Best Lightweight Transport Wheelchair Review 2024

Selection Criteria

You’ve got three wheelchair options to choose from if you’re considering buying one:

At first glance, these three appear to have little in common. However, although they do share many features in common, they also have some important differences. 

The biggest difference is that a wheelchair can be powered by either the person sitting on it or an assistant pushing from behind. A transport chair’s rear wheels are too small for the person sitting on the chair to reach and must be propelled by an assistant pushing from behind. On the other hand, a rollator is a “swing” device that can be configured as a transport chair or a “wheeled walker,” which is extremely versatile and convenient.

Hybrid units with interchangeable back wheels are also available, so you can quickly and easily convert a transport chair into a standard wheelchair. These are obviously a bit more expensive, but they can be well worth the extra money depending on your needs.

A lesser but still significant difference between a transport chair and a wheelchair is the fact that transport chairs are designed to be very light and extremely portable. As such, they’re not optimized for long-duration sitting but quite well suited for short trips. The big advantage of the rollator is that you get the best of both worlds, but you’ll pay a premium for the versatility.

In looking at transport chairs, in particular, the most important features are:

Those features we kept at the forefront of our minds when evaluating the various options available.

Our Pick: Karman MVP502

The Karman MVP502 is a true masterpiece and was featured prominently in our wheelchair roundup review as the best reclining wheelchair on the market today. Note that we said “wheelchair” and not “transport chair,” which may make you wonder how on earth it wound up as our top pick for the best transport wheelchair.

In the introduction, we talked about hybrid mobility devices that can be converted from a wheelchair to a transport chair simply by swapping out the rear wheels. This is one such device. Its standard configuration sports 14” wheels and is considered a transport chair, but you can buy 22” wheels that are fully compatible with the model, which transforms it into a wheelchair in a matter of minutes, giving you the best of both worlds.

That, however, is just the tip of the iceberg where the MVP502 is concerned.

Neither transport nor wheelchairs are known for their comfort, but the MVP502 is a notable exception to this rule. While it’s not as comfortable as a regular recliner, it offers far more comfort than you might expect and is ideal for long-duration sitting. 

The recline feature even allows you to take a decent nap in the chair, so if you have to spend most of your day confined to a chair, this is the one you want. 

It gives you the best of all worlds, and almost every aspect of the model is either adjustable or customizable on order. Here are just a few of its features:

It weighs just 33 pounds, making it easy to collapse and load into your vehicle to take it wherever you go. The rear wheels have enough tread to handle most outdoor terrains, making this one of the most versatile chairs on the market today and, in our view, the best lightweight transport wheelchair sold today.

There’s a catch, though. This is far and away the most expensive chair on our list, costing several times more than our other top contenders. As such, it’s not for everyone. If you only need a wheelchair or transport chair for occasional use, this model offers more features than you need. On the other hand, if you know you’ll need a chair for the long term, why not get one that maximizes your comfort?

Runner Up: Elite Care’s Lightweight Deluxe

Elite Care isn’t as well known as the major players in the industry, so its inclusion in our list of finalists came as a bit of a surprise. But it is an outstanding chair, offered at such an attractive price that it’s all but irresistible.

With a seat height of 19″, a seat width of 18″, a seat depth of 16″, and support of up to 250 pounds, Elite Care’s Lightweight Deluxe is a good fit for many users. While not the lightest chair on our list of finalists, it only weighs 25 pounds and has an extraordinarily small footprint when collapsed, making it very easy to transport.

What we like best about this model, though, is the combination of the good-sized rear wheels (12″) and the handbrakes, which make it capable of navigating even the roughest outdoor terrain. The brakes are ingeniously designed, too, and can be used to both slow the chair and lock the wheels in place.

Given how easily it can handle challenging terrains, it should be no surprise that it handles like a dream indoors, even when moving from one surface to another. It’s a superbly designed chair you’ll be happy to own—a top-notch, lightweight transport wheelchair.

Budget Pick: Drive Medical’s FW19BL

Drive Medical is an industry powerhouse offering some of the best-rated transport wheelchairs today. As you’ll see as you continue reading this review, they utterly dominate our list of best chairs, with the Fly-Weight 19BL being one of several superb models the company offers.

Despite weighing in at just 19 pounds (which makes it the lightest transport wheelchair on our short list), it can support up to three hundred pounds. No other chair we reviewed is easier or more convenient to move from one location to another, and it’s small enough to fit inside the trunk of most full-sized cars.

