I've been looking for a golf cart for some time. Even though I have an old Pargo, no motor. It got lost in the shuffle waiting for repair. Anyway I needed something to get my 50 year old behind around the property. I'm tired of maintenance and NOISE. Real tired of listening to small engines run, I worked on them to make a living for years. Where we live is hills our 36 acres has 175 feet of elevation change from the lowest to the highest. I don't think there's a truly level spot on the whole place. I tire out to fast to walk my health is shot.
Both these carts were more or less junk but I figured they were worth the $600 price for both. I was thinking maybe I could rob parts from one to get one running. Both needed batteries too. One is a 99 and the one I managed to get going is an 88. So the 88 is the one I'll be talking about now. It was a 36 volt single solenoid with resistor coils V-glide. It mainly just needed a few wiring repairs and was up and limping. Batteries were well past the point of no return. So I swapped the marginally better 48 volt bank and charge port from the 99 to the 88. That helped a LOT. Although these batteries are also shot. When I started trying to get them to come back they would get a full charge by 10 PM and be down to 49.1 volts the next morning. So I slapped a 300 watt panel in place of the roof and bought a boost charge controller to install. Well all that worked out great and the batteries came back a long ways from were they were with long slow solar charging. This morning it had almost 51 volts believe it or not. But it still lacks stamina on these hills. The voltage also drops real quick when in use but the batteries were old and mistreated when I got them no big deal. I have the FIX for that on the way. It will take me about 5 miles before things get desperate though. Long as the days are sunny I'm not having to use the plug in charger. BTW We live off grid so solar power is normal here and was also part of the plan for any golf cart I got.
In the meantime I got stuck a few times while doing chores. IE feeding critters, cutting firewood etc.. I also knew when I got it I would have to lift it. So I had already ordered a 6 inch kit and installed that. But with those golf course tires I was still getting stuck so I dug up an old set of AG tread tires in the same size I'd had laying around for years and put them on the back until I can afford larger tires and rims. Back to the lift kit I can't remember the name but it was the cheap one off Amazon. Once I had it installed I only had 2 total inches of suspension travel and that wasn't going to cut it. So after some studying of the situation I moved the top A arms out about 1/2-5/8 of an inch. Now I had about 4 inches of down travel but less than an inch of up travel. So I stacked 6 washers on each of the sleeved bolts that the front spring connects the lower A arms. Now it sits nearly in the center of the 4-5 inches of travel it has. Much better ride now!
I figured I had better do something about the batteries before wheels & tires. Tired as these batteries are I was thinking taller tires on these hills could cause the motor to burn especially carrying loads or towing a trailer. Speaking of towing a trailer I have got to do something about a trailer hitch ASAP factory unit just doesn't cut it. But back to batteries. I am now waiting on 16) 105 amp hour LifePO4 cells to build my own battery with. This will be my first experience with this type battery or building a battery from parts. Hoping maybe someone here has done something similar but ya never know. Anyway if I have things figured correctly (doubtful) this will still give me about the same useable amp hours as replacing the 155 AH @20h rate lead acid batteries with new ones, maybe a little more. My goal here is three fold. One I don't ever want to need to plug a charger in for the cart again. Two I don't ever want to replace the batteries again, these should last longer than I do! Third and most important I want to see this type of battery system in action for a year or two before I have to replace my battery bank that powers my house again. We've lived off grid almost 15 years so we've been through some batteries. Next time I change them NEEDS to be the last time I change them. The cells I bought for the cart are supposedly good for 3500 cycles and that can be tripled with proper care I am told. I was NOT told this by the seller but through my own research.
Have any of you done anything similar? Is this a project that would be worth documenting? Or a waste of time.
Also I'm interested in any off road improvements that can be made to a golf cart. This cart is my chore & work truck for the homestead now and anything I can do to make it more useful is a plus.
The solar power system at work.
I've got tons of questions if anyone here really knows these older systems.
Both these carts were more or less junk but I figured they were worth the $600 price for both. I was thinking maybe I could rob parts from one to get one running. Both needed batteries too. One is a 99 and the one I managed to get going is an 88. So the 88 is the one I'll be talking about now. It was a 36 volt single solenoid with resistor coils V-glide. It mainly just needed a few wiring repairs and was up and limping. Batteries were well past the point of no return. So I swapped the marginally better 48 volt bank and charge port from the 99 to the 88. That helped a LOT. Although these batteries are also shot. When I started trying to get them to come back they would get a full charge by 10 PM and be down to 49.1 volts the next morning. So I slapped a 300 watt panel in place of the roof and bought a boost charge controller to install. Well all that worked out great and the batteries came back a long ways from were they were with long slow solar charging. This morning it had almost 51 volts believe it or not. But it still lacks stamina on these hills. The voltage also drops real quick when in use but the batteries were old and mistreated when I got them no big deal. I have the FIX for that on the way. It will take me about 5 miles before things get desperate though. Long as the days are sunny I'm not having to use the plug in charger. BTW We live off grid so solar power is normal here and was also part of the plan for any golf cart I got.
In the meantime I got stuck a few times while doing chores. IE feeding critters, cutting firewood etc.. I also knew when I got it I would have to lift it. So I had already ordered a 6 inch kit and installed that. But with those golf course tires I was still getting stuck so I dug up an old set of AG tread tires in the same size I'd had laying around for years and put them on the back until I can afford larger tires and rims. Back to the lift kit I can't remember the name but it was the cheap one off Amazon. Once I had it installed I only had 2 total inches of suspension travel and that wasn't going to cut it. So after some studying of the situation I moved the top A arms out about 1/2-5/8 of an inch. Now I had about 4 inches of down travel but less than an inch of up travel. So I stacked 6 washers on each of the sleeved bolts that the front spring connects the lower A arms. Now it sits nearly in the center of the 4-5 inches of travel it has. Much better ride now!
I figured I had better do something about the batteries before wheels & tires. Tired as these batteries are I was thinking taller tires on these hills could cause the motor to burn especially carrying loads or towing a trailer. Speaking of towing a trailer I have got to do something about a trailer hitch ASAP factory unit just doesn't cut it. But back to batteries. I am now waiting on 16) 105 amp hour LifePO4 cells to build my own battery with. This will be my first experience with this type battery or building a battery from parts. Hoping maybe someone here has done something similar but ya never know. Anyway if I have things figured correctly (doubtful) this will still give me about the same useable amp hours as replacing the 155 AH @20h rate lead acid batteries with new ones, maybe a little more. My goal here is three fold. One I don't ever want to need to plug a charger in for the cart again. Two I don't ever want to replace the batteries again, these should last longer than I do! Third and most important I want to see this type of battery system in action for a year or two before I have to replace my battery bank that powers my house again. We've lived off grid almost 15 years so we've been through some batteries. Next time I change them NEEDS to be the last time I change them. The cells I bought for the cart are supposedly good for 3500 cycles and that can be tripled with proper care I am told. I was NOT told this by the seller but through my own research.
Have any of you done anything similar? Is this a project that would be worth documenting? Or a waste of time.
Also I'm interested in any off road improvements that can be made to a golf cart. This cart is my chore & work truck for the homestead now and anything I can do to make it more useful is a plus.
The solar power system at work.
I've got tons of questions if anyone here really knows these older systems.
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