48 volt conversion build

Helirich

I have been working on a cart and thought I would start a thread on the build.

First let me state the goals. I have had a old 94' Marithon for a number of years for use around my property. (ten acres) It has been very useful. It has served me well, but I wanted better.



The wild idea.
One thing I have wanted on my property is some solar power for emergency. While doing some research on the subject I found that solar power is not really feasable mainly because of the batteries. Its just not cost effective to have a battery pack sitting doing nothing. Then I came up with the idea of my battery pack being used every day in my cart. Of course, in a emergency, I would have to park the cart. Now before you say "A cart pack wont do much", Im only thinking of powering my fridgerator with it. Doing more research, I found that you can get solar chargers for 12, 24 or 48 volts. Im sure I could work something out to charge 36, but why not just up grade to 48?

At first I was going to upgrade the Marithon, but I really wanted a better looking cart. So I started cruising the Craig's list. Most of the 48 volt carts were priced a bit more than I cared to pay. After awhile I spotted this.



This is a EZGO based 48 volt cart called the Beast. It was on a trailer going down the highway when the trailer jumped off the ball. (The safety chains were neatly wrapped on the tounge.) Fortunently, it stopped on a telephone pole. Although the frame was badly damaged, there was alot of good expensive stuff on it. So I bought it for 600 bucks. Now I needed a bare bones cart to put this stuff on. Again on Craig's, I found this.



At $1800 with new batteries, it fit the bill. This is a 36 volt TXT. It drives very nice right away. Ive been working on it and taking pics for awhile, Ill catch you guys up in the next couple days.

BGW

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Sir Nuke

Great story......and a great start on your project.

tculpepper

If anything, I like the bulldog! Looking forward to keeping up with your build. Keep us posted.

Helirich

First thing I did was strip the front bumper and flip seat off the beast. Then a I swaped the wheels and axles between the machines. This swap included the lift kit also. I didnt swap the rear leaf springs because the ones on the Beast were damaged a bit. They have four leafs as compared to two. More about this later. The beast has a bigger motor than this stock TXT. The axle is the same, but I didnt know what gears were in them. So I thought it wise to swap the whole axle. The only real issue I had was the sensor on the end of the motor. They were both three wire sensors, but they had differnt plugs. I solved this by splicing the TXT plug on to the Beast motor. After the fix, the cart worked fine. It seemed to be faster, but that may have been just because of the tall tires. Here is the result of this work.



It gives the cart a tough look and it deffiantly made the cart taller. Now you have to step up into it. Next project was installing the lights. I was able to strip the head lights, tail lights and the wiring harness out of the Beast. The worse part of this job was cutting the holes. Theres no going back. LOL. It went good, but I have no pics of this. After finishing this job, it was on to paint. Im sorry, but I dont like green. After some research, I deturmined the best way to paint was remove the body. This was the right choice because I was able to clean up some rust that was hidding underneeth. Also, I was able to mount the cool "on board" charger that I got from the Beast.





Next up, mounting the body.

jakesnake27

Subscribed, cool build!

bronsonj

Cool build and great find!



That Beast charger, will it work on your new 36v cart? Was the Beast 36 or 48?

Helirich

The beast was 48 V. The cart is 36 now, but I'm going to convert it to 48. The motor works with 36 or 48. So it is drivable right now. The 48 V "on board" charger is mounted, but not hooked up. When I get it done, I can remove the four bolts holding the 36V charge socket and replace it with the on board charge plug. (It's designed to fit the same hole) I plan to put two more 6V batteries in the bag well.

JohnnieB

What is the make/model of the beast motor?

What is the tire height?

Helirich

I went to the beast web site (mine is a Beast 48 2WD electric) and it says it's a D&D 16 hp, but I think they changed on the new models. I sware I saw 12 hp on the data plate. I dont remember the make. (If I saw it) Im out of state right now, so I cant check.

As I recall, the tire is 24" or 25".

Edit, I found the old motor on their site. It is a 12 hp Advanced motor.

03psd73

Looks like you have a great start.