A handicapped scooter can enhance a disabled or elderly person’s mobility to a great extent, but if you have to take it around or out of town while on a trip, you will have to purchase a scooter lift of some kind.  There is a great variety of scooter and wheelchair carriers available out there and one of the best is the Harmar carrier. In particular, the Harmar AL100 scooter lift carries a handicapped scooter or any other scooter in a class three receiver on a car, van, truck or your sport utility vehicle.

The Harmar AL100 comes fitted with its own scooter restraint arm which makes tranbsporting the disability scooter a lot more secure. There are many a Harmar carrier that you can choose from depending on your requirement and your budget. Most scooter carriers make use of an electrical motor to in order to lift the scooter. Such scooter carriers either use the car battery or use a separate battery pack which is rechargeable and can be purchased additionally.

Wheelchair and mobility scooter carriers may be installed externally or internally. The Harmar carrier is installed externally and gets directly attached to the hitch of a vehicle. So as to support maximum weight, you would need to use a class II hitch, but you do get scooter or wheelchair carriers that work with class I and II hitches. Most external lifts make use of a platform to lift the mobility device vertically off the ground. The Harmar AL100 scooter lift is one of the most popular Harmar carriers today. It is fully automated and provides you with easy operation and a lifting capacity of up to 350 pounds.  The distinct arm that it has to hold down the scooter ensures safety while transporting it and it is compatible with hitches from both class II and III.

The main advantage of the Harmar AL100 is that since it is an external lift, it can be installed with ease and also removed quickly. The internal lifts are most often installed within the vehicle and require a minimum of one row of seats to be taken out. Others make use of a mechanism like a crane to lift the mobility scooter into the vehicle; these are normally installed in the boot of the vehicle. So unlike the Harmar AL100 and other models of Harmar carriers, internal carriers force you to give up some of the passenger or luggage space in your vehicle.

If you plan to make use of your mobility scooter or other device when away from home, then it would be wise to invest in a scooter or wheelchair lift. Although external scooter lifts like the Harmar AL100 are quite popular, the only disadvantage is that your scooter or wheelchair is exposed to the dust, heat and other weather conditions outside so it could do with a cover for protection.