Mobility Scooter Speed

Hi All,

I have the Pride Ranger/Wrangler Mobility Scooter,
(both are the same scooter)..

This has the Curtis 1227 24 volt 200amp controller installed..
The forward high speed of the controller is set to 100%...(10mph).
There are two 12 volt 100 amp batteries installed..

The two motors are both 36 volts each..

I have seen mobility scooters advertised, that have a switch installed,that will increase the speed to about 20mph....

Does anyone out there know how this is achieved..!!!!!!


I was wondering if it was possible to make this scooter go faster than 10mph...!!!!

Many Thanks Dave..UK

To increase the speed of a DC motor you need to increase the voltage applied to it. If the motor can be supplied by a 36V source you can connect three 12V batteries in series to achieve this. However, you will increase the weight of the scooter and the internal battery losses. Also, you will need another controller which can handle 36V.

This is not practical, the normal method is on a series motor to increase the current through the armature by use of a variable resistor in parallel with the field, or with a shunt motor by placing a variable resistor in series with the field.

For safety reasons the controller may have a speed limiter. If that could be by-passed the speed could be higher, but of course the scooter might then be unstable or otherwise unsafe.

The motors are likely controlled with PWM (Pulse width modulation) - to control speed with a variable duty cycle of appled DC voltage in pulses. If the pulse width range is currently from 0 to 50% and you can find a way to increase that from 0 to 100%, then your scooter can go faster. Otherwise, not much chance if 10mph is maximum power.

also, three-wheeled vehicles are notoriously unsafe because they tend to roll over during turns or slopes. Scooters like yours are additionally unsafe(even with four wheels) because of the high center of gravity. The last thing a person with a disability needs is an injury - healing tends to be slower for immobilized people and physical therapy/rebuilding muscle tone is more difficult because of limited abilities. Why are you in such a hurry?

Finally, some areas of the world have a 12 mph (20 km) restriction on non-human powered vehicles. If your vehicle is CAPABLE of going any faster than 12 mph, you become a liability and need insurance, possibly license plates and must drive on roadways instead of sidewalks. It doesn't seem to matter how fast you actually drive, it is capable of doing 12 mph.

You know this thread is nearly 7 years old?

Well, did he crash? Did he drop the project? I need to know!