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How to make this electric scooter faster?

5620 Views 23 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  cricketo
Hi all
I have a variflex stinger electric scooter, here are the specs

Variflex Stinger Electric Scooter Specifications: Two 12 Volt 12Ah SLA batteries, 24 Volt DC motor, 575-5M-15 HTD drive belt, 2-speed off/on/on pull lever throttle, 10"x2" tires and tubes, rear band brake, 24 Volt AC 2 Amp output battery charger

Between my buddy and I we have some good tech abilities, the question is, what would be the best way to make this scooter FASTER?

Do we just get a stronger motor?
Can we wind this one tighter?
Get a better battery?

I was wondering if you guys could give me some ideas to make this thing ROCK

TY again
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I had success putting a 40v lipo pack into my 24v scooter, and just wiring a switch to it (would've blown the speed controller). Gotta be careful running it uphill, and, the motor would eventually really not appreciate the heat, but, it's doable.

To make a DC motor spin faster you just give it more voltage. This makes it draw more current, spin faster, and accumulate more heat.

The speed controller would need to be upgraded probably, if you wanted to continue to have variable speed.

You'd need to upgrade the charger to charge to the correct voltage.

Cutting some lines carefully into the motor case, or hoseclamping some heatsink to it, or adding a cheap trio of 2" computer fans to it in series would help it from overheating as badly.

But at that point you're just re-using the frame and sort of motor.

For that matter, you could replace the motor too.

You could keep the same motor and change the motor pulley size, this will change the speed it spins.

You could keep the same motor and increase the tire size.

Neither of those two makes the motor more powerful, but it will force the motor spinning at a given speed to make the tire cover more ground in a rotation. This will demand more amps from the controller and battery and motor.

I also did this to a drift cart, and after several adults aggressively raced in in a 100lb max children's vehicle, the motor overheated enough to where it caught on fire.

There are a large variety of solutions depending on your budget vs. bullsh!t continuum.
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TY, lots of good info

here is the parts list I can get for it, unless I rig something myself LOL


IS there anything I would need from this list?

some questions

can you tell me what DC motor I could replace the one that came with it? A link maybe?

So if I got s higher Volt battery, that would be a bit faster with the stock 24V?

Does it make sense to reWIND the internals of the stock motor?

I really want to tinker with this project

TY for the great reply!
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To make a DC motor spin faster you just give it more voltage. This makes it draw more current, spin faster, and accumulate more heat.
Is that correct ? I imagine the current it draws will actually depend on the load. For example, if he increased the voltage 1.5 times while increasing the gear / pulley ratio by the same amount (for the same vehicle top speed), the motor will spin faster but should draw proportionately less current.
Here are some pics, help me make this fly

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Is that correct ? I imagine the current it draws will actually depend on the load. For example, if he increased the voltage 1.5 times while increasing the gear / pulley ratio by the same amount (for the same vehicle top speed), the motor will spin faster but should draw proportionately less current.
Well, if you change two contributing variables in opposite direction, yes.

But why would you slow down the motor with a ratio change? His goal is to go faster.
IS there anything I would need from this list?
No, looks like those are all just replacement parts for the same thing.

can you tell me what DC motor I could replace the one that came with it? A link maybe?
Naw, I'm not going to do a bunch of research for you. There are scooters that come with bigger motors.

So if I got s higher Volt battery, that would be a bit faster with the stock 24V?
Yes. The 24v battery is actually pretty close to 30v when fully charged, and only 24v when empty. The controller can probably handle mid-30s without bursting.

Speed should be pretty linear in this range, at 36v it'll spin 1.5x faster than it did at 24v.

Does it make sense to reWIND the internals of the stock motor?
Naw, it's complicated and probably expensive, and you'll screw it up. Plus, the motor doesn't get any bigger, so, it's no more powerful. You can still overdrive it, but it's going to overheat the same.
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TY for all the responses,,,

so, given the photos, this battey will work and give me better speeds?


what about pairing it with this motor, if it was belt driven?

How about this motor?

I would suggest going 36v and keeping the stock motor. Like Matt said the fully charged voltage is close enough it's probably fine. Also the SLA batteries voltage sag a ton when under load so just going to Lithium and getting rid of some of that sag = more speed.

I have a Razor E300 running on 50 volts stock motor but using a hand throttle and speed controller from eBay. It goes 26+mph and is scary and nobody else has been able to ride it without flipping it over backwards immediately o_O. It's fun, I charge it with solar, and use it to run errands locally. Horrible brakes and dangerous but fun.
I would also add that it is probably a good idea to open the controller to see what voltage its components are rated for. I was upgrading one of my similar systems from 48 to 60v battery pack, and had a suspicion about the 48v controller. Sure enough I found that some capacitors wouldn't like the fully charged voltage of the 60v pack, though mosfets looked good.
TY for the help,,,,The power switch is broken so I need a new switch

Can someone point me in the right direction, some people say over volting the stock 24v will burn it and just go with a 36v motor

If I stay with the 24v motor, and try to use a 36V battery , given the photos I uploaded, what battery and controller and switch should I use that will work with this setup?

Im just not sure exactly what parts I need or to get

TY for the help

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its not the switch that is broken, its the charging pin is cracked
If you replace the battery you won't be able to use that charging port anyway. I must say though, it doesn't sound like you can pull it off - the purpose of these boards isn't to hold one's hand through every little thing :)
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Do you think a 36v battery will work with this motor? and What controller would I need if I changed the battery?
Like cricketo said you can't just go 0-100 if you are asking these questions. Start incrementally one thing at a time and see how it responds. For instance you have two 12v SLA batteries, you can probably find a third 12v SLA battery of the same type locally for $10-20 on craigslist and you can add that to your scooter and get 36v, 24 + 12 = 36. You can learn to wire it up and if the motor burns out then that's your next project.
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TY, if I just add another 12v sla giving 36v will I have to swap the controller also, and other that just starting with adding another 12v is there any other hardware I will need?
LIke a 36v charger?

TY so much
I think Im going to buy some parts, stick them on a bench and test things out,,,,,Do you think its possible if you dont push it too hard to run a 24v motor with a 48v battery and controller and get more power?
If your going to start buying stuff, I'd just "step up" & put a "proper" 48V 1,000W system on it.
You can get a kit (motor, controller & throttle) for (~$120.00) 48V 1000W Brush Motor + Controller + Throttle Grips Electric Go Kart Scooter ATV | eBay

FYI: Here is a bench test video, of this type motor kit
WOW, ty, thats a nice kit,,,this standup scooter is belt driven, could I swap the head on that motor so that it fits the belt instead of a chain?
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