ClubCar Recently bought 2 old club cars to get around the homestead

[Crash Test Dummy]

WHY ??
IS THERE REALLY A NEED TO STREAH YOUR CART
11FEET ... THAT WILL MAKE THE TURNING RADIUS REDICKULS
BUT TO EACH IS THERE OWN


The typical turning radius of a golf cart ranges between 9.5 - 12'. Because golf carts require clear space to operate within a facility, the operating width is greater than the physical dimensions of the cart.

 

[BiggKidd]

Tell me it's not hard to believe this little bitty pack.



Is going to replace all of those! I am just amazed and it will have slightly more usable amp hours than all these big heavy batteries.

 

[BiggKidd]

WHY ??
IS THERE REALLY A NEED TO STREAH YOUR CART
11FEET ... THAT WILL MAKE THE TURNING RADIUS REDICKULS
BUT TO EACH IS THERE OWN


The typical turning radius of a golf cart ranges between 9.5 - 12'. Because golf carts require clear space to operate within a facility, the operating width is greater than the physical dimensions of the cart.

No but it might not be bad as your thinking. It's only going to stretch 16 to 24 inches between the wheels. The rest will be on the ends. The total length would be up to 11 feet. Which would also allow me to add a second solar panel to the roof and KNOW I have plenty of power.

 

[BiggKidd]

What I'd like to do is give it the proportions of a half size or half scale pickup truck. This is something I use around my Homestead and a bed to carry things in is a major Plus for me. Might not be everybody's cup of tea but it's what I need.

 

[Crash Test Dummy]

I BUILT ABOUT 12 WOODEN BEDS FOR MY WORK WITH 12" WOODEN STAKE SIDE

YOU CAN ALSO DO A BASCKET ON THE FRONT

 

[OUTL4W]

Damn Impressive…

love the old buggy with the modern tech flair…

 

[BiggKidd]

I BUILT ABOUT 12 WOODEN BEDS FOR MY WORK WITH 12" WOODEN STAKE SIDE

YOU CAN ALSO DO A BASCKET ON THE FRONT

That looks like it worked out real well. Good job!

Far as stretching my cart goes. What can I say I've always wanted a mini MONSTER truck. This is about as close as I'm likely to get. lol

 

[BiggKidd]

I put all 16 cells in parallel to balance them out. They was an entire .01 volt difference across the 16 cells they ranged from 3.25 to 3.26. They need balancing terribly bad now don't they! LOL

 

[Crash Test Dummy]

i wonder what you mileage will be ?
The maximum range of new batteries when powering a 48V golf cart is approximately 20.5 miles when moving at 12 miles per hour.

 

[BiggKidd]

i wonder what you mileage will be ?
The maximum range of this new battery when powering a 48V golf cart is approximately 20.5 miles when moving at 12 miles per hour.

So do I but I doubt I'll ever know. With these hills around here half the time you're going up the other half down. Most of these hills are several hundred feet long in each direction. My guess is that the range will be real close to the same as a lead acid bank, maybe just a little more. Generally speaking I try and NEVER take more than 30% out of any lead acid battery and I try hard not to go below 25%. IE: my house battery bank almost NEVER sees below 49.6 volts with loads on. Turn those loads off and give a few minutes of rest to let the voltage settle and it's always above 50 volts. That's how you get the longest life out of lead acid batteries. IMO All our "roads" here close to home are logging rock and or mud / dust so not exactly a good test ground for accurate numbers as my cart will always have more rolling resistance than on smooth ground or especially pavement.

Your 20.5 miles is nearly identical to what I have seen in the past with my old Pargo cart and new 200 AH lead acid batteries. Back then I wasn't as careful about not taking them down to far. I hadn't learned yet! It was twenty odd years ago.

It could be two months before I can get the BMS seems to be a unusually long delivery time on them from all the companies that make them right now. There are several other things I still need before I can make the switch. Still waiting on a lot of parts. Didn't expect the cells to show up this quickly! I'm also still debating running a BMS at all. I can't even order until maybe friday but depending on how the bills for the month work out it may not happen till next month.

 

[BiggKidd]

9am every cell is bouncing 3.25- 3.26. Rewired them back to 48 volts and 52.2 volts is showing on the meter.

10 am Put 5 amp 48 volt charger on. Will check on them in a few hours. I want to get the voltage up to 57.6 - 58.4 with 58.4 being the ABSOLUTE high voltage. I may or may not try and push it that close this first cycle.

 

[Crash Test Dummy]

 

[BiggKidd]

I don't take them that low. In my limited experience they last at least twice as long if you treat them better!

Now this LifePO4 tech is entirely different. With these I plan to keep the voltage between 51.5 and 53 that should really stretch the life of them. The track record with them shows they do best kept between 20% and 80% SOC. With the way I can set this up they will always stay inside that range. Now if I only wanted to get 3500 life cycles out of them I could charge them full each time and fully discharge them each time. But why cut the life to ten years when it's possible to stretch that close to thirty??????????????????????????????? Just like my lead acid batteries if I only wanted 3-5 years I could discharge them farther but I much prefer 10-12 years. Charging them to high also has it's own set of problems that never seems to be addressed! 14 years using batteries as a main power source makes a person learn. A lifetime of working on anything and everything didn't hurt any either.

Voltage is up to 52.5 now.

 

[BiggKidd]

These are the tires I'm running now.

Rear


Front


Pic of the damaged front end. The reason why I need to do something about it.


These are the wheels & tires I'm considering getting think they will work okay in this red clay?

Amazon product

 

[Rennz]

Can anyone tell me how to stretch or better yet provide any links to a club car DS being stretched? I'm toying with the idea of stretching the middle of the cart about 16-20 inches. Lengthening the front is already happening and I will probably also add 8-12 inches after the rear springs. If I decide to go this route the cart will end up around 9-10 feet long overall. Think 1/2 scale pickup truck!

Being limited on funds I have to use mostly repurposed materials and imagination to create what I need for a UTV.

I only stretched the front of my DS 12" and used 12g galvanized 2x2 that I had left over from my metal barn. I overlapped the frame about 2' back to spread the extra load. I think with the V shape of the DS frame, if you cut it under the floor fwd of the seat and used a heavy gauge 2x2, attach them to the outboard side of the I-beam then the inboard side of the front half should line up with the outboard of the 2x2s around at about 2' or so of stretch... LOL

Kind of like this:

 

[BiggKidd]

Thanks I think we've got it figured out now. Slightly different than your design but similar in principal. I have some 11g aluminum box tube 1.5x2.5 that I think we are going to use. We're planning to slot it and slide 6 inches of overlap in the I beam on each end. Then we will probably bolt and weld it. Kind of like a belt and suspenders approach. Since it's 1/4 inch smaller than the inside of the I beam we will probably split a second length and wrap the first double thick double strong! I've never welded aluminum but I bought the stuff to do it with including pure Argon some years ago just in case I ever needed it... I've welded just about every other basic metal out there over the years including SS and cast iron.

 

[Crash Test Dummy]

yea your front clip is FUBR
I think my buddy Dave may have some front ends (he does body swaps)
but he is down in Augusta, GA

 

[BiggKidd]

If he has good prices it might be worth the trip we are in VA almost at the NC line at southill.. But when I looked at prices I thought I might have more fun and maybe spend a little less trying to make my own custom job.

 

[Crash Test Dummy]

GIVE HIM A TEXT 706-431-3917

 

[BiggKidd]

I'm not in the position to buy ANYTHING else at the moment. lol This thing has put a hole in the pocket! I still need to order a few things to complete the battery install over the next month or two. It may go in and start getting used before it's completed as tight as things are.