Yet another project to add to the ever growing list. Why have one problem when you can have twelve?
A story of how I dared to utter the phrase, “How hard can it be to change a battery and tyre?”.
Background
After hearing of my penchant for broken electric vehicles, a work colleague kindly donated this mysterious electric powered garden contraption as a spares or repairs project – my favourite kind of project!
According to the label on the side of the handle, this three-wheeled bucket is a “LUVcart CC-LUV01B” produced by “the cartcraft company”. Inputting these credentials into our favourite search engine returns few results, but after some digging it is possible to obtain the Owner’s Manual (dated 2002-2004).
Unfortunately, the web address provided in the manual to register this craft has since expired and the domain is currently available for the princely sum of $3,595! (luvcart.com, if you’re interested).
“What’s wrong with it?”
Whenever I return home with something like this and proudly present it to my wife, the first thing she always says is, “what’s wrong with it?”. It makes me smile to know that she knows me so well.
Taking in to account the age of this beast and given that the charger wasn’t responding, a duff battery was suspected. In addition to this, the rear pivot wheel was so flat that it limped when the tyre rolled around.
A wise man once said, “it’s better to be lucky than good looking.”, and with a stroke of luck it happened that the batteries in the mobility scooter were the exact same size!
After fashioning a couple of questionable electrical connectors from some scrap aluminium, it was possible to jury rig the craft to the donor battery and successfully test the motors.
Brilliant! With the motors now operating, how hard can it be to change a battery and tyre?
“There Are No Problems, Just Solutions”
The above quote is attributed to John Lennon, and while he may have been a wonderful singer and songwriter, I doubt he ever tried to fix an electric wheelbarrow.
So the first solution to find was obtaining the correct replacement battery. The existing had a 17Ah capacity and male-spade connectors. However, it would seem that the batteries available only had an M5 screw connector.
Oddly enough, it was more cost effective to get a larger capacity battery (22Ah) which provided an additional 29% capacity over the original specification.
The next solution to find was a new rear tyre. The marking on the side of the existing said ‘2.50-4’ and a replacement (including new inner tube) was ordered at a reasonable price.
As we all know, you get what you pay for and it would seem that if you buy cheap, you often buy twice.
This became evident when inflating the new tyre and discovering it had a haemorrhoid. (Highlighted in the red circle).
A higher specification replacement tyre was ordered to prevent the rubberised-piles from occurring again. This time increasing the 2-ply 30psi rating to a 4-ply 50psi rating.
Final Review
As a passenger, I found the ride to be exhilarating but at the cost of comfort and stability. I would suggest using a pillow for longer journeys as there is little in the way of suspension.
My driver reported a remarkably better experience, noting that the two motor drive and knobbly tyres provided ample power and traction over a slightly damp surface.
Overall, an interesting project which has cleaned up nicely into an unique and eager workhorse.
