RadRover 6 Plus Upgrade (Battery, Motor and Controller)

[alexwhitman]

Hi all,

I am curious if anyone has upgraded their RR6+, specifically the battery motor and controller.

Earlier this month I purchased, all were delivered this week, from Elctrobikeworld 750w bafang motor, 52v 17.3 fat shark battery and 35a controller with screen. I am pretty excited to get these installed, will provide an update once I have completed.

Have you upgraded your RR6+ with similar upgrades? I would appreciate any tips or difficulties you encountered when installing these compents.

[JimInPT]

Just a thought, since you got all the upgrades at once: try installing just the controller and display first, with your stock motor and battery, to make sure both new components are working properly - might save some debugging hassle later if you encounter any problems, and you'll have a feel for the performance of the stock parts when given more amps to feed on.  These are also the easiest to install.  If the new motor and battery are returnable, you may find that you're satisfied with the performance and stop at that point.

Don't forget to make sure the controller settings are appropriate for the stock battery before putting it under load - I'm assuming the 6+ models are still 48v.

If it were me, I'd then install the new motor and re-test, saving the higher-voltage battery for last, but there are more-experienced people on this forum who may point out I have no idea what I'm talking about since I'm just wobbling around on a 35A MiniST2.   

[Adams]

Haven't upgraded but will be following this with interest.  Keep us posted on how it goes!

[Plaid]

I installed the Bolton upgrade 35A controller and display on my RadRover 5+.  The install was pretty straight forward, what scared me the most was plugging the connectors together.  The connectors are not keyed very well and it is hard to get a feel for how they should go together.  The connector pins look so delicate and tiny, I was afraid I was going to bend one.  Those connectors are tight and it takes a considerable amount of force to get them fully seated.
I'm happy with the power upgrade, even with my stock motor.  I went into the software setup and actually turned the power down a little bit.  It was pushing 1500 watts, right off the line that acceleration is scary. I dialed it back to 1250 watts.

[JimInPT]

I'm happy with the power upgrade, even with my stock motor.  I went into the software setup and actually turned the power down a little bit.  It was pushing 1500 watts, right off the line that acceleration is scary. I dialed it back to 1250 watts.

I'm also very happy with this same upgrade on my MiniST2, but you don't necessarily have to dial back the upper power limit if acceleration off the line is what's bothering you - you can set it back to max power and fiddle with setting C5 to ramp-up the power more slowly.  I have mine set to 0 and that works for me, with no upper limit so I can approach 1600w if/when needed for hillclimbs.

These controller upgrades have all sorts of nifty little features, which are marginally-well documented so a lot of folks overlook them.  I'm indebted to others here and elsewhere who have pointed them out to me.  Below is my table of settings; the leftmost column is my current setup, unchanged in the last year.  Keep in mind this is for a 2021 MiniST2 with 20" rims, so not all settings would apply to your Rover.

[alexwhitman]

Well it has been about a month and a half since completing these upgrades on my RadRover 6+, I have over 1500km with the new batteries, motor and controller.

Max speed is about 55kmh or 34mph. This is while the battery has a voltage of 58 down to 50. Below 50v it still reaches around 50kmh.

Motor peaks up to 1600 watts, typically around 1000 watts when throttling on flats.

Battery get about 40km distance while under full throttle for 90% of the time. I rigged a two battery set up so I usually interchange them halfway through my ride.

Installing the motor and control was easy and straight forward. The battery not so much, I had to build a mount that goes over the current battery slot, riveted that to the frame and had to solder the battery connector. For the second battery I mounted that to the top of my frame and I store the secondary battery there.

All in all, I would recommend this upgrade. It is a whole new bike and I keep up with most city traffic.