Veteran Patton 16" 126v 2220wh

[techyiam]

2 hours ago, Cobaltsaber said:

Got to take a closer look at the patton today. That plastic piece is pretty thin. The way it failed seems like it popped out past the outer plastic bumper and the battery fell out. So how much is that outer plastic bumper layer really doing? Itll protect from direct hits, but I dont think its doing much to hold the innards together

From the photo, that plastic looks relatively thick, especially for the job it is supposed to do. I speculate somebody smashed it there.

Just wondering, when you get in a car accident, do you vent online complaining that the sheet metal is too thin and weak and that the body panel shouldn't have crumpled.?

On dirt bikes, don't people put on a skid plate for that kind of purpose. They don't make the engine case nor the lower frame thicker and tougher. 

Edited July 2, 2023 by techyiam

[Rollin-on-1]

21 hours ago, Rollin-on-1 said:

I am pretty sure I have some loose motor bolts now too. I have about 85 miles on mine.  I'll be doing a teardown soon.  I'll report back with my findings.

 

So I had a little time today to work on the Patton, but only enough time to tear down the left side.  Other than a few of the bolts holding on the handles, everything was nice, tight, and secure.  The bolts holding the handles may have been near spec before I loosened the other bolts on the handle thereby releasing some of the tension.  All bolts had blue locktite and it seemed to be working.  I'm actually questioning whether it is best to leave the right side alone vs taking the risk of technician error putting it back together.  😉

It has been a while since I have exercised my torque wrench and I'm a little skeptical that it is still accurate.  I've paused the reassembly until I can verify that I'm not over tightening things.

 

[Austin]

On 6/30/2023 at 1:49 PM, Rollin-on-1 said:

Were those loose motor bolts to the motor cover or to the axle?  

The ones I'm most concerned about are also the most time consuming to get too.  😒

They were on the motor cover, I didn't disassemble anything, just tightened easy to access bolts.

[Critzlez]

14 hours ago, techyiam said:

From the photo, that plastic looks relatively thick, especially for the job it is supposed to do. I speculate somebody smashed it there.

Just wondering, when you get in a car accident, do you vent online complaining that the sheet metal is too thin and weak and that the body panel shouldn't have crumpled.?

On dirt bikes, don't people put on a skid plate for that kind of purpose. They don't make the engine case nor the lower frame thicker and tougher. 

Theres a video in the EUC discord showing that the guy jumped down like at least 4 feet at an angle, crashing and resulting in the damage. This kind of damage shouldn't happen doing normal rides. The wheel was used as a public demo so it's abused.

 

12 hours ago, Rollin-on-1 said:

So I had a little time today to work on the Patton, but only enough time to tear down the left side.  Other than a few of the bolts holding on the handles, everything was nice, tight, and secure.  The bolts holding the handles may have been near spec before I loosened the other bolts on the handle thereby releasing some of the tension.  All bolts had blue locktite and it seemed to be working.  I'm actually questioning whether it is best to leave the right side alone vs taking the risk of technician error putting it back together.  😉

It has been a while since I have exercised my torque wrench and I'm a little skeptical that it is still accurate.  I've paused the reassembly until I can verify that I'm not over tightening things.

 

I did a tire change. For my wheel, none of the bolts were under torqued. In fact, they were in there pretty tight, especially the black bolts on the side of the battery, the motor bolts, and the suspension clamp bolts. All of the bolts had Loctite. I used a cordless drill with a torque setting to disassemble reassemble the wheel. I recommend one anybody that is looking to do maintenance themselves. Definitely not an impact drill as the previous guy said as you cant change the torque setting

Edited July 3, 2023 by Critzlez

[OliG]

On 7/2/2023 at 6:45 PM, Cobaltsaber said:

Got to take a closer look at the patton today. That plastic piece is pretty thin. The way it failed seems like it popped out past the outer plastic bumper and the battery fell out. So how much is that outer plastic bumper layer really doing? Itll protect from direct hits, but I dont think its doing much to hold the innards together

Thanks for sharing the details. Curious to see the solution proposed by the community and/or leaperkim.

Edited July 11, 2023 by OliG

[Rawnei]

Not same wheel but most likely related to the same problem:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElectricUnicycle/permalink/6341980495899860/

[Critzlez]

2 hours ago, Rawnei said:

Not same wheel but most likely related to the same problem:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElectricUnicycle/permalink/6341980495899860/

Fwiw I don't have this problem. No clunking. I checked the left side and the batteries aren't loose at all. I didn't check the right side but I doubt it's loose

[Rawnei]

2 minutes ago, Critzlez said:

Fwiw I don't have this problem. No clunking. I checked the left side and the batteries aren't loose at all. I didn't check the right side but I doubt it's loose

It's very likely a QC issue, LK has a history of varied QC, so could be some foam or some such is missing there.

