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

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I've made up my mind to put it in the center even though that requires the most work. The passenger side would sure been easier and offset my weight some when I'm alone but anyone who rides with me weighs as much or more than I do so. . . . You ever notice the best placement or best way of doing something usually requires the most effort? Here I'm going to have to do a little cutting and relocating to make it fit. It's 1/4 of an inch wider than the original batteries and about 2 inches shorter in length. It's also several inches taller because that was the size of the material I had to work with. But the height is not any issue. That 1/4 inch wider is an issue. lol I could have made it that 1/4 inch narrower but I wanted a little air space between the sides and the battery for cooling air to pass through and to keep the cold from seeping through in winter. Anyway now that I know where it's going I am able to start mounting the electronics. Some of the parts won't be here until tomorrow though. Like everything this sure got complicated!
 
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Made more progress on the battery box today. You know the kind two steps forward and three steps back. Anyway I got the 48 volt to 12 volt converter mounted on the outside. Both the heating and cooling thermostats are mounted and the heating pads are in and all wired up. Come to think of it the fan is also wired but not yet mounted. I may have to order something different for a fan. The 12 volt fuse / power distribution block is mounted and wired. I also installed a ground stud for all the 12V stuff. The 48V 300 amp circuit breaker is mounted.

I pulled the buss bars off and rechecked the balance of the cells and they were all over the place and I have NO idea why. The lowest one was 3.33 and the highest one was 3.65 and everywhere in between. I have them all hooked in parallel to rebalance them. Looks like I will be keeping a SUPER close eye on them until I A) get a BMS or B) find out it was a fluke. IDK what the heck caused them to go so far out of balance! All I've done so far was to run them down about 60% and recharge them once.

Everything is starting to come together. SLOWLY!
 

Rennz

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"SLOWLY". Hey, you're working at warp speed compared to me. I started months ago, and I'm just now making room for my battery... I'm still not sure exactly where I'm going to sit. lol. Keep at it, make a vid, maybe I will too... Originality at its best, right?
 
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Got the BMS ordered. I fought with myself bigtime on this one and ended up ordering the 250 amp BMS. It cost twice as much as one that more than likely would have done the job just fine. But I know this one should be able to handle more than I could ever throw at it with my battery and motor setup or any other motor I may possibly get in the future. Hopefully it will last as long as the battery cells should! Bad thing it could be up to 6 weeks or more before it gets here. UGH the slow boat from you know where!

I just added up the total battery cost ouch! It did however come out to be almost exactly the same as buying lead acid batteries. Still it was more than I wanted to spend. Lead acid replacement batteries were actually one dollar more without tax over what I paid including tax.
 
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Crash Test Dummy

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the lead batteries are a good choice ,,, they can last up to 7 yeas if done right
what about the other cart you got ?
 
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Lead batteries work of that there is no doubt. I am past tired of maintaining things though. I can't wait to see how different this Li setup runs. A few more running volts and about 275lbs less weight should make a heck of a difference. Next I'll try and get wheels & tires. One step at a time. Once this one is up and going mostly the way I want it then I will start figuring out what I want to do with the other one. Right now I just hope things hold together long enough for the rest of the parts I've ordered to get here. The way the world is going there's no telling how much longer before the bottom falls out. Provided things do hold together it may be in to next year before I can get the wheels and tires ordered. I still haven't found exactly what I want in the way of wheels & tires. I'm not sure they even make the tires I want in the wheel size I want. I'd like to have this type & size of tires but for a 10 inch wheel

Amazon product
then these wheels but NOT at that price


or maybe these
 
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Yes they are but I need bigger wheels and tires both around here and personally I HATE hubcaps. lol

I've been wanting to ride the golf cart down to the river about 4 miles from here since I got it. Wasn't really sure it could make it there and back for two reasons first the batteries and second the road condition. In fact I am positive the batteries would not have made it the first few weeks I had it running. These batteries have gotten steadily better with the long slow all day charging. I made it there and back and didn't even have a full charge when I left here to go. I am continually impressed with the places that little cart can go with those tiny tires. Surprisingly I never had any trouble at all. I did however get eaten ALIVE by the dang May flies they were out in force and it would seem each and everyone is addicted to my blood! The batteries are pretty well dead now. But I rode the cart out to the road with my daughter to get her truck about 10 last night with head lights on and used it several times this morning for the great key hunt after doing chores. I usually leave all the keys in whatever they go to. Well they got moved at some point and I couldn't find any of the old truck keys to the three trucks we don't drive because they are broken. lol But I needed the gate key to get down the road to the river. Anyway these batteries are doing one heck of a lot better than they were when I got them. When I got the cart going it hardly could make the chore rounds without being flat dead. Between last night and today I bet I did nearly fifteen miles on ROUGH HILLY logging roads with no more than the solar panel charging. I did plug it in when I got back a little while ago since I have to go back out to the end of the road later and get my daughter after work.
 
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I finally remembered to check the meter I now know it takes 20 amp hours to go to the end of the road with a passenger and come home with two. That's 4 miles round trip. There are not any flat places on the road everything is up or down hill so not to bad I wouldn't think. Which brings me to my question of the day. Do these newer carts that use controllers use less power than these old resistor coil carts? I would tend to think they would since no power is being purposely burned away like this design does. If so what can I do to change mine over to the newer style that uses less power?
 

Crash Test Dummy

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yes your old "toaster " cart burns alot of power
you can do an upgrade with a 48v club car controller, 48v solenoid with resistor , a mcor , new go pedal linkage , and a 1996-2004 Club Car DS 48V Golf Carts w/F&R Forward Reverse Switch (with micro switches)
you would not need a OBC

here is wiring

48V.png

CONVERIVON KIT
CONTROLLER

FORWAD /REVERSE SWITCH
- 48V 4-Terminal Solenoid with Resistor
https://www.ebay.com/itm/185458185916?hash=item2b2e2b56bc:g:ofIAAOSwDYBinbZv
 
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