At a lot less money the TGA Breeze S4 is a cheaper, more comfortable, but much less capable, off-road mobility scooter alternative to the class leading four wheeled Tramper, but if coupled with a captain's seat no more comfortable than the three-wheeled Tramper TWS. As well as cheaper if bought directly from, and serviced annually by, TGA, the Breeze comes with a 3 year warranty, compared with Tramper's and the unreliable Mini Crosser's two years. The Breeze S4 is also available as the bigger Breeze S4 GT but the only difference is that the GT has fat wheels which improve traction, but reduce range.
The TGA Breeze, and the capable but bone-jarring TGA Supersport, are available through Motability.
My Tramper TWS broke down for the first time in more than 2.5 years due to a faulty lithium battery, that was replaced, no quibble, under warranty. My disability had worsened, meaning that I could no longer do regular rides of 14 to 35 miles, nor ride really rough and muddy ground, so I sold it for £5000, and got a brand new TGA Breeze S4 on Motability. On day one the Breeze stopped dead at 8mph when going over a little rough ground, bleating Error Code 2. I have no idea what Error Code 2 means, and nor did my supplier. But it restarted when I switched it off and back on. This was not a good experience, because in the event of it losing power the Breeze stops like you've hit a brick wall - throwing you forwards. There is a warning in the manual that this will happen if you were to suddenly switch the ignition off whilst in motion (advised in the manual in the event of the brakes failing!), in which case, the manual advises, you are to sit back and brace yourself against the handlebars, but no warning in the manual that if the Breeze thinks that it's got a fault or thinks it's overheating it will stop instantly, like hitting a brick wall, with no warning.
Just three days later the Breeze cut out completely going up a very steep hill whose gradient is well within TGA's claimed ability for %, and turning the ignition off and back on did not restart it. The 1400 watt motor overheats and switches off under such strain. In comparison my Tramper TWS managed the same hill, and much more, day in, day out.
In the event of the Breeze overheating, and switching off, you are to get on your hands and knees (very disabled friendly!) and crawl around looking for the reset button (one of two different reset buttons) which you will find slightly forward of and behind the left rear wheel, see the photo). The description in the manual, assuming that you've brought it with you (?!), of where this is is at best unclear, and if you've got the old manual is wrong, the diagram in that puts it somewhere around the right hand side of the back of the machine. In my case when the Breeze stopped five of us could not find the reset button and so a volunteer crawled under the Breeze to find the lever to release the brakes (see photo) so that it could be pushed into a recovery vehicle. It was only the next day when I lay down beside the Breeze that I saw the button, and it restarted.
The good of the TGA Breeze S4 was the suspension and captain's seat, and being £3,000 cheaper than the far more capable, far more reliable, Tramper and Tramper TWS. The bad of the TGA Breeze, compared with the Tramper, in addition to unreliability, was:
- the jolty brakes
- the poor speed control - full or half speed, the rest by poor quality throttle, the Tramper has a decent throttle and also dials down
- that it's not so that the Breeze has a claimed 6 inches of ground clearance, height to frame is more like 4", no doubt somewhere underneath it's 6", but that's as useful as saying it's got 24" of ground clearance to the bottom of the seat.
- the storage front and back have pathetic locks and rattle like crazy, I took the back box off and used something to jam the front box
- the Tramper TWS, with, extensions, offers more space for long legs than the Breeze can
- that it's only in the USA that you can have lithium batteries fitted without voiding the warranty, Trampers can have lithium batteries.
- the Breeze is great on slopes, up to a point, lousy on real hills even well within the spec. This is not down to lithium vs standard batteries, I've taken both up very long, very steep, hills on a Tramper without a problem. The Breeze is under-powered. Beamer don't tell you what motors they use on Trampers, but they are a world above those on the Breeze
- the front tyres have good grip but the actual contact area of the TGA Breeze's back wheels are almost like slicks, see the photo.
Oh and when it breaks down you literally have to crawl underneath it, see photo, to put it into freewheel - ideal for disabled people?? Not!
The Result: I returned my TGA Breeze, which I was fortunate to be able to, as I had a cooling off period. If you can afford it buy a Tramper or three-wheeled Tramper TWS.
