Monday, May 31, 2010

Scooter Wranglers Changing a Wheel




Rhonda had a problem with a defective wheel on her TravelScoot, so Alan and Dave (our Scooter Wrangling husbands) got together to change it.  Dave had tried to change it alone first, but he either didn't have enough hands to do it, or couldn't get enough torque to get the wheel off.

If you look at the first picture closely you'll see that the wheel is split. The split is all the way around and goes to the core. Fortunately she was still able to use her scoot, even with the split wheel.

If you haven't heard the term "Scooter Wrangler" before, these are those wonderful souls who help the less mechanically inclined scooter users with maintenance. They're also wonderful at lifting scoots over obstacles, or putting them in and taking them out of the car on shopping trips. Yes, Rhonda and I can both do those things alone, but it's nice to be pampered sometimes too!

From start to finish this whole process took 5-10 minutes. I was just snapping a lot of pictures so I could show them to you all. Or since I'm from Louisiana I should probably say "y'all!"



The first picture here is Alan, trying his hand at loosening the bolt.  He's using a hex key, and I'm not sure if it's one that came with the scooter toolkit or one of the ones he brought from his own hex key set.

When that didn't immediately work he gets a closer look.  Then Dave got involved too.

In the last picture of this group you can see a hand on each side of the wheel.  I believe he has 2 hex keys, one in each hand.



Now they're trying a little WD40, to see if that will help loosen things up. As Rhonda pointed out to Dave, these scoots are factory assembled, and everything is put together nice and tight.  That's a good thing, except when you're trying to change the wheel. 


The second shot in this set shows you the second hex key. 

To release the bolt that holds the wheel on, you turn the hex keys in opposite directions. 

Can you see that it's 6:30 by Alan's watch?  They're motivated to finish, because when they do we're going out to a Mexican restaurant.

I think I heard one of them grunt in the last picture in this section, but there was no cursing involved. 



They've gotten the bolt loose, but are now trying to remove it so they can put the new wheel on.  It doesn't want to come out just yet.


Dave has gone in the house to get a screwdriver and hammer.


Alan's got the new wheel in his hand, so success must be near.  Just a tap with the hammer and the bolt is out.


This is what the bolt looks like.  It's threaded on the inside.



Now Dave is tapping the bolt back in, and they tighten everything back up.

    



Success!   

Dave took the scoot for a test drive and it worked perfectly.

7 comments:

  1. Dear Rhonda, (or Elizabeth)
    Hello !
    What happened to the tire that it ended-up split right around the center, like that? please.
    .
    Great photos.

    from,
    Daniel.

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  2. Daniel, we think it was just a defective tire. Rhonda just noticed one day that it was split. I don't think it was even affecting the performance of the scoot.

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  3. Yes, you did get some really good pictures of this. How odd that her tire was split, it made me go look at mine lol

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  4. At first glance you really don't see anything wrong with it. Believe me, it made me go look at mine too!

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  5. Use a hexagon key socket with a 3/8" ratchet handle and the tightest bolts can be undone without rounding off the hexagon.
    Make sure the key is EXACTLY the rght size for the bolt.
    If really stuck a piece of 15mm copper pipe can be used on the end of a normal wrench key for extra leverage.

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  6. Thanks for the tips, John! Once you get your scoot if there are any pictures or videos you want to add, I'd love to have them. My email address is elizabeth@ifisher.com

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  7. Thanks again for your info and pics. I'm researching the possibility of exchanging the scooter's front wheel with an inflatable one for better shock absortion (just the front wheel, because Hardy told me that exchanging the rear wheels with inflatable ones could mean that the brakes wouldn't be effective anymore). I'm waiting for an answer from escooter.de, but now I'm worried that the mere fact of removing the hard front wheel and installing a softer or inflatable new one could be more difficult than I had anticipated! Well as I say I don't know yet if such thing is possible... I'll wait and see and I will keep on reading your blog to learn things! Take care.

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