Custom golf cart

[Snoopy11 5,713]

1 minute ago, Oldskool said:

Then I guess I would have to unhook the batteries to charge them properly

I... don't think you would get 1 hour trips out of them... to be quite honest sir. You may, but... is that a chance (time, money, effort) that you want to take... 

 

Yes, you would need to unhook the batteries to charge them... in my opinion.... to be safe. 

 

You may just want to bite the bullet and buy the right batteries. I know the cost is outrageous (I have been there, done that). But, taken care of, these batteries last MANY years, and are worth the money. 

 

Don

[SylvanLakeWH 24,463]

20 minutes ago, Snoopy11 said:

also have solar power experience, so my understanding of batteries is pretty good. 

Don’t want to hijack this thread, but would love a simple tutorial on putting a solar panel or two on/over my E 141 as a canopy. Perhaps useful for this thread as well… here’s that thread…

 

[Snoopy11 5,713]

1 minute ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

Don’t want to hijack this thread, but would love a simple tutorial on putting a solar panel or two on/over my E 141 as a canopy. Perhaps useful for this thread as well… here’s that thread…

That is something that I could do. I will work on putting that together next time it rains here. 

 

I will show my solar setup.

 

Don

[Snoopy11 5,713]

I will also say, if you only run 3-12 volt batteries in parallel, they will not last NEARLY as long as the group of 6 volt batteries in parallel. 

 

This is something else to consider. Going with the 3-12 volt battery idea may end up costing you more in the long run than you would like.

 

Don

[Oldskool 6,585]

33 minutes ago, Snoopy11 said:

I... don't think you would get 1 hour trips out of them... to be quite honest sir. You may, but... is that a chance (time, money, effort) that you want to take... 

 

Yes, you would need to unhook the batteries to charge them... in my opinion.... to be safe. 

 

You may just want to bite the bullet and buy the right batteries. I know the cost is outrageous (I have been there, done that). But, taken care of, these batteries last MANY years, and are worth the money. 

 

Don

To be honest I don't know if there is anything else wrong with this cart.

The batteries that are in it at the moment I will consider as cores. The ends are bowed out. I assume they have frozen once or twice.

 

It would be nice to know if it's even worth the new batteries .

[Oldskool 6,585]

33 minutes ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

Don’t want to hijack this thread, but would love a simple tutorial on putting a solar panel or two on/over my E 141 as a canopy. Perhaps useful for this thread as well… here’s that thread…

 

Hijack away. It's all good.

[Snoopy11 5,713]

5 minutes ago, Oldskool said:

To be honest I don't know if there is anything else wrong with this cart.

The batteries that are in it at the moment I will consider as cores. The ends are bowed out. I assume they have frozen once or twice.

 

It would be nice to know if it's even worth the new batteries .

Well, if I can help in any way, ask away. I may not know all the answers, BUT I will certainly be sneaking around! 

 

Don

[Oldskool 6,585]

1 minute ago, Snoopy11 said:

Well, if I can help in any way, ask away. I may not know all the answers, BUT I will certainly be sneaking around! 

 

Don

Will do. Thank you very much.

Maybe I will use our 3 car batteries to see if everything works as it should.

[Snoopy11 5,713]

Just now, Oldskool said:

Will do. Thank you very much.

Maybe I will use our 3 car batteries to see if everything works as it should.

Absolutely. You can even use a car battery charger if you have one... (I did that when running tests on mine). Really the speed controller and motor are the biggest things. I can't tell you off the top of my head how I tested mine, but I know that it was pretty easy. 

 

I had to replace my speed controller because a power wire on the motor got grounded out... and burned out the speed controller.  Easy fix, just not necessarily cheap... 

 

Don

[SylvanLakeWH 24,463]

17 minutes ago, Oldskool said:

Maybe I will use our 3 car batteries to see if everything works as it should.

You read my mind… simple… I just searched “connecting three 12 volt batteries in series” and got a million articles and diagrams on how to do it when I was figuring out my E 141…

[Handy Don 10,883]

6 hours ago, slim67 said:

 I think they are supposed to last the equivalent of a couple rounds of golf 

Ya beat me to it, slim67. 

[Lee1977 6,332]

I knew there was some reason I never took up goff.  You need to be a Pro Goffer to afford the cart

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

Where the heck do you pick up a free golf cart!? In my area they are selling them with rotted out battery trays and no batteries for $1500! I would easily buy that from you if I lived anywhere near you!

I'm jealous! Sweet work on the custom. I am following to see how that goes. 

