Advice on electric golf carts

[grizer]

Eddie, I've kept up with your work and planning since the start, good job! You have overcome several things by logic and hard work.

NOW, Golf carts. For least problems, least money spent, most use and long life. There are good posts above with good advice.

1. EZGO, 36 volt. no big tires, no lift kit, plain jane, best bet in long run, will climb hills and pull carts very well.
2. Battery condition guage, to tell you when to turn around and start home.
3. Sun top or shade, windshield and vinyl cab if needed in winter.
4. As stated in posts, wash with soda and keep batteries filled with distilled water. Keep terminals clean and repaired, larger wire is good.
5. Now to what is best for batteries, The nearer full charge you can keep a battery will give the best life. A battery that is partly discharged, will sulphate more, the longer it sits, the harder and longer you have charge it to bring it back to full charge because of sulphation. This is true for deep cycle and regular. Keep automatic charger plugged in at night or when not in use. A good automatic charger will tell you when you need to replace batteries, it will come back on often and it will be hard to keep water in batteries. All batteries will need to be changed at one time, period.
6. A 36 volt EZGO with fresh fully charged batteries will go almost 20 miles.
7. Any added accesseries cost performance and run time.

 

[TOMMYHPX4X4]

can't you get a pully and mount it on the drive shaft and then go to a auto salvage yard and pickup a atlernator i seen some really small ones about the size of a soft ball . but anyway if you put a big pulley on the drive shaft and the smallest pulley you can find on the alternator it would probably turn fast enogh to charge the single battery just for the accessories. a pulley that would be good is one off the rear end of a riding mower it's about 10 inches o.d. maybe a little smaller but you could commit one battery to just the accssories and have a on board charger. and when you don't need your accessories just hook it to a isolator switch and have it running to your main battries .

 

[StevenPaul]

TOMMYHPX4X4,

Despite my very little knowledge of "how things work" on the side of watts, amps, voltage, solenoids, circuit breakers, and batteries in general, I was also thinkin or rather dreaming of the same kind of idea and I was wondering why the manufacturers don't come up with a system that has a constant recharge going to the batteries. My simple way of thinkin was to hook up a small inverter, get a small charger, hook it up like the regular charger and wa-la! constant charge and no worries with the accessories. But again, don't know the "how things work" and if would be feasible to do or if I'd blow something up that wasn't supposed to be blown up.

Steve

 

[SPYDERLK]

TOMMYHPX4X4,

Despite my very little knowledge of "how things work" on the side of watts, amps, voltage, solenoids, circuit breakers, and batteries in general, I was also thinkin or rather dreaming of the same kind of idea and I was wondering why the manufacturers don't come up with a system that has a constant recharge going to the batteries. My simple way of thinkin was to hook up a small inverter, get a small charger, hook it up like the regular charger and wa-la! constant charge and no worries with the accessories. But again, don't know the "how things work" and if would be feasible to do or if I'd blow something up that wasn't supposed to be blown up.

Steve

Not sure, but are you guys talking about charging your batteries using the electric motor run from your batterys to drive a generator? If so, think about it in terms of efficiencies and youll see the fallacy. At 100% you would use power from the batteries to generate the same amount of power to put back in. Greater than 100% would be wonderful, but doesnt exist. Same problem running an inverter from the batts to charge the batts.
Regenerative braking can be used if an electric vehicle is set up for it. This essentially turns you motor into a generator and charges batts when you push the brake pedal. That way you can get some of the energy back that is normally wasted by brakes. The battery charge lasts longer - so do the regular brakes. Its an expensive option, on only the best carts, I think.
Larry

 

[TOMMYHPX4X4]

no i'm talkin about puttin a pulley on the axle of the rear wheels and running a car alternator off of it to charge a battery to run lights or to put back some juice into the batteries that you are useing.if you use the right gear reduction you can spin the alternator fast enough to get a charge out of it . i have one on my hpx and it's chargeing two batteries .and just use the regular batteries for running the cart and what every is left over after the battery is charged you can switch it over to send the charge to your other main batteries.to me any finda charge going to them is better than no charge goin to them.it might give you an extra hour of ridin time???

 

[SPYDERLK]

TOMMY, rear wheels are driven by the motor which is driven by the battery. You are actually shortening your batt depletion time due to the losses in the charging system. You put more power into the charging system than you get out.

 

[darkday]

Yeah that wouldn't work unless you could find a way to have it disengage when the electric motor was running. Or if you used the regenerative braking like you mentioned and is used on some hybrid cars.

 

[js5020]

The power "created" by regen braking is minimal, not sufficent enough to matter, if it were manufacturers of electric equipment would have exploited, and perfected that, producing a unit that would not need charging. If memory serves me regen braking is more to do with counter emf in the motor than charging.

 

[grizer]

Takes about 4 or 5 horsepower to run a alternator, bad idea.

 

[TOMMYHPX4X4]

so you mean there is no solid rear axle on a cart? i was thinkin about the axle on the cart and charging the accessory barrery mainly.i know it wouldn't charge the main batteries but i think if the cart had a solid rear axle that you could mount a pulley on and you was to get the right gear reduction to spin the alternator to get the curent flow you could infact charge a battery(one battery) atleast.where theres a will theres a way.unless the cart doesn't have a solid rear axle then it would be a challenge. we have rigged up paddle wheels on barges so they would turn alternators to charge batteries. when the curent is flowing fast in the bayou and you have the paddle wheel down in the water it spins the alternator and charges the battery and runs a power inverter and gives us a/c voltage.it all has to do with the right gear reduction.