Kaabo Wolf King GT Pro Problems and Complaints: Are there some common ones?

The Kaabo Wolf King GT Pro electric scooter is one of the most premium models and is recommended by many. 

Retailing at more than $3,500, most of its owners expect it to have little to no flaws and with all due honesty, they are justified to have such an expectation. 

Having been one of the first big dawgs to ride the King GT Pro on different occasions, I feel that I am in a relatively better position to talk on whether the Kaabo Wolf King GT Pro has some common problems or not. 

One of the vital reasons why I decided to write this article is that a lot has been said on some electric scooter Facebook groups and other scooter forums.

I have read some saying that this scooter is low quality for its price, catches fire, the front forks break apart anyhow, et al. 

There are others who are selling their expensive rides at throwaway prices for the fear of them failing and such.

But then, what is the entire truth about owning the Wolf King GT Pro?

Some common Kaabo Wolf King GT Pro Problems and complaints

1. The rear suspension is problematic

The suspension support plate that holds the bushings in place in a GT Pro has conical-shaped risers to put the bushings on. 

The surface of the riser which contacts the bushing is far too small, which would cause the bushing to splay open. 

Consequently, they put a washer in there to give it more surface area and protect the bushing.

The washer is 20mm in diameter, the same as the bushing. 

Unfortunately, the bushing expands under compression, and the hole in the center of the washer is 8mm which is large enough to allow some “play” around the center post/screw, therefore allowing the washer to dig into the bushing and destroy it very quickly. 

That part of the scooter was in fact poorly designed.

No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.

They should have made the suspension support plate NOT require bushing by making the top surface sufficiently wide. 

Either that or get 22 to 23mm M5 washers that would have no play and provide enough surface area to truly support the bushing.

Fortunately, people are making decent quality replacement bushings inexpensive to access, and you can put a new, more appropriate washer in. 

So for about 20 bucks, less than most people spend on any single accessory for their scooter, this issue can get mitigated fast. 

Unfortunately, this mistake is costing Kaabo in reputation and exacerbating other issues which are minor or non-existent…and that sucks because I think what they’ve otherwise given us is an amazing product.

2. Loose Bolts and Nuts

This is hit or miss, but it is completely normal and NOT a quality issue for there to be loose bolts either delivered or worked loose over time. 

This is true of every scooter and bicycle I’ve ever owned.

Things constantly need tightened.

You’re dealing with vehicles that go 15+ mph (24+ kph) on a regular basis (in our case, 2 to 3 times that fast) with smaller tires and suspensions on the same imperfect surfaces that cars ride on. 

To keep these vehicles relatively lighter, smaller parts are used, and as such, much smaller bolts.

Smaller bolts can only take small amounts of torque to tighten them, that’s just physics. 

For instance, the bracket bolts on the brakes on my car are hugely bigger than anything on any scooter or bicycle, and require a massive 120 lbs/ft of torque to be properly tightened! 

Even though, it’s still recommended to put on a little bit of Loctite.

There’s nothing on my scooters or bicycles that require that amount of torque!! Lower torqued bolts come loose easier, that’s just facts. 

That means that lightweight personal vehicles like this, whether a bicycle or scooter or EUC or whatever, should be inspected for loose bolts frequently as a part of routine maintenance. 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to tighten bolts on my YUME X7 and every bike I’ve ever owned.

Sometimes even after a touch of blue Loctite.

And if you’re one of those “I’ve never had to tighten a single bolt on any of my other scooters” then you’re damn lucky. 

Also keep in mind that this is a much heavier, beefier scooter than most, that goes faster than most… all while having similar-sized nuts and bolts.

Greater speed and heft without increasing the size of fasteners (which would increase the size of member parts and therefore overall weight) in turn means a far greater likelihood of them working loose. 

So you have to be willing to maintain the nuts and bolts! It’s just a part of small personal vehicle ownership, especially a larger one like this, and is NOT a reflection on brand or model quality. 

3. Throttle’s Dead Zone

I’m not sure if the stock throttle has so much of a dead-zone than an intentional but the GT Pro motorized scooter has a weird curve to the throttle response. 

Knowing how to replace the stock throttle with one that mitigates the issue to some extent helps.

I suspect mostly due to the longer travel at the fulcrum required to get to different throttle positions. 

However, even with that improvement, it’s still fundamentally an issue and I feel like this is actually an issue with the controller board… and I think it’s on purpose. 

The reality is that a natural sine wave controller mapping to the throttle input would be an underwhelming feeling compared to the used square-wave controller.

So I’m guessing they tried to do some software magic to make it feel punchier when they either shouldn’t have touched it, or they should’ve made it configurable. 

4. Loose brake pressure

Tightening the components of an electric scooter is part of the maintenance routines that shouldn’t be overlooked. 

Keep everything tight without over-tightening to avoid slow leaks that result in low brake pressure.

If your scooter has low brake pressure out of the box, then top it off with a refill kit. 

