started in 2009
- Tim Swenson
Action Trackchair
1105 Lake Rd.
Marshall, Minnesota 56258
(507) 532-5940
About Action Trackchair
Action Trackchair is a line of tracked, all-terrain power wheelchairs built by Action Manufacturing in Marshall, Minnesota, and owned by Tim and Donna Swenson. The chair grew out of a family need: the Swensons’ son Jeff was paralyzed in a 1998 car accident at age 16, and Tim Swenson, a veteran of the motorsports and marine dealership business, set out to build a chair that could get Jeff off pavement and back outdoors. Drawing on snowmobile and ATV design combined with electric wheelchair components, he sold the first chair in 2009 and later added standing models that let users rise to a standing position.
For hunters and shooters with mobility impairments, the Trackchair opened up fields, woods and snow that a standard wheelchair cannot handle, and many chairs have gone to disabled veterans through charities and donor programs. By 2019 the company reported roughly 25 full-time employees, about 500 units built per year, and chairs sold on every continent except Antarctica.
Key Facts
- 1998: Jeff Swenson is paralyzed in a car accident, the event that later inspired the chair.
- 2009: Action Manufacturing Inc. is established in Marshall, Minnesota, and the first Trackchair is sold.
- 2014: About 1,900 Trackchairs had been built.
- 2015: A larger factory is built and the Action Mobility Foundation, a public charity, is started.
- March 2019: The company marks 10 years in business and approaches its 4,000th chair.
Sources
- Changing lives one chair at a time (Marshall Independent, 2019)
- All-terrain wheelchair (CNN, 2013)
- Action Manufacturing (Prairie Sportsman, PBS, 2018)
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