Front Wheel Feels Out of Round (?)
Hello to all, We just took delivery of our first 5 Zapino’s, I’m the (new) Louisville Ky dealer. Anyway, one of our Scooters at around 20 mph or so the front tire (?) feels to be out of round. We thought that it may have be a flat spot from transport. I deflated it and re-inflated the tire but still there. < Comments>
Another question, Charging (?) the manual say’s ignition off plug in and charge. Anything to watch for during the charging time etc.
Also things to look for on a brand new out of the create unit. Adjustments, checks, test, etc. (?)
I have a million questions on these things but will start slow.
Leslie
Is it just the tire? Or is the wheel also out of round? I assume you mean 'out of round' means as it rotates the tire feels like it's moving 'up' and 'down'? It may be the wheel rather than the tire?
Things to watch for are .. generally the charging will take care of itself and the charger will shut itself off at the end of charge. But the charger can stick on 'charge' which will result in an overcharged pack. If the voltage goes well above 14.4 volts per battery then it's overcharged, and the resting voltage of a fully charged pack is around 13.2 volts per battery.
Another thing to look for is whether the batteries in a pack are evenly charged and discharge evenly. It's best for the health of a pack if the batteries are balanced with each other, meaning that they behave well together. It may be the manufacturer didn't take care to choose balanced batteries.
There's a few things to help mitigate imbalanced packs ...
PakTrakr allows for eacy per-battery monitoring .. especially during discharge .. which allows the operator to see how their pack is behaving.
BattEQ or PowerCheq -- purport to automatically keep a pack balanced. But there have been mixed results.
Bank charging rather than pack charging. Bank charging means one charger per battery rather than a charger for the whole pack. Sometimes batteries in a pack don't charge evenly and charging with individual chargers can make it more evenly charged, if the individual chargers are themselves calibrated the same.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
You may want to check to make sure that its not the rear wheel that is out of round. You will get a vibration that feels very similar. I had an issue with my 2008 Zapino where the rim itself on the rear wheel was either not centered around the motor or out of round. Zapino sent out a replacement rim and motor and once installed it fixed the issue. It took about 4 hours to change it out because the rim was separate from the motor. I'd contact Zap.
20 mph may be a bit slow for this to be a cause, but an out of balance tire can also be the cause. I've had to balance the tires on the scooters I've owned.
Good stuff guys thanks. I think the first thing I needed to do and will recommend to anyone getting a scooter is to learn and understand how battery's work. I found a good site to get me up to speed on the subject. http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html , anyone else have any good sites to explain battery science's?
As far as the wheel balance issues I'll check tire balance front rear and then check the rims. 2 of our new scooters have this same issue, so I hope it is just flat spots from shipping. I remember reading in this forum about someone else checking the balance of there tires, I've search for that and give it a try.
Thanks for the input
Leslie
Turned out the rear rim has a high spot on it. Ill need to call ZAP on Monday for a new rear wheel.
Leslie