Hayne, with the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust, and another at the Magdalen Project in Somerset. Obama and I will be traveling across France with the SLL White Horses Project taking disabled veterans from the Camargue to London. We are raising funds now for the project and details are here.

We know that with the iBex, Ponies Help People. Any project that gives ponies a purpose, gives them a future, therefore People Help Ponies. The system is simple, safe, affordable and gives so much to people and ponies. Please support the People Like Ponies project.