Runaway RXV

[BobBoyce]

Sorry to announce, my RXV is now a wreck. As I was turning into the driveway at about 10 MPH, I hit a bump and it jarred something, causing the cart to go WOT. I was sitting in the middle of the seat, and since I was only about 10 feet from a 5-6 foot dropoff, all I had time to do was yank the wheel hard right to dive off of the bank at a more straight angle to prevent rollover. I was successful, landed hard and plowed into a tree at WOT. The tree hit right at the DS front tire, the cart pinwheeled around the tree counterclockwise. Of course, I collided with the dash, and was thrown out to the right as the pinwheel ended. Of course, the cart was still WOT, spinning the rear tires, so I crawled back in and turned off the key.

I will try to get some pics of the cart over the next couple of days, depending upon my ability to walk. I still have to figure out how to get the wrecked cart back up onto the road. The hospital released me after a series of X-rays showed nothing broken. I mainly have a few cracked ribs and am in a lot of pain. My knees and shins are a mess from being sliced and diced by broken dash plastic. Nothing deep enough to require stitches. I look and feel a lot worse than it actually is. I'm not sleeping so well. LOL.

After getting home from the hospital, I crawled down to the cart and did a POST, everything passed test. It was a definite disadvantage to have hopped up the torque with the 350 Amp controller and 2 guage wires. When it went WOT, the cart lept like it was on nitrous! I was just hanging on for the ride and trying to keep from rolling the cart. Total distance travelled from start of WOT to impact with the tree was only about 15 feet. It could have been a lot worst with more room to get up more speed. But then again, I may have had more time to turn off the key. By the way, the brakes are no match for a runaway motor. I'm thinking the controller locked up in WOT mode because normally the regen brakes are very strong and the motor brake locks at heavy brake pedal. It did nothing to stop me.

Bob

[usgicollector]

Sorry to hear about your mishap Bob. I’m praying for a speedy recovery for you and the RXV. Glad your alright…

[mutant]

sorry bob-sounds bad.... get better.

[BobBoyce]

Thank you guys. I made it out there and took a picture of the cart. I also took a picture of my left leg and the left side of my chest.

Bob

[ironmonkey17]

Sorry to hear, not sure who posted a video of a test crash of the golf carts, If I'm not mistaken I think it was Crash Test Dummy and it is unreal the impact and damage that is caused by a head-on 15mph crash.. A speedy recovery to you and the RXV.

[sltintexas]

WOW, scary! Glad you survived! It could have been really bad!

[scottyb]

Crap! That is truly scary - Glad you survive. Broke ribs are no fun, long painful recovery but it could have been much worse.

What the blood hell made the cart go WOT?

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by scottyb

Crap! That is truly scary - Glad you survive. Broke ribs are no fun, long painful recovery but it could have been much worse.

What the blood hell made the cart go WOT?

I would love to know what caused it. This is forest and there are lots of little bits of leaves and twigs that get into everything. I suspected that was what tripped the throttle encoder. But then I started thinking about the mods I made to the controllers settings, and what effect that could have had. I know one thing, I'm going to reflash the controller back to factory stock before I do a teardown. The floor pan is mashed in and crumpled, both throttle and brake pedals are not able to be pressed until that stress is relieved. Once I get the assemblies removed, I'm going to do a thorough investigation. Once it went WOT, pedal input was ignored, so it acted like the controller went into a loop. The mods I made were in default settings, not the program itself. I reduced max motor RPM from 9500 to 8500 and set the Mode 4 limit to 25 MPH. That was it. None of that should have caused this. I guess I'll find out.

Bob

[scottyb]

Keep us posted and take it easy

[sleeplesstwo]

Take care of them ribs and leg! Sounds like you have a good nurse!