Most places sell and then make sure everything’s tight and carry on.

It’s not a defect… it’s a 120 lbs behemoth being tossed about by FedEx for a week before you get it.

Just check every nut everywhere.

5. Unbalanced tires

While taking the GT Pro for a spin, I didn’t have this issue, and I don’t hear a lot about it but I’m sure for the two owners that complained about it on Facebook, it’s a huge pain for all people that are forced to deal with it. 

But compared to auto tire manufacturing, whoever Kaabo’s supplier is (same one as a number of other scooters that use the same exact tire) is actually doing a pretty damn good job making them balanced… not 100% good but better than the auto industry has been doing. 

The fact that whoever has been making these self-sealing scooter tires has been making the vast majority of their product being uniform enough to not have vibrations is damn near a miracle lol. 

Even better, PMT tires from Italy do an even better job with that uniformity and make their tires out of better compounds, so when you replace your tires, that’s a great option at $60-$70 a tire. 

Hopefully, you’re not one of the unlucky ones that got an unbalanced “factory” tire, but if so, this is an accessory-level cost to replace with even better quality…it’s a shame there aren’t any wheel balancers for scooter tires that can handle the motors too.

6. Ineffective splash guards

This isn’t a quality issue but a design issue.

I suspect they figured people would be using it more in dry conditions and they wanted it to have a certain aggressive, carefree “open-wheel” look. 

Kaabo also makes the Mantis which has vastly more functional splash guards.

So this one has me a little annoyed.

Hopefully, they improve the upcoming models and provide something better in the future.

7. Battery Management System Issues

So far, the issue I’ve personally had with the Kaabo Wolf King GT Pro Battery Management System is the unit not turning on until I’d plug a charger into it and then unplug it. 

It was confirmed that this is a BMS issue.

However, it’s easy to work around.

I realized I had been turning on the power while charging to check the status of the charge, but the BMS wasn’t designed to handle that. 

My other scooters just shut off and won’t turn on while charging, so that could be a general limitation. 

One that they could probably work around in the electronics, but if they never do, it’s really no big deal.

Another issue is the BMS shutting off the unit while riding below a certain voltage.

This is to protect the electronics, and not really a defect! However, their UX (user experience) could be beefed up by letting you know in advance of this happening with an audible alarm or something.

Just my two cents. 

The GT Pro design also prevents it from turning back on until you hook it up to power when this happens, and that’s genuinely inconvenient, so that’s not a quality issue so much as bad UX design; which means they’ll likely improve it on the next version if people keep speaking up.

8. Water Resistance

This is not necessarily a problem with the Wolf King GT Pro but a complaint.

The IPX5 water-resistance rating is reasonable, and the concerns are overstated.

Just my opinion maybe, but I’m not too worried about it being rain resistant should I get stuck in it. 

The cells seem to be pretty well wrapped, but other people that have taken theirs out might be able to tell you better.

Point is, it’s not supposed to be plugged at every possible orifice any more than a car or motorcycle is. 

The stuff inside the controller box for example is potentially water sensitive but has rubber gaskets under the cover to prevent rain entry and only small gaps where the wires come out, and that’s fairly high off the ground.

Related: The GT Pro is rated as our best e scooter for adults weighing 300 lbs

9. Stuck brake icon on the screen

I’ve seen this come up a few times and seems that there’s a sensor on the actual handle that you can adjust.

No big deal there.

Goes right along with the “make sure everything is tight/adjusted right.”

10. Catching up fire

Having a Kaabo Wolf King GT Pro electric scooter catching fire isn’t a problem or a complaint but a point of concern for some people who would consider buying the beast. 

It’s true that there have been a couple of battery fires among scooters but only a very small percentage. 

From what I can tell, there have been more people claiming “fire” by showing old pictures and videos from the original incidents than there have been actual incidents… I assume to badmouth the product.

(Competitor? Anti-scooter people? Who knows?)

There’s also been numerous Tesla fires, countless cell phone fires, etc.

Lithium-powered devices do have a chance to spontaneously combust.

That’s just the nature of the beast. 

Fortunately, Lithium batteries have come a long way, and newer chemistries (including what’s in the LG version of the Wolf King GT) are far more stable.

So if you’re worried about this issue, just know that this is the case for ALL electric vehicles, period.

It’s a rare issue but needs to be acknowledged.

In Summary

Kaabo makes a great model in the Wolf King GT Pro.

No doubt about that.

Would I recommend that scooter to my audience? Yes, of course. 

In fact, the only real common problems with the GT Pro are that its rear suspension somewhat sucks, the splash guards are of a much lower quality than say its older model (Mantis), and the throttle has a small dead zone. 

The others are complaints from owners who may not be aware that tightening different parts is part of the regular maintenance routine but we would also like to ask Kaabo to include some crucial info such as how to handle the BMS and include on the manual the components that need to be tightened when need be.