NOVA 350R Transport Chair Review: 24 Pounds, Folds Flat, 300-lb Capacity — Built for the Trunk of a Car

The Wheelchair Was Reinvented in a Garage So It Could Fit in a Car

In 1918, a mining engineer named Herbert Everest broke his back in a mining accident. He survived — and then spent the next decade furious at his own wheelchair, a rigid oak-and-wicker throne that couldn't leave the house, let alone travel in the new machine transforming American life: the automobile. In 1933, he and a fellow engineer, Harry Jennings, built something new in Jennings' Los Angeles garage — a tubular-steel wheelchair with a folding X-frame that collapsed flat enough to slide into a car. Everest & Jennings chairs went on to dominate mobility for half a century, and every folding chair made since is a descendant of that garage.

An Everest & Jennings folding wheelchair — the 1933 X-frame design every modern folding chair descends from (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Ninety Years Later: 24 Pounds of Aluminum

The NOVA 350R lightweight folding transport chair is what that idea looks like after nine decades of refinement. NOVA Medical is one of the established names in mobility equipment, and the 350R is their answer to the single most common real-world scenario: getting someone to a doctor's appointment, through an airport, around a mall, or out to a restaurant — with one caregiver, one car trunk, and no wrestling match. The aluminum frame weighs 24 pounds without the footrests, folds flat in seconds, and still carries up to 300 pounds.

24 pounds of aluminum, built to fold flat for the trunk — the whole point since 1933

Transport Chair vs. Wheelchair: The 30-Second Version

A standard wheelchair has big rear wheels so the rider can self-propel. A transport chair like the 350R has four small wheels and is pushed by a companion — which is exactly why it can be so much lighter and fold so much smaller. If the rider won't be wheeling themselves, a transport chair is the lighter, cheaper, easier answer, and the person doing the lifting into the trunk will feel the difference every single time.

• 24 lb aluminum frame (without footrests) — folds flat for any trunk
• 300 lb weight capacity — full-size capability in a lightweight chair
• 8" all-terrain wheels front and rear — pavement, indoor floors, and grass, with locking rear wheels
• One-grip locking hand brakes at the push handles — the caregiver controls speed on ramps and slopes
• Flip-up desk arms — pull right up to a restaurant table, or transfer sideways to a car seat or bed
• Swing-away, removable footrests — stand-up transfers without barked shins

The Details That Matter at 2 PM at the Clinic

Two features on this chair are the ones caregivers end up caring about most. The hand brakes: most budget transport chairs only have wheel locks for parking, which means on a downhill ramp the person pushing is the only brake. The 350R's one-grip locking brakes work from the push handles, like a stroller's. And the flip-up desk arms: fixed full-length arms mean the rider sits two feet back from every table; desk arms flip up and out of the way so lunch after the appointment is actually pleasant. Small engineering, big dignity.

From Our Warehouse, With Care

AZ Sun Valley Sales is a family-run liquidation reseller in Mesa, Arizona. This 350R is brand new, inspected and photographed by us, ships within 1 business day, and — over $100 — ships free, with 30-day returns. New, comparable NOVA transport chairs commonly retail well above our $279.99.