Kit lets wheelchairs go off-road

From Bay News 9 TV in Tampa, Fla.:

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY -- A new device under development is aimed at giving wheelchair-bound people more freedom.

University of South Florida students helped create an off-road wheelchair kit, known as the Predator.

Christopher Rhoades (pictured above) started using a wheelchair about three years ago due to a progressive form of muscular dystrophy.

He says it has kept him from doing some of the things he enjoys, like going to the beach.

"In a regular wheelchair I'd get stuck in the sand and stuff," he said. "With this, I just roll right over it."

Mounting a wheelchair on the predator allows Rhoades to go off-road. The wheels on the wheelchair actually drive the predator's wheels and Rhoades uses the wheelchair joystick to drive and steer the Predator.

Stephen Sundarro heads up "Rehab Ideas", a USF affiliate, which takes student ideas and develops them for the commercial market.

"It's great for the students because they get real world education and training trying to develop a product all the way from inception to building a prototype," Sundarro said.

Rhoades' mother, Tracie Wiechmann, says she has an emotional reaction seeing how the device gives her son more independence.

"The feeling is priceless," said Tracie Wiechmann. "To be able to go out there on the grassy field and conquer everything and not worry about getting stuck, to know he can go to the beach and control where he wants to go and when he wants to go there; it's just amazing."

For Rhoades, it's all about doing the things that help make life worthwhile.

"I feel like anything is possible when I use this vehicle," he said.