Osney

Update - to my surprise and delight, my dealer has managed to get hold of a new replacement rack already. I picked it up this morning and it only set me back £126. Still got to fit it, but that shouldn't be too hard. It's really not a part that should be breaking on a vehicle that's not three years old yet though.

Interesting experience coming down the hill today, as something in the steering rack seems to have sheared off. It works partially, and at low speed, but is basically gubbed. Finding parts in the UK is an utter pain - there doesn't seem to be any good independent suppliers. I guess I'll have to go to the dealer, pay a small fortune and wait a year for it to arrive. Between this, worn out suspension bushes and the ongoing battery issues, my initial enthusiasm for the machine is beginning to wear thin.

I did track that down eventually - thanks. From what I can find it's rather pricey!

I hadn't realised they had brought out a li ion version, to be honest. I might have to look into that, although I don't suppose it's had a brilliant effect on the residual value of the lead acid versions. I can quite understand why you'd no want to do a self fit kit for converting. Having replaced a few of the batteries in mine, I agree that space and access are not good! I'd happily trade range for a smaller battery though. I don't think I've ever needed to do more than ten miles in a day here, but it struggles on hills after about three now. A battery that would give me a reliable ten to fifteen miles of hill work and not die after nine months of use would be all I'd need!

I've never quite understood why there needed to be so many universal joints on the propshaft, and thus so many grease points. You're right to say it's an utter PITA to get to them all. I had to replace a couple of the batteries recently, and they're not exactly easy to get out either. Thought I'd grease everything while there was some space, but even then there was one I couldn't reach. I'll have to do it next time I have the belly pan off, as I covered up the holes as per your recommendation! I'd still like to do a Li-Ion conversion on mine, but the cost and logistics of getting it to the other end of the country are putting me off. I'm surprised HiSun haven't come up with their own Li-Ion option yet.

I don't have a Facebook account, so can't access that page. It would presumably be more US-focused anyway, so I'd be better talking to the UK distributor. Except that they never respond! Having replaced all of the batteries under warranty, my buggy now has two more dead, so I've just ordered a couple of replacements. Not the Discover dry cells, but an equivalent lead-acid gel battery made by Leoch. At £230 each delivered they're not cheap, but I can't get the Discover batteries anyway so what choice do I have? Longer term, I'll source a lithium alternative, as there's not much wrong with the buggy otherwise, and I much prefer using it to the old petrol quad bike. It's not perfect though - I've had to rebuild most of the front suspension because the bushes and steering rod ends had all worn out after a couple of thousand miles, and a rear bearing went a few months back. Easy enough to repair, but annoying all the same.

I'm still looking into converting to lithium-ion. It's possible - the charger and controller are both of high quality and can be reprogrammed. It doesn't cost much more than a new set of lead-acids either. The only problem is the bloke who does it in the UK needs the buggy sent down to him - about five hundred miles away! Still, that's probably closer for me than it is for you...

Those look great, but might not be so good on the hill here. It's mostly off road work mine is used for. Those look like bigger wheels than my 12" ones, too. I'd contemplate bigger wheels if it improved the available selection of tyres. So far the BKT Wings seem to be holding up OK, despite being rated lower than the factory fit Carlisles. They don't half make a noise on tarmac though!

The E1 has a small 12v battery to run the instruments, lights etc. You can't connect a light bar to the Discover Dry Cell batteries. Individually, they are 6 volts, but there's eight of them in series to make 48 volts that runs the motor. In the battery compartment under the seat, you'll see the dry cell batteries, but also a smaller ATV-type 12v battery directly underneath where you sit to drive. There's a fuse and relay box down there too. I'd recommend not fiddling around in there unless you're absolutely sure what you're doing, as the 48v system could cause you a nasty injury if you short it by mistake. On the UK version, there's a 12v accessory point in the dash along with all the control buttons. There's also a 12v supply to the registration plate light on the underside of the tilting load bed. Either of those should be safe to tap into for a light bar, and are only live when the ignition is on.

This might be the cooling fan not kicking in. It's a rubbish bit of design, right at the front where it can get filled with crud or power-washed. Try spinning the fan with a small screwdriver or stick to make sure nothing's jamming it. I've read that the connections can get corroded, so try disconnecting and reconnecting all the connectors, checking them for corrosion and cleaning if necessary. I had a problem with mine with the fan no coming on and the red light flashing, but it would charge - just very slowly.

Without stirring up too much of a hornet's nest here, I'd suggest you look into the energy costs and losses involved in getting your gasoline from out of the ground and into your tank. Yes, the modern EV industry is in its infancy, and still too much of our worldwide electricity generation relies on burning fossil fuels, but electric powered vehicles pre-date the internal combustion engine and the engineering involved is very well understood.

