Sorry for the long post...
I have a 2 1/2 year
old Pride GoGo Elite Traveller Sport which I bought for walking my
Spaniel, Bella. I’m a wheelchair user with CP who can’t push
myself far unless it’s a really smooth surface. I’ve used
scooters off and on before but always felt a little self conscious
but getting Bella has changed all that.
I love walking her,
twice a day roughly 2 miles in the morning and 1 in the evening daily
on average. We also do longer walks maybe 2 to 3 times a week which
can range from 3 to 11 miles. I don’t like easy tarmacked walks
either, I love pushing the scooter through mud, rough terrain, etc.
and I can pretty much quarantine that no other scooter (or boot
scooter anyway) has gone where my little scooter has gone. So nipping
to ASDA or around a precinct isn’t what I use it for!
About 6 months after
buying it I bought higher capacity batteries with a 17 miles range.
Now, I drive and all this MPG is rubbish, it’s done on a rolling
road and never converts onto real road driving, we all know that.
Using the scooter how I do, the longest, fairly roughish walk I do is
12 miles which is 5 on tarmac, 2 on really rough track with a very
step incline and the final 5 on a decent walking path but again with
steep inclines and descents. These higher capacity batteries tackled
that with no issues, I was highly impressed with my little work horse
to be honest!
After a year I
noticed they weren’t holding their charge, I wasn’t getting the
distance anymore and Bella was like, we’re going back to the car
already Dad hahaha. So I bought some more, same batteries, same
company. First use I did a 6 mile walk which includes a slightly
rough mile through a wood, same kind a path through some fields for a
mile, down a long tarmacked drive and then 2 miles around a country
park which isn’t tarmacked but it’s not rough either. I did it no
problem but the battery indicator was on orange by the end whereas,
when the old batteries were in their prime, I’d still have 1 to 2
green lights at the end of that walk but I just thought they’d need
a few more charges to get to full capacity. Which they did!
So fast forward to
the last week of last September and again the batteries weren’t
performing as they should and I know they’re not old but they’re
punished so I decide to have it serviced by a local company who said
the scooter is fine, they can tell it’s used a lot but it’s fine
(which shocked me hahaha), one battery is fine but the other is
giving a 40% output (there’s 2 batteries in the unit/pack) and
after talking to the bloke, he was surprised I wasn’t stuck in the
middle of nowhere. He said he’d get me the real batteries and not
dodgy Chinese ones and fit them for £300 which, I thought was a
little dear BUT, I punish them and if they got me another 3 to 4
years of decent walks, it’s worth it.
First walk I did
with the new batteries was a 2 mile walk around my local country park
and I was… disappointed, I did it no problem but the battery meter
was on the last green. I couldn’t do the 6 mile walk as the ground
was to wet to go through the wood. We did a few other walks and they
were muddy but the batteries were, not what they should be.
So then I went away
for 3 weeks to visit family before Christmas and I set a timer plug
to charge the scooter for 12 hours once a week. Came back and I was
still unhappy with the range/charge. Yesterday I did the 12 mile walk
with my friend, 6 miles in I was on 1 red bar, I made it back to the
car with 3 instances of my mate having to help me up a steep incline.
I know these batteries are rubbish but I’ve had them since the end
of September and no companies going to exchange or even except
they’re faulty now.
I guess I’m
asking, what should I do? And for all of you think, as I would, buy
an all terrain scooter. I would love too but a, they’re so dear and
b, I can walk from the drivers seat to the boot to get my chair out
and the the scooter, with and all terrain, I’d need a trailer and I
couldn’t walk to it to get it out. I do keep wondering how I could
do it though.
