There is always a new snake in the grass. This particular reptile slithered
out into view today. It seems that one Curt Deremer, formerly employed by
Dive Rite Manufacturing, is now building and selling unauthorized copies of
WKPP scooters.  DeRemer operates as DPVRepair.com and apparently is a dealer
for AUL scooters and parts.

It was bad enough that Bill Stone built a defective copy of the WKPP
scooter, but now it seems that every shade tree basement engineer is giving
it their best shot.

Anyone who thinks that they are being smart about purchasing a knockoff of
the WKPP scooter design had better think again. For openers, Bill Stone
spent tens of thousands of dollars attempting to copy the WKPP scooter and
never succeeded in producing a reliable facsimile. While the average redneck
grease monkey may think it is as simple as a short trip to the Home Depot
irrigation parts department, reality dictates otherwise.  These scooters are
built out of precision CNC machined components, which must be very carefully
assembled and tested.  The propulsion system, based on the Oceanic
continuous duty 24Volt DC motor must be precisely modified to obtain the
high performance observed on the standard issue WKPP unit.  Every single
connection and fitting is carefully specified out and selected for
reliability and excess to normal operating capacity. The completed scooters
are tested for balance, vacuum tested to validate seal integrity and current
rating tested under simulated continuous load operating conditions.

We never cease to be amazed at the ingenuity of persons buying WKPP
scooters, who somehow feel that they or their volunteer engineer companions
“know better”. Some remarkable things have come back to George Irvine and
myself, which if they weren’t such a costly and time consuming mess to fix,
would actually be roll on the floor, spit your coke funny.  Such things as
lubricant sprayed in the motor compartment, which shorts the commutator, to
jury rigged spacers, which throw off the correct balance, to hastily
reassembled motors with shims and spacers placed in backwards, to blade and
clutch assemblies improperly assembled and other egregious messes too
numerous to mention.  The stories and excuses we hear, such as “it was like
this when I got it”, “it just plain  blew up for no reason”, “I don’t have
any idea why the motor is so slow” or “I don’t know why the scooter sinks
directly into the mud” or “it just floated away by itself” and on and on.

Let me say flat out that there is no profit in WKPP scooters.  When you buy
one of these devices you effectively get a lifetime parts and service
warranty against defects in the manufacture.  If you are a WKPP team member
or involved in a bona fide exploration project (which describes just about
everyone who buys these things), you will receive any upgrade or improvement
at no charge. These things are extremely expensive and time consuming to
build correctly. At any given time George has to have huge sums of his
personal funds outstanding in order to assure that there is a stock of
components and other spare parts in inventory to keep all of the scooters in
the field operational.   For example, a single nose cone costs in excess of
$600 to buy the material for and machine.  It is completely impractical to
make these scooters in anything less than quantities of 15 – 20 because
otherwise the parts will be prohibitively expensive.

WKPP scooters are built to exploration tolerances and quality and there must
always be a cache of parts and subassemblies available to support ongoing
exploration projects. This is what you pay for.

When we observe returned scooters which show obvious signs of carelessness,
user error or user modification it does not make for a pleasant situation.
It is further galling to find out that some bonehead thinks that he can save
a few dollars when in fact he has created an inferior and very dangerous
product.

It is no joke and no exaggeration to say that these scooters are very
dangerous. If the batteries off gas and this hydrogen seeps into the motor
compartment the scooters will violently explode upon triggering. Thus, it is
exceptionally important to observe simple safety precautions such as
removing the nose cone o-ring immediately after use and storing the scooter
with this ring removed or the nose cone off. It is of further importance to
ascertain that the motor compartment bulkhead o-ring is securely seated and
not extruded and one must take pains to verify that the battery assembly
does not free float within the main compartment.  A loose battery pack can
allow the motor compartment bulkhead to pop off when the internal air
becomes heated.  These are just a handful of simple but important safety
observations, which unfortunately are all too often ignored.

Mr. Curt DPVRepair is in for a big surprise. He thought he was very cute
about this and knew quite well what he was getting into.  When we have
finished with him he will wish that he had been smart enough to buy a real
scooter the honest way.

Best Regards,

Bill Mee

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