Do's and Don'ts.
New Products are where must failures will occur in all new types of new products. Thus it is important to inspect your vehicle closely on the first couple of rides and for the first 30 through 90 days. Quality and reliability engineering science says after the first 90 days of use, the vast majority of manufacturing failures that are going to occur have occurred.
- If you get a go-kart with a lawn mower style engine and a torque converter be sure to re-install the torque converter cover after replacing the belt. Over the years almost all people stop reinstalling the torque converter cover. This is a major safety hazard. Long hair will get caught in the torque converter and literally rip a child's scalp off. You must reinstall the cover to the torque converter before use. Even if your child does not have long hair what if one of their friends rides the go-kart while you are not around. Not only will you cause great harm you will surely get a lawsuit.
- Inspect the vehicle each time before riding to make sure there are no gasoline leaks. If you have any leaking gasoline STOP RIDING THE GO-KART IMMEDIATELY AND FIX THE LEAK. Gasoline fumes are highly flammable and there is plenty of heat with the engine and exhaust. Heat and exhaust equals explosion and fire equals big problems. As a rider there is some due diligence that comes with the vehicle. Damage caused from negligence or lack of due diligence from either seeing a problem and ignoring it or not reasonably inspecting for problems, not seeing and not correcting.
- If you notice that your oil level is rising each time you check it you may have a stickly float in carb and gas in running into your oil. Stop riding immediately. Your oil will not be lubricating properly and could damage your engine. Also a sticky float could cause backfiring and gas to go onto your air filter and perhaps could cause a fire. If you have backfiring stop riding your go-kart immediacy until the backfiring is fixed the issue.
- Always start your vehicle in neutral and in the drivers seat with your foot on the brake. We personally know of three people who, while working on vehicles they started the buggy while behind or in front or beside the vehicle. One was dragged into a car and was severely injured and hospitalized. Another in our shop started one buggy from behind and it was in neutral but it still rammed him into a tool box and he was lucky to be able to disconnect a wire. Use extreme caution when working on these vehicles.
- Let off of the starter key once the engine has started. We have visited houses of customers and the kid is holding the key switch for five seconds after the vehicle has started causing us to cringe. Starters and starter clutches damaged from this action are not covered under warranty. And this is the number one cause of starter clutch failure.
- Do not continuously hold the starter key for prolonged periods if you are having problems starting. Holding for periods over 5 seconds will damage the starter. Give a few seconds between tries. Starters and starter clutches damaged from this action are not covered under warranty.
- Do NOT shift from forward to reverse or vise versa until the vehicle comes to a complete stop. These vehicles are not like you car with an automatic transmission, where you can shift into forward while the car is still drifting backwards. Rather than fluid as with your car's automatic transmission there are hard metal gears that will be damaged by this action. Gears damaged from this action is not covered under warranty.
- Avoid storing your new vehicle for prolonged hours of direct sunlight. The sun is very hard on any vehicle and will damage some paints paints and materials.
- Do not jump your ATV, Buggy or UTV. They are not designed for this.
- Do not swamp your vehicle riding is deep water submerging the engine and electrical. They are not designed for this.
- Do NOT run your new engine or new vehicle at full speed until after the break in period. Run at 60% of full throttle maximum. And vary your speed up and down so that the engine breaks in across a full spectrum of conditions.