[Oldskool 6,585]

6 hours ago, bmsgaffer said:

Where the heck do you pick up a free golf cart!? In my area they are selling them with rotted out battery trays and no batteries for $1500! I would easily buy that from you if I lived anywhere near you!

I'm jealous! Sweet work on the custom. I am following to see how that goes. 

It was just by chance. I happened to be driving by. Saw it sitting at the edge of the bushes. Knocked on the door. The guy said he was tired of looking at it. If I could get it gone before this last snow fell I could have it. So that I did.

 

$1500 seems like alot in the condition you speak of. 

[slim67 2,734]

6 hours ago, bmsgaffer said:

Where the heck do you pick up a free golf cart!? In my area they are selling them with rotted out battery trays and no batteries for $1500! I would easily buy that from you if I lived anywhere near you!

I'm jealous! Sweet work on the custom. I am following to see how that goes. 

Are they selling for that or still listed? I sold good running G16s for an average price of 1800 a couple years ago in the springtime. I wouldn’t pay that even if it had new batteries. Stay with a gas cart you’ll be happier. A lot of the campgrounds and boat docks that mandated electric only carts have since rescinded it because of the pain of electrics. 

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

1 hour ago, Oldskool said:

It was just by chance. I happened to be driving by. Saw it sitting at the edge of the bushes. Knocked on the door. The guy said he was tired of looking at it. If I could get it gone before this last snow fell I could have it. So that I did.

 

$1500 seems like alot in the condition you speak of. 

 

Yes, I think $1500 might be $1000 too much for that one. 

 

1 hour ago, slim67 said:

Are they selling for that or still listed? I sold good running G16s for an average price of 1800 a couple years ago in the springtime. I wouldn’t pay that even if it had new batteries. Stay with a gas cart you’ll be happier. A lot of the campgrounds and boat docks that mandated electric only carts have since rescinded it because of the pain of electrics. 

 

To be fair, they are listed for that. But they ALL are listed for that. I dont know at what rate they are selling, but it would be hard to offer them $100 when they are listing for that price. 

 

As much of a pain as electrics can be, I'm an electrical engineer so I would probably stick with electric. Maybe give it a 'boost'. I badly want an electric tractor, but being an engineer, nothing is good enough in its stock form, I would have to make it better. 

[Oldskool 6,585]

I would like to try charging it but I think the battery's are to far gone. Maybe I should try to charge one at a time with a standard 6volt charger?

If you were closer this maybe a good candidate to scavenge parts to make an electric tractor lol?

[Oldskool 6,585]

Today's little project is to use some free Bilco doors and make a truck bed out of them.

 

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

5 minutes ago, Oldskool said:

I would like to try charging it but I think the battery's are to far gone. Maybe I should try to charge one at a time with a standard 6volt charger?

If you were closer this maybe a good candidate to scavenge parts to make an electric tractor lol?

 

If you said they were bowed out, then yea they are probably too far gone. If you check the electrolyte levels and then SLOW charge them you might be able to wake them up enough to test if the cart works (or 3 12v batteries laying around, but this is not good long term, just for testing.)

 

If the insides of the cart are decent it looks like a good candidate to just get working again! That seems to be a newer-ish model. 

[Pullstart 60,522]

Lots to catch up in it seems 10 minutes of being away!  

 

@Snoopy11 I have heard many times in the RV industry that 2-6V batteries in series last much longer than 2-12v in parallel.  I opted for the 12’s simply because I only had to purchase one at the time of new.

[Oldskool 6,585]

39 minutes ago, bmsgaffer said:

If the insides of the cart are decent it looks like a good candidate to just get working again! That seems to be a newer-ish model. 

Everything appears to be good. Removing the batteries would be the biggest tell of condition I would think.

Warmer days are coming. I may mess with it then.

[Oldskool 6,585]

It's currently sitting on the wrong side, but it's easier for pics on this side.

 

The shiny horizontal line is a lite score mark from the grinder. Probably not needed but I put it there in hopes it makes the bed look smaller by making it look like it has a filler panel under it.

 

On to round 2........

[Oldskool 6,585]

Slow going today,  but still moving forward. 

Dug out some old truck bed strips for the wooden floor.

Made 4 of 6 frame mounts for the body.

Put together a headboard.

 

Maybe tomorrow the body will be assembled and temp mounted without the wood floor.

 

[Oldskool 6,585]

The bed made it on today after all.

Temp fitted a cab corner just to get a better feel for things.

[Oldskool 6,585]

Played catch-up on some stuff today.

Dialed in the cab corners a bit more. I think I'm going to add the bar to the cab corner. Not only for strength but to add an armrest to.. It's where the "old truck look" meets the side by side UTV look.