Mobility scooter not as fast as they claim?

Associate
Joined
29 Jan 2015
Posts
12
This is something that has bugged me.

I have a Mobilty scooter. its only a 4MPH one and so I wanted to buy myself one of the faster 8MPH ones.

There are 6MPH options and I could go with one of those, but since I am paying out, I would rather double my speed of course.

Now, using a GPS / Speedo on my Android phone, I took mine up and down the road, to get an idea on how fast it truly was, and sure enough, I am seeing 4MPH and it did smach 5 a few times, and I giggled to myself.

At the end of the run that was about 50 yards up and then down the road, I had an Average of 4MPH and a top speed of 5MPH and so yeah, I liked the app.

Now, I used this very same app in teh shop the other day to compare 2 buggies that I had seen. They were a Rascal 388 and a Rascal 850, and according to the shop, they are both 9MPH machines and according to a coupel of sites that I saw, the 388 could be 4 or 8 ( the LX is 8 but I am unsure as to what exact model the one I was looking at is ) and the 850 is a full 8MPH however, when I had a quick play the other week, they felt abotu the same... Hence me getting the app on the phone before I made any payments.

Now, I went back to teh the shop the other day... Teusday to be exact, and I took both of these buggies out for a good run all teh way up the road, and all teh way back down. The distance was somethign like about 150 yards ( pure guess but its not important ) and I followed as closely as I could along the same line with the second buggy - after all its me I am doing this for and I wanted an honest test didnt I?

Going up teh road, they both did 4 and flicked on 5 and coming back down the road, they were both on 5 and flicked to 6 - admittedly, the 850 did give a Max speed of 7 but I myself did not see 7MPH show up - I am of course looking at the road more than the phone of course, Im not stupid.

I told the shop worked that they both were topping out as 6 MPH buggies and not 8, but even though I showed her the results, she was not too concerned.

Here is what I was thinking though... Do they get slower with age? They must do surely?

So, would I get the full 8MPH back on them, if I was to buy new batteries?

The thing is, the batteries are £130 ewach and they both take 2 of the things, so they are not cheap are they?

Ijn the end, I opted for a different model altogether - I have no clue as to what that one is, its not Rascal or Invacare or even Scoot like my 4MPH one, however, it shot to 7MPH with quite a jolt and stuck there fairly well, so it felt strong and speedy, it kiust looks a bit like a stock car racer more than anything.

So, does anyone know anything about Disability scooters or am I piddling into the wind on my own here?
 
Commissario
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Panting like a fiend
IIRC they're limited to whatever speed electronically as the maximum (probably unloaded), my mother has had a bunch of them and even two models that are meant to be the same can vary in speed (she has stuck with Shoprider Soverign 4 wheelers for the last 4 or 5, and has two at the moment*).

I suspect things like how new the batteries are, the weight of the user and the temperature all affect them to a degree.

Having said that I'm not sure how accurate a GPS is at working out your speed at such low speeds given some have issues if you're not in a straight line on the level.
The best way to test it would probably be to run it a measured distance on a track/path without interruption, then do the maths.

Re the batteries when my mum needed new batteries and tyres/tubes for her scooters we now tend to use Mobility Pitstop as they're usually a lot cheaper than most of the mobility stores and pretty good service.
The downside is that you need to either be able to fit the batteries/tyres etc yourself, or have someone who can do it for you (it's pretty easy and only really requires a couple of small spanners normally).

We tend to find the batteries last about 2-3 years or daily use before they start to lose effectiveness for my mum's scooters.

Also in my Mum's case we've found that it's rarely worth buying second hand scooters, she's gone through about 10 scooters in the last 20 odd years, and the second hand ones never seem to last long at all before needing expensive repairs** which given the Shoprider Sovereigns are often the same sort of price new as a lot of the second hand scooters means we go with them :) (one of the reasons she has had the Sovereigns so many times is that for a while it was only about another £300 to get a complete new scooter than the batteries and tyres).


*Having had the same basic model repeatedly means we've got a stock of spare wheel hubs, which is very handy as it means when she gets a puncture I can swap it wherever she's broken down.

**Control boards dying on scooters that were very expensive new, and apparently only supported for about 3-4 years, the front wheel on a three wheeler falling off (the motor was on the front and the axle broke).
 
Associate
Joined
31 May 2008
Posts
1,011
Don`t the 8mph ones all have a switch on to change the speed from 4mph to 8mph . 8 mph ones are only legal when being used on the road not on the pavement at least that used to be the case
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Jun 2009
Posts
3,067
Location
OCUK Detention Centre
This is something that has bugged me.

I have a Mobilty scooter. its only a 4MPH one and so I wanted to buy myself one of the faster 8MPH ones.

There are 6MPH options and I could go with one of those, but since I am paying out, I would rather double my speed of course.

Now, using a GPS / Speedo on my Android phone, I took mine up and down the road, to get an idea on how fast it truly was, and sure enough, I am seeing 4MPH and it did smach 5 a few times, and I giggled to myself.

At the end of the run that was about 50 yards up and then down the road, I had an Average of 4MPH and a top speed of 5MPH and so yeah, I liked the app.

Now, I used this very same app in teh shop the other day to compare 2 buggies that I had seen. They were a Rascal 388 and a Rascal 850, and according to the shop, they are both 9MPH machines and according to a coupel of sites that I saw, the 388 could be 4 or 8 ( the LX is 8 but I am unsure as to what exact model the one I was looking at is ) and the 850 is a full 8MPH however, when I had a quick play the other week, they felt abotu the same... Hence me getting the app on the phone before I made any payments.

Now, I went back to teh the shop the other day... Teusday to be exact, and I took both of these buggies out for a good run all teh way up the road, and all teh way back down. The distance was somethign like about 150 yards ( pure guess but its not important ) and I followed as closely as I could along the same line with the second buggy - after all its me I am doing this for and I wanted an honest test didnt I?

Going up teh road, they both did 4 and flicked on 5 and coming back down the road, they were both on 5 and flicked to 6 - admittedly, the 850 did give a Max speed of 7 but I myself did not see 7MPH show up - I am of course looking at the road more than the phone of course, Im not stupid.

I told the shop worked that they both were topping out as 6 MPH buggies and not 8, but even though I showed her the results, she was not too concerned.

Here is what I was thinking though... Do they get slower with age? They must do surely?

So, would I get the full 8MPH back on them, if I was to buy new batteries?

The thing is, the batteries are £130 ewach and they both take 2 of the things, so they are not cheap are they?

Ijn the end, I opted for a different model altogether - I have no clue as to what that one is, its not Rascal or Invacare or even Scoot like my 4MPH one, however, it shot to 7MPH with quite a jolt and stuck there fairly well, so it felt strong and speedy, it kiust looks a bit like a stock car racer more than anything.

So, does anyone know anything about Disability scooters or am I piddling into the wind on my own here?

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Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2007
Posts
24,529
Location
Solihull-Florida
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