My new motor arrived yesterday.
Hey I wanted to report back my results from my motor install.
First off I think it’s awesome. Is how my install went. Motor install was fairly straightforward and took me about 45 minutes to do. To make my life easy I took off the front bodywork removed the two front batteries to expose the motor and remove the front wheel. Once all of that stuff was out-of-the-way the motor was installed in no time at all. I took the car for a test drive to make sure that everything worked and no error codes popped up. I then removed the controller and sent it back to Ride 4 Fun for reprogramming. Some of the information required to reprogram is tired and wheel overall height. The type of terrain you use the car in. Your battery type. Desired TopSpeed. I boxed up the controller and sent it in. I had the controller back and in my car six days later. First thing I noticed was the car will now go 25 mph up the hill it barely went 15mph. The power is smoother and a bit quieter then my Original motor.
It’s not neck snapping faster it Accelerates and feels like it has about the same amount of takeoff speed as the stock motor. Major difference is it just keeps accelerating all the way up to 40 miles an hour. I drove the car around pretty aggressively for the whole weekend.
Hi the end of the weekend I was getting error code 41. My T-1 controller was having overheating issues. I knew that going into this mod my controller may or may not flare up and cause me issues. I was prepared for a controller rebuild if necessary. I called R4F and was told a controller Re-build was around $400-$500.
I have a T-2 controller laying around and these Higher Amp T-2 controllers can handle the extra draw better I was told T-1s were 350 Amp controller and T-2 controllers were 500 amp controllers. So the plan is to throw in the T-2 and see if it works and if it does I will have it re-programed and go from there. If the T-2 is bad and needs rebuilding I will have the T-2 rebuilt instead of the T-1 I currently have installed in the car.
I won’t fully elorabrate but I just wanted to let everyone know that after trying out 3 different controllers I couldn’t get my new R4F motor to Not over heat the controllers to the point where the car stops. I decided to remove the motor and send it back. I came to the conclusion that 3 diffrent controller couldn’t be bad and that the R4F motor was not the best option for me.
I sent my Motor back and R4F gave me a full refund. I will be going another direction and I will report back my findings. I didn’t want to go into all the details because I don’t think it makes R4F look very good. And In the end I was happy that they have me a full refund so I can say No harm No foul.
I have 2 GEMs, a 2001 and 2002 (both with t1 controllers), which I use in FL (Fort Myers area). I upgraded the motor on the 01 about 3months ago with the ride-4-fun raptor, and all is good. The install was easy, and the car is very fast. Solid 40MPH with my new batteries. I will be upgrading the 02 before the winter for sure.
Glad you received a full refund. I found the Ride-4-Fun guys to be a good source of honest information. They helped me debug a charging issue, without trying to sell me a charger. Eventually I will be upgrading my charger when the stock zivan gives up.
FWIW I have the R4F 7.5HP motor and reprogrammed controller on my 01 E2 shortbed and it works a treat. I can get up to just under 38MPH but normally drive it closer to 30 because of battery life concerns w/ my Trojan 30XHS. No problems w/ controller or motor overheating. The controller was originally programmed by someone else and would engage safety interlock shutdown around 28MPH even though it was supposed to be programmed for 40MPH top end. I ended up sending the controller directly to R4F and they reprogammed it correctly at no charge since I’d purchased their motor.