Making A Mobility Scooter Drastically More Mobile

Do you have a spare mobility scooter sitting unused in your garage? Or, maybe you’ve got a grandmother who has been complaining about how long it takes her to get to bingo on Tuesdays? Has your local supermarket hired you to improve grocery shopping efficiency between 10am and 2pm? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then the guys over at Photon Induction have an “overclocked” mobility scooter build which should provide you with both inspiration and laughs.

They’ve taken the kind of inexpensive mobility scooter that can be found on Craigslist for a couple hundred dollars, and increased the battery output voltage to simultaneously improve performance and reduce safety. Their particular scooter normally runs on 24V, and all they had to do to drastically increase the driving speed was move that up to 60V (72V ended up burning up the motors).

Other than increasing the battery output voltage, only a couple of other small hacks were necessary to finish the build. Normally, the scooter uses a clutch to provide a gentle start. However, the clutch wasn’t up to the task of handling 60V, so the ignition switch was modified to fully engage the clutch before power is applied. The horn button was then used as the accelerator, which simply engages a solenoid with massive contacts that can handle 60V. The result is a scooter that is bound to terrify your grandmother, but which will get her to bingo in record time.

25 thoughts on “Making A Mobility Scooter Drastically More Mobile

  1. Anything [PhotonicInduction] puts his stamp on is bound to be hilarious and completely unsafe. As someone who relies on a mobility scooter to get around, I say that this waste of a perfectly good scooter is totally and completely…
    Awesome!!!

  2. They really need a current limited PWM controller to give max acceleration with control.
    Just a thumping big switch is pretty poor. A PWM controller is really easy to make nowadays with an Arduino and big FETs.
    The one I originally did about 10+ years ago had a couple of 555 timers in it.
    Having the motor current feedback to reduce the PWM to safe levels will let you have a smooth speed increase and will extend the battery life, not to mention that of the motor!

  3. I have a golden companion 24 volt goes 4 mph… I need a controller replacement that will allow me to go up to 10 mph or a bit more, so that I can keep up with a bicycle. Can you guys help me

  4. Looking for a bolt on replacement motor for my GoGo three wheel scooter. I have added an extra set of batteries in parallel with the original 12 amp ones, and the improvement in torque is fantastic, but i gained very little extra speed. I’d like to increase the voltage to 48 volts with a controller capable of handling it, and a higher revving motor. Also can you recommend a wheel hub adapter so i can put larger diameter tires. It’s a 17mm keyed shaft.

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