I am in much of the same boat with the AS. On thing I have found is you need something with a soft suspension, just mowing the grass with the BX can get painful at times.
I have also found that loosing weight eases the pain considerably and increases mobility. Its a vicious cycle as mobility/activity decreases weight increases. In the past year I have dropped over a hundred pounds and it has made a big difference in mobility.
Timster, thanks for sharing! You've got my respect! At 38, mowing the yard on a bx can knot up my back if I am not careful, and I've got a reasonably decent back! Kari, my wife, actually was the one who brought up the idea of a golf cart with "those big knobby tires", and the more I am reading the more I am inclined to think that this might be the perfect thing for her.
She is fortunate in that weight has never been an issue, but since being afflicted she has had to carefully balance the amount of exercise she does. Too little and she gets stiff, too much or the wrong type at the wrong time and it exacerbates the issues.
I read you worked at Busch Gardens. I worked at the brewery in St. Louis for 25 years. Small world.
MoKelly
I really loved working at Busch Gardens when it was owned by the family. Miss getting the 4 free cases of beer a month, but then the entertainment and parks side of things got sold off pretty quick after Inbev acquired the company.
Panik, I understand your apprehension of golf carts. But - I have two that I use on our 13 acre place, both electric. One is nice looking and the other looks like a Frankenstein creation. Both are lifted with knobby tires and both with a rear bed and trailer hitches.
While I can afford either a UTV, ATV or cart, I still strongly prefer the cart. There's never any 'out of gas' problem. No carb to gum up, and nice and quiet running. The electric cart is always ready to go. It's ideal for a small place with light duty. On occasion I'll hook up my 4' x 8' trailer to pull around to pick up limbs, logs, etc., but for normal 90% of the time - it's just for pleasure or going to pick up the mail at the highway.
If you don't mind me asking, have you ever had to replace the batteries and if so roughly how much did it cost? I do really appreciate the idea of a quiet machine, especially because anything that involves transporting stuff with the tractor involves headphones. I'm sure she would appreciate the quiet as well considering a lot of her use will be with the dogs and the kids.
QUOTE=aczlan;4174829]We have a couple of golf carts and an RTV500. We have also owned a Workman 2100 (the light duty one with a plastic bed) and I have driven the heavy duty version.
The RTV and the golf carts are a lot narrower than the Workman so they will fit places it wont.
For what you suggest, I would get a 48V golf cart, add a small lift, slightly larger tires (perhaps the 22" or 24" version of the
All Trail or
HD Field Trax) and (if needed) look into a locking differential.
On two of our golf carts, we replaced the stock 18x8.5-8 "cant tear up the turf" tires with 18x9.5-8 "Turf Saver" tires. That lifts the back end up about an inch, adds an inch of tire width and gives much better traction but it does not require a lift.
That is adequate for what we do (but we don't get into mud much). I got those for a real good price (already mounted on rims), but if buying new, I would get either the Field Trax or the All Trail.
One thing to keep in mind is that the RTV will not ride very well compared to a golf cart, but you can buckle into the RTV which you cant in a golf cart. The Workman also rode better than the RTV does.
Aaron Z[/QUOTE]
Aaron, in all honesty after thinking about it today the idea of a RTV is somewhat selfish on my part. I've been thinking of this as primarily being a multiple purpose vehicle, rather than a vehicle that has a primary purpose (my wife's tranportation/toy) that might also be put use in a couple of other situations. Likely a lift and good tires like the ones you linked would be more than adequate for her purposes. In fact, assuming I don't go crazy with things I think she would rather like a lifted golf cart. The locking differential thought was more in response to doing trail riding with the boys or doing more than light duty riding. We really don' have much mud typically and thankfully no sugar sand.
You mentioned a 48 volt system. Would it be safe to assume that the reasons would be longer time to discharge as well as more available power over a 36 volt system?
I loved using the heavy duty workman's at Busch especially because you could easily haul over a ton of material in the dump bed and the things would just keep asking for more. However, that's really not what this is intended for. I will, however have to look into bed options on a golf cart.
Why limit yourself to just one type of vehicle?
:laughing:My friend I wish I had the money to do that! I feel fortunate to even be at a point in my life where I am able to consider owning a tractor, let alone a tractor and a golf cart/utv.
Any thoughts on the downside of owning a golf cart. Would I be right in assuming that when the batteries start to go its best to replace the entire series of batteries (6 or 8, system dependent)? Someone mentioned a rigid charging program - any insight into what this is and how it impacts battery charging?
