Disabled Nomads

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Troubleshooting our Personal Electric Vehicles

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Greetings! Joyce here. I often post to social media and sometimes forget to update the blog and wow, it's time for an update!

April 17: I had a tooth break and the filling fall out.

April 24: Don has thrombectomy which nearly cost him is left leg.

June 14: Finally able to see a dentist and get the broken tooth extracted.

July 2: Don has cardio ablation.

July 4:  Another tooth broke. I was finally able to see a dentist. They will try to save it. I go back on the 21st.

Now...onto the personal electric vehicles. Here's the timeline:

June 2018: 1) Out of the box, the rubber grommet protecting the wiring coming out of the neck of the bikes was out of place on both vehicles.  Tried to push into place. They will not stay in place.   2) Turning on the headlight caused the motor to shut off on Don's vehicle. Not in a position to fix ourselves or take to warranty repair shop so will simply not turn on the headlight. 3) Discovered that the brakes on the vehicles do not work if you stop on an incline. You will roll backwards and be flipped over. Solution is to think fast, jump off and grab the handle bar to keep it from getting away.

August 2018: My speed selecter failed and the vehicle operates only on speed #2. Not in position to fix ourselves or take to warranty repair shop. They sent  new speed selector. We installed it but that did not resolve the issue. No solution so will use as is.

September 2018: The weld on the bottom of Don's seat failed.  Friend welded back on, free of charge. Company sent us replacement seat. Will keep in reserve in case it happens again. The latch on the clamp that holds the handbars in place broke. Don had to use vice grips on the clamp.

April 2019: The ignitions on both vehicles failed days apart from each other.  Could not figure out how to turn on for months until we realized we could use the remote from the key fobs. The company sent us ignitions, but we had already installed on/off switches which we liked better. Kept the ignitions in reserve in event of future problems.

September 2019: Motor on my vehicle completely failed. Warranty expired so stuck with a non-working vehicle since we can't afford a repair shop.  Figured we'd try and get help from someone eventually.

December 2019: Relative helped with repair of the motor failure, but it is still stuck on speed #2. Still no solution for that so will use as is.

July 2020: Sometime between April and July a crack developed on the stem of a rear tire on Don's vehicle causing it to go flat.

July 12-15, 2021:. Have not used the vehicles since July 2020 mainly due to Covid.  We simply did not go anywhere except for grocery curb side pick up. We made it our mission to restore the speed selection on my vehicle and repair Don's flat tire when we reached Paradise Campground in Silver Creek this month.  

We noticed the same crack in the stems on all the rear tires of both vehicles so we brought all 4 of them to Les Schwab for repair which cost $94.  With the help of our good friend John, the guys were able to restore the speed selection to my vehicle, but the test drive revealed the motor now not getting full power and is too slow to be of any use. Later that same day Don's motor completely failed just like mine did back in September 2019.

July 16: John stripped off the wire loom on Don's vehicle down to the motor to discover cracked/brittle insulation exposing all wires in many places, indicative of wires over heating. They opened the motor case to discover brittle, fused wire insluation and scorching. They will be working on the cause and hopefully find a solution tomorrow.

Will keep you posted.