LI F E ON W H E EL S
NO LIMITS! Written by: ROSA WALSTON LATIMER
Ben Huntzinger outside his shop in Ochloknee, Georgia, with Spartan Chariots ready t o ship.
Ben Huntzinger (r) delivering an all- terrain wheelchair to J oel, whose goal w as to go “mud bogging” with his friends.
“My love of the outdoors began with my parents. When I was young, my father and I hunted in South Georgia. The Chattahoochee River was near our home, and my mother and I would run alongside the river. As an adult, I still enjoyed an active life running half marathons, fishing, hunting and kayaking,” Ben Huntzinger said. “In 2009, I was involved in an automobile accident that left me paralyzed from the chest down. I needed the peace and calm that I had always experienced from being outdoors more than ever before. Now, many of the activities I loved were no longer available to me because of the limitations of my wheelchair. I soon realized even the best wheelchairs are not designed for extended outdoor use.”
wheelchair you could take to the river, get some exercise, prevent diabetes and depression — a wheelchair that would help me, and others, live life more fully,” Huntzinger said. “We’ve been to the moon, and we mass-produce mountain bikes and baby strollers. I couldn’t understand why no one was building an affordable, all-terrain wheelchair.”
Huntzinger was determined to continue with activities that had a positive impact on his quality of life. “I would go to the river to exercise and hook my dog, Rambo, to my wheelchair with a harness. From day one, he thought his job was to pull me, but when my front tires hit gravel or grass, that would bring us to an abrupt stop.” Huntzinger tried different wheelchair sports, including fencing, softball and wheelchair racing. “None of the activities I tried met my need for the unique feeling of being out in nature,” Huntzinger said. “Every day, I am active — out in the woods, cutting my grass, rolling wherever and whenever, I want, and that is important to me. I wanted, and needed, more than a few hours of recreation on someone else’s schedule.” The frustration with his limitations led Huntzinger to design and build a wheelchair that could function well in almost any type of terrain. However, the final product, Spartan Wheel Chariots, was 10 years in the making. “I realized no one was offering the type of wheelchair I wanted. That awareness lit a fire in me to create a
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DIRECTIONS 2021.1
Ben Huntzinger on the river in his kayak.
With conviction, the paraplegic outdoorsman got to work. “I began by learning about things like mountain bike and downhill skateboard parts and buying nuts and bolts at the home improvement store,” Huntzinger said. “It was a process of bolting parts together, figuring out what would and wouldn’t work. Eventually, I learned how to weld from watching YouTube using a $100 welder.” Huntzinger also revived his talent for drawing. “I realized that I am blessed with a creative way of thinking. I am very good at putting things on paper that are in my mind. I doodled in notebooks for several years, modifying my wheelchair designs.” Eventually, Huntzinger produced and began using a prototype of the all-terrain wheelchair he had envisioned for so long. Huntzinger’s passion for finding a resolution for the limitations of his wheelchair kept him focused during this time, but he experienced many dark, unproductive days. “It isn’t unusual for someone who has experienced a traumatic accident to struggle,” Huntzinger said. “Having a wheelchair that allowed me to be outside and just ‘go’ got me out of the darkness many times. Making this specially designed wheelchair available to others is something I have dreamed of since the early stages of my recovery. I knew there was a way to provide this type of wheelchair, but I didn’t understand why no one was doing it. That was unacceptable to me.” Huntzinger’s perseverance paid off in 2019 after he enrolled at Southern Regional Technical College in Thomasville, Georgia. “After doing a lot of research early in this journey, I discovered that often universities and students would use resources and ideas related to their field of study to help people who are disabled,” Huntzinger