[Critzlez]

10 minutes ago, Rawnei said:

It's very likely a QC issue, LK has a history of varied QC, so could be some foam or some such is missing there.

I didn't actually have foam there on mine too. I think it's silicone glued or something

[Rawnei]

13 minutes ago, Critzlez said:

I didn't actually have foam there on mine too. I think it's silicone glued or something

Usually there's a thin layer of neoprene on the side of batteries to hold them in place, silicone could loosen up over time but also gluing is not great if you need to get the packs out.

[Rollin-on-1]

21 hours ago, Rollin-on-1 said:

So I had a little time today to work on the Patton, but only enough time to tear down the left side.  Other than a few of the bolts holding on the handles, everything was nice, tight, and secure.  The bolts holding the handles may have been near spec before I loosened the other bolts on the handle thereby releasing some of the tension.  All bolts had blue locktite and it seemed to be working.  I'm actually questioning whether it is best to leave the right side alone vs taking the risk of technician error putting it back together.  😉

It has been a while since I have exercised my torque wrench and I'm a little skeptical that it is still accurate.  I've paused the reassembly until I can verify that I'm not over tightening things.

 

Got mine all back together now that I fixed my torque wrench.  Overall, the QC on my Patton was quite good (except for the short in my beeper).  All the important bolts had blue loctite and were well torqued.  A few of the bolts holding the handles may have been a little under torqued, but the lock washers were fully compressed and I couldn't turn them by hand.  

The Patton is a little tedious to work on, but it is very easy and straight forward.  

Pro Tip for anyone that hasn't done a teardown yet: put in the 8 screws holding the battery case to the suspension after the battery to top panel screws and the handle screws have been installed and torqued to spec.  Once this is done, the battery box to suspension screws will line up perfectly.  

[Critzlez]

Just to note, I don't think the rubber gasket for the battery wires on the top are actually water tight. I was able to push down on them have expose a way for water to get in. They should improve this, but the current fix would to have the top plastic cover have a rubber gasket or sealant and/or add sealant to the wires gasket

Edited July 4, 2023 by Critzlez

[Rollin-on-1]

2 hours ago, Critzlez said:

I don't think the rubber gasket for the battery wires on the top are actually water tight. I was able to push down on them have expose a way for water to get in.

Water tight, no.  Water resistant, yes.  Under what condition would water provide enough force to compress the rubber gasket the way you did with your finger?

But I agree, a gasket around the top cover would go a long way toward improving the ingress protection.  I'm not sure it is really necessary as long as people are riding it in a totrential downpour or through a car wash.  

Looking at mine, I think it will hold up to a suprise rain shower just fine.  Plus, I keep a cover with me when I ride.  A shower cap on the top of it should address most concerns.

 

[Critzlez]

5 hours ago, Rollin-on-1 said:

Water tight, no.  Water resistant, yes.  Under what condition would water provide enough force to compress the rubber gasket the way you did with your finger?

But I agree, a gasket around the top cover would go a long way toward improving the ingress protection.  I'm not sure it is really necessary as long as people are riding it in a totrential downpour or through a car wash.  

Looking at mine, I think it will hold up to a suprise rain shower just fine.  Plus, I keep a cover with me when I ride.  A shower cap on the top of it should address most concerns.

 

What I meant is that the rubber seal has a gap, it isn't actually a sealant so it isn't even water resistant. Here's a picture of the gap. The seal doesn't cover the entire hole, which is the issue. It's too small

[dredwheel]

185 miles in. No issues yet. Haven't torn it down, but damn do I love this wheel. Handles everything and keeps me stable while doing so. LET'S GO PATTON.

[Rawnei]

56 minutes ago, Critzlez said:

What I meant is that the rubber seal has a gap, it isn't actually a sealant so it isn't even water resistant. Here's a picture of the gap. The seal doesn't cover the entire hole, which is the issue. It's too small

Hmm first layer of protection would be the cover, smearing a thin layer of silicone on the edge of the cover wouldn't hurt and then letting it dry before installing so that it the thin layer of silicone is squeezed onto the chassis without gluing the cover to it.

[techyiam]

On 7/2/2023 at 5:10 AM, unicycle bunny said:

Definitely need tube with a thicker wall. I searched the Amazon and found this one (but i'm not sure about the quality). Just ordered 16x3 here https://www.ewheels.com/product-category/innertubes/ 

Here is my data point for future reference. Hopefully it can help someone. 

I bought a CST branded 16x3 inner tube for my V12 as a spare. It turns out to have decent wall thickness. 

