Oreion Reeper

[Sethodine]

It has a bracket that locks out 4th and 5th gear and a bracket that limits the throttle. 3 screws and those are gone. There are laws in Maryland that recognize "medium speed vehicles". The dealer is working to get this thing classified as. One of the issues is a back up light. The wiring is there. A light comes on the dash that shows you are in reverse there is just no back up light installed. Easy thing to fix. Medium speed would allow access to speeds up to 50 mph. Given the low gearing (this is primarily an off road vehicle after all) You are running about 5,000 rpm at 55 mph. It will do this all day long however I stress it is not a highway machine. It only weighs 1,400 lbs. 99% of the time I use it for running errands in town where my speed rarely gets above 35 mph and occasionally a major road or two to get to an off-road location. By law I'm allowed to cross highways. I haven't been stopped or hassled by any police and I've driven this thing across the Bay Bridge which is a major access to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Really, 1400 lbs? When I was reading up on LSVs, I thought the maximum gross weight was 1300. But then again, I was reading NHTSA's original decision to create the classification from back in the 90's, so I don't know if they've raised the GVW for LSVs since then. I really like the idea of having an electric run-about-town car with a top speed of 35 mph, to save on gas for trips to the store

*Edit: So I checked again, and I don't know what I was on yesterday, but no such wording exists. The only mention of GVW was from a few state-specific codes that the NHTSA referenced as examples; at the time Arizona restricted street-legal ATVs/UTVs to 1300 lbs, but federal law makes no such mandate. Nor does Washington state (although, strangely, WA requires that they be electric-powered. Gas-powered ATVs/UTVs cannot be licensed for on-road use under any circumstance.)

 

[floydv]

Not to be morbid, but couldn't their marketing group come up with a better name than Reeper?

 

[outsydthebox]

 

[Mark Ambrose]

I thought they were pretty cool until I saw the "25 mph vehicle" sticker

[Broken External Image]

Yep mine has that. Required for the LSV classification. Nobody that I know that has one has kept it stock. What I like about this vehicle is twofold: (1) it's perfect for my around town errand running, which is what I'd have used the Elio for. (2) It has the added benefit of doing some serious off-roading. You can't do that in an Elio. So it's different strokes for different folks. For me this was a great option. BTW if Elio ever calls me and says they have my vehicle ready to produce and I need to pick a color I'm still getting it. In the meantime I'm learning off-road techniques and having a ball.