It’s a fairly basic design in terms of functionality, so there aren’t many extras or creature comforts, but it offers a smooth ride indoors and can handle flat terrain outside. 

It’s not as versatile as the Elite Care mode, which ranked higher, but if you’re looking for a simple, convenient transport chair for occasional use and short-duration sitting, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better model.

Also Great: The ProBasics Rollator

Our transport wheelchair review list wouldn’t be complete, and we’d be doing you, the reader, a disservice if we didn’t include the ProBasics lightweight aluminum transport wheelchair for your consideration.

If you’re on a budget, this chair is fantastic because it’s versatile. You can configure it to serve as a “wheeled walker” (rollator) for those times when you don’t need a transport chair, and with a few minutes to reconfigure it, it becomes a fully functional hospital transport wheelchair, too.

The only potential drawback to this design is that the seat width is a bit small, so it caters to a smaller group of potential customers than the other chairs on our list. But if the 15″ seat width and 250-pound weight limit aren’t deal breakers for you, this sturdy little device is incredibly handy and very easy on the budget, too! 

One of the most affordable transport wheelchairs on the market today. Recommended.

Other “Bests”

Our overall winner and the finalists we’ve discussed above are all we’d consider “general purpose transport wheelchairs,” but some people’s needs are more specific. Given that and the fact that we wanted to make this roundup as complete as possible, we’ve listed a few other “bests” that meet more specific needs. Here they are:

Best All-Terrain Transport Wheelchair: Nova Medical Products 22″ HD

If you’re looking for an awesome, reasonably priced transport chair that will allow you to enjoy the great outdoors while still handling like a dream inside, look no further than the Nova HD.

It has a seat height of 20″, a seat width of 21.5″, and a seat depth of 15.5″, and it can accommodate most users and body types. Even better, despite its relatively lightweight (27.75 pounds), it can support an impressive 400 pounds.

While all of that is outstanding, the things that make this such a great transport chair for outdoor use are:

In addition, it’s crafted from high-grade aluminum and boasts a swing-away footrest that makes getting into and out of the chair simple. While not, strictly speaking, a bariatric model, its extra-wide seat and impressive carriage capacity make it suitable for a wide range of users.

Selection Criteria

Broadly speaking, you’ve got three wheelchair options to choose from if you’re considering buying one:

At first glance, these three appear to have little in common. However, although they do share many features in common, they also have some important differences. 

The biggest difference is that a wheelchair can be powered by either the person sitting on it or an assistant pushing from behind. A transport chair’s rear wheels are too small for the person sitting on the chair to reach and must be propelled by an assistant pushing from behind. On the other hand, a rollator is a “swing” device that can be configured as a transport chair or a “wheeled walker,” which is extremely versatile and convenient.

Hybrid units with interchangeable back wheels are also available, so you can quickly and easily convert a transport chair into a standard wheelchair. These are obviously a bit more expensive, but they can be well worth the extra money depending on your needs.

A lesser but still significant difference between a transport chair and a wheelchair is the fact that transport chairs are designed to be very light and extremely portable. As such, they’re not optimized for long-duration sitting but quite well suited for short trips. The big advantage of the rollator is that you get the best of both worlds, but you’ll pay a premium for the versatility.

In looking at transport chairs, in particular, the most important features are:

Those features we kept at the forefront of our minds when evaluating the various options available.

Our Pick: Karman MVP502

The Karman MVP502 is a true masterpiece and was featured prominently in our wheelchair roundup review as the best reclining wheelchair on the market today. Note that we said “wheelchair” and not “transport chair,” which may make you wonder how on earth it wound up as our top pick for the best transport wheelchair.

In the introduction, we talked about hybrid mobility devices that can be converted from a wheelchair to a transport chair simply by swapping out the rear wheels. This is one such device. Its standard configuration sports 14” wheels and is considered a transport chair, but you can buy 22” wheels that are fully compatible with the model, which transforms it into a wheelchair in a matter of minutes, giving you the best of both worlds.

That, however, is just the tip of the iceberg where the MVP502 is concerned.

Best of all? It won’t cost you an arm and a leg. If you don’t need or don’t want to spend a ton of time outside, this one isn’t for you, but if you find yourself missing the sunshine, this one’s not to be missed.