Vendor I used.

The box looks like this. But mine is labeled 16x3.00

The bent valve is angled at 45 degrees. 

My stock V12 inner tube valve is angled at 0 degrees. And the rim gets in the way.

So I wanted to experiment with 45 degrees. 

Edited July 5, 2023 by techyiam

[stizl]

On 7/3/2023 at 3:46 AM, Rawnei said:

Not same wheel but most likely related to the same problem:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElectricUnicycle/permalink/6341980495899860/

Even after disassembly/reassembly to check the motor bolts, I still have a muted clunking sound when rolling over choppy off-road terrain such as a series of roots/rocks. I’m guessing it must be inside one of the battery boxes, as I didn’t open them up. I’ll investigate some time this weekend. 

On 7/3/2023 at 1:54 AM, Critzlez said:

I used a cordless drill with a torque setting to disassemble reassemble the wheel. I recommend one anybody that is looking to do maintenance themselves. Definitely not an impact drill as the previous guy said as you cant change the torque setting

Yes!  I have been using this cordless drill clutch technique for years. It works great for light screws without torque critical requirements. When the torque matters, it can still save you a ton of time zipping everything together at/near the lightest clutch setting then finishing by hand or with a torque wrench. Again, using a cordless impact driver is a recipe for disaster, especially when installing steel/stainless screws into aluminum threads. 

Edited July 5, 2023 by stizl

[Rawnei]

17 minutes ago, stizl said:

Even after disassembly/reassembly to check the motor bolts, I still have a muted clunking sound when rolling over choppy off-road terrain such as a series of roots/rocks. I’m guessing it must be inside one of the battery boxes, as I didn’t open them up. I’ll investigate some time this weekend. 

Yes!  I have been using this cordless drill clutch technique for years. It works great for light screws without torque critical requirements. When the torque matters, it can still save you a ton of time zipping everything together at/near the lightest clutch setting then finishing by hand or with a torque wrench. Again, using a cordless impact driver is a recipient for disaster, especially when installing steel/stainless screws into aluminum threads. 

Friend got his 62lb Patton the other day, first test ride on bumpy terrain and jumping in skatepark no abnormal sounds, no clunks, no bottoming out so it seems to be something with specific wheels, probably some QC related thing.

[carlitos]

7 hours ago, Rawnei said:

Friend got his 62lb Patton the other day, first test ride on bumpy terrain and jumping in skatepark no abnormal sounds, no clunks, no bottoming out so it seems to be something with specific wheels, probably some QC related thing.

How do you guys think that such a thing can happen? Multiple people in the assembly line and some are more experienced than the others? Or something else?

I'm curious and I have no idea what kind of process these companies have in place for putting wheels together.

[stizl]

I just looked further down the FB page linked above with the guy with the loose battery. He has a video with him riding down “374 stairs”. I’d expect the Patton to hold up to that, but still…

At least we get accelerated endurance testing from it.

Also, the video is not that glorious nor worth watching, imo. He takes lots of breaks. If you must:
https://fb.watch/lBQFHhnl3G/?mibextid=v7YzmG

5 hours ago, carlitos said:

How do you guys think that such a thing can happen? Multiple people in the assembly line and some are more experienced than the others? Or something else?

I'm curious and I have no idea what kind of process these companies have in place for putting wheels together.

Good question. I suspect one possible cause is that the early first batch Pattons (that were held back and shipped late) were disassembled and reassembled before leaving the factory to correct the axle seals issue, breaking the intended assembly line order. They had good intentions to fix a known issue before shipment, but it’s still no excuse for loose bolts. 

[Critzlez]

4 hours ago, stizl said:

I just looked further down the FB page linked above with the guy with the loose battery. He has a video with him riding down “374 stairs”. I’d expect the Patton to hold up to that, but still…

At least we get accelerated endurance testing from it.

Also, the video is not that glorious nor worth watching, imo. He takes lots of breaks. If you must:
https://fb.watch/lBQFHhnl3G/?mibextid=v7YzmG

Good question. I suspect one possible cause is that the early first batch Pattons (that were held back and shipped late) were disassembled and reassembled before leaving the factory to correct the axle seals issue, breaking the intended assembly line order. They had good intentions to fix a known issue before shipment, but it’s still no excuse for loose bolts. 

What date were the early first batch pattons delivered?

[dredwheel]

8 hours ago, Critzlez said:

What date were the early first batch pattons delivered?

I got mine like the 13th or something. and i got in on the first 28 batch from ewheels.

[Hellkitten]

 

[Mango]

2 hours ago, Hellkitten said:

 

Worth watching for the T4 and Master cutouts...