In the UK, the tyres need to be E marked for legal road use, and the vehicle must be registered and insured. The biggest problem I've found is with the load rating on the tyres. Factory fitted, they're rated for 424kg on the front, 487kg on the front (not sure what that is in lbs, but a lot!). There's nothing much available here that is rated for more than 200kg. The unladen weight of the vehicle is over 800kg, so that's probably why the tyres need to be so strong. I've ordered a pair of BKT WL-207 Wings, which are 6ply road legal, but only rated for 200kg. Will report back how I get on with them.

I've noticed they are mud magnets too. And there are about a thousand grease nipples on the driveshaft that you can't get to unless you're a contortionist with very small hands. I've considered dropping the floor panel to service mine properly, but without a lift it's a pain to do. My current biggest headache is getting suspension parts, as the track rod ends and half the front suspension bushings have given up. At least the dealer's managed to get replacements under warranty, although I'll have to fit them myself. Great little machine spoiled by poor attention to detail!

My Hisun Vector E1 came with Carlisle Mud Wolf tyres all round. 230/80-12 on the front, 255/70-12 on the back. Fronts are rated 78F, rears 83F. These are very high ratings, presumably because the buggy is quite heavy with its eight large lead-acid batteries. Exact replacements are impossible to source in the UK now, so I'm looking for alternatives. Size-wise 26x9-12 and 26x10-12 are fine, but I'm struggling to find anything with a suitable rating. Has anyone else found something for theirs that works well?

Thanks. Worked it out eventually! https://alpha-sports.com/hisun_parts.htm That's useful for identifying parts numbers, but I should have probably mentioned I'm UK-based so ordering from the US is going to be expensive. I'll cross-reference part numbers to see if the front suspension setup is the same as any of the petrol models, as there's more of them over here than the electric one, so parts are easier to find.

Does anyone know if the E1 has the same suspension setup as any of the petrol versions, and if so which one? My front suspension is rattling itself apart now, but tracking down parts is a nightmare. It would be much easier if I knew it was essentially the same as one of the other models.

They reach their full capacity after a couple of dozen charge and discharge cycles. My experience is that by then at least one cell has failed, causing too big a voltage drop across the whole battery array, and the vehicle struggling under heavy load - i.e. going up a steep hill. Even in good condition, I can get maybe six or eight miles out of the buggy before the batteries give out on hills. There's plenty of power still in them, but the voltage is insufficient.

I'd like to upgrade mine to lithium ion too, but it's going to be costly! Mind you, so's a full new set of the lead acid batteries, and they really don't seem to last long.

The shocks are good, but the same can't be said for the quality of the suspension bushings and track rod ends! The front of mine rattles around like you wouldn't believe, and finding the spares is not easy. I still like the vehicle though, and don't plan on replacing it any time soon, so knowing there is a good battery alternative is useful. Might even have come to terms with the cost by the time it's needed...

I think that's fair money for what you're selling, but still a lot to fork out for a vehicle that cost only twice that new. I've not had to pay for a set of gels yet though! I agree what you say about the gels, but my experience was never doing more than about 5 miles before overnight charging, which should in theory run them in. The instructions that come with the vehicle are woeful with regard to charging and maintenance of the batteries. I've never come even close to emptying the batteries completely, at most only having two bars go out on the dashboard meter. My daily use on the farm here is about five miles, up some reasonably steep hills (but down them also), mostly off road but good farm tracks. On a full charge the E1 can manage that fine, but after about five miles it struggles with the hills, throws up a low voltage error message, and if I test the batteries when I get back to the yard there's at least one that's showing as degraded. My guess (no expert here) is that a well matched and well maintained set of eight batteries will last a long while, but if there's one or more in the set that are sub-par they'll drag the rest down quite swiftly. I've been looking into alternatives for when this set gives up the ghost, since next time I'll have to pay for replacements myself. It's good to know what's available, and the sort of price to expect, even if it does hurt a little!

Interesting, although it sounds expensive too! I've had all but one of my original batteries replaced under warranty, but that's going to run out soon.

That doesn't sound right. One possible thing might be something stuck in the parking brake? My E1 is two years old now, and the parking brake often sticks, which makes a bit of a steam train noise as the disc gets pulled past the pads. Mine has also worn its steering rod couplings and a lot of the bushes in the front suspension, so rattles and squeaks a bit when driving. It's still fairly quiet overall though.

The Delta Q charger is standard fit at least on the UK version of the E1. Not sure what use the information from the app would be though, unless it can identify individual duff batteries.

I've not found anything for my UK spec one either, and I agree with you about the grease points. Have you discovered how many there are on the driveshaft under the battery controller? Virtually impossible to get at without putting the thing up on a ramp and removing the bottom cover! My front suspension has got very squeaky now I've put a couple thousand miles on the clock, and I'm looking into replacement suspension bolts and steering rod tie ends as the whole thing is much looser than it should be! I would assume that the suspension hardware would be similar to some of the other Hisun UTVs, but I'm not sure which model is closest in specification. There's quite a few workshop manuals for the other models on line. It might be worth having a look through them for information on the greasy bits.

Thanks!