Best Bariatric Transport Wheelchair: Drive Medical Bariatric Transport Chair

Medline is one of the most respected companies in the industry, and its customers consistently give it great transport wheelchair reviews. Although it offers a wide range of products, this model stands out for several reasons. First, it’s surprisingly lightweight, at 33 pounds, especially considering it can support an impressive 450 pounds.

With 12″ “no-flat” wheels, swing-away footrests, surprisingly comfortable padded armrests, and a breathable nylon seat, it’s the perfect transport wheelchair with large wheels for short trips and short-duration sitting.

The folding mechanism is easy to use, so you won’t fret about getting it into your vehicle. It has generously sized storage space with an easy-access lever on the back of the chair.

If you don’t need this model’s maximum weight capacity, then a great second choice (and a slightly lighter model) would be the Nova HD, which we mentioned above as the best all-terrain transport chair. 

Both are incredibly rugged and durable, and either would make an exceptional choice.

Best Pediatric Transport Wheelchair: Drive Medical Deluxe

This model is as good as all of Drive Medical’s other products. Its small, 17″ wide seat makes it ideal for children and youngsters, yet it’s sturdy and durable enough to support up to 300 pounds of weight so that this one will serve you (and them) well into their teen years and beyond.

The Trailblazer Drive aluminum transport wheelchair is a low-cost, bare-bones design, but you’re getting quality equipment. It’s extremely lightweight (just 19 pounds), which makes it exceptionally easy to transport, and the locking wheels and built-in nylon safety belt will provide safety, security, and peace of mind. 

Even better, the swing-away leg rests make getting your child into and out of the chair easy, and the breathable nylon seating is comfortable enough for short-duration sitting. However, as with any transport chair, it’s less than ideal for long-duration sitting.

Its 8″ wheels are big enough to give passengers a fairly comfortable ride, even over uneven terrain. However, it’s not especially well suited to handle the great outdoors (the wheels being slightly too small and the lack of handbrakes combine to make it less than optimal).

Still, if you’re looking for an inexpensive, durable transport chair that will keep your child safe and last for years, and you mostly need it for indoor use, this is the one you want.

Best Electric Transport Wheelchair: Drive Medical’s Cirrus Plus

We’re talking about electric wheelchairs here since, by definition, a transport chair requires someone standing behind it to push it. If there’s an electric motor involved, having an assistant becomes wholly unnecessary.

In that case, our top pick for this category would be our second-place winner for the best electric wheelchair in our wheelchair roundup review.

Not only is the Drive Medical Cirrus Plus the best value we’ve found in this category, but it’s also an incredibly robust, versatile, and long-lasting machine. Some users boast that their chair is still in service after over a decade. We’re unsure what it is if that’s not an endorsement for reliability.

Even better, it’s extremely simple to operate, offers an adequate fifteen-mile range on a single battery charge, and is highly customizable, so you can make adjustments as needed to maximize your comfort.

As motorized wheelchairs go, it’s not heavy, but it does weigh on the high side of a hundred pounds, so it’s probably not something you’ll be able to load in your car, truck, or SUV for transport without help. This tremendously capable machine is hard to top, given its modest price tag. We regard it as the best general-purpose transportable electric wheelchair being sold today. Highly recommended.

So, What’s the Best Lightweight Transport Wheelchair in 2024?

As you can see, there’s no one “right” answer to the question, “What is the best lightweight transport wheelchair?” While some common factors tie into answering the question, ultimately, finding the right transport chair for you will come down to working out your specific needs and budget and finding a model that most closely aligns with both.

While we stand by our overall top pick, we recognize that it may not be the optimal choice for everyone, which is why we went to such lengths to be as thorough as possible and present as many top-rated transport wheelchair options as we could while avoiding overwhelming you with too many choices.

If our top pick isn’t a perfect fit for you, we feel confident that one of the others we’ve mentioned here will be. We hope you’ve found this article helpful and informative, and we hope that the perfect transport chair for you is somewhere on this page!

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REFERENCES & RESOURCES:

• Karman Wheelchair, Official Brand Website.
• EliteCare Transport Wheelchair, Official Brand Website.
• Drive Medical Wheelchair, Official Brand Website.
• Nova Medical Products, Official Brand Website.
• Drive Medical Bariatric Transport Chair User Manual.
• The Trailblazer, by Drive Medical User Manual.
• Nova Medical 22″ HD Transport Wheelchair Wheel Chair User Manual.