Overheating Wires during Slow Operation

[Sougentlmn0140]

I just want to confirm what I think about the following......GOING SLOW WHILE SPRAYING WEEDS causes Wires, Solenoid to overheat? VERY VERY HOT to the touch with some smoke at connections. I have a 10HP Motor, Alltrax SR48600ITS Controller and Heavy Duty Solenoid and Heavy Duty F/R switch. Looking for Confirmations & Suggestions.

[NCPW]

Absolutely.

Upgrade your wires to 2 awg and make sure all connections are snug and tight.

[yurtle]

Originally Posted by Sougentlmn0140

I just want to confirm what I think about the following......GOING SLOW WHILE SPRAYING WEEDS causes Wires, Solenoid to overheat? VERY VERY HOT to the touch with some smoke at connections. I have a 10HP Motor, Alltrax SR48600ITS Controller and Heavy Duty Solenoid and Heavy Duty F/R switch. Looking for Confirmations & Suggestions.

Smoke is a bad thing. So is heat.

Could you tell us the year, and drive type?

Different critters have different answers.

Series, DCS, or PDS?

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...en-system.html

[Sougentlmn0140]

36V Series 2007 EZGO with 6 12V Yellow Top Optima Batteries, 3 Main, 3 in Reserve wired Parallel. Ive run into issue in past and recall slow speeds being the culprit.
I do have 4 AWG wires already so going to 2 awn may work or maybe I should just speed up...lol.....

[BBBHC]

Would adding a small fan be of any real help in this situation?

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by Sougentlmn0140

36V Series 2007 EZGO with 6 12V Yellow Top Optima Batteries, 3 Main, 3 in Reserve wired Parallel. Ive run into issue in past and recall slow speeds being the culprit.
I do have 4 AWG wires already so going to 2 awn may work or maybe I should just speed up...lol.....

According to the Alltrax SR manual (attached ... See pg-13) a SR48600 ought to have 1/0 Ga cables for standard duty and 2/0 Ga for heavy duty, so your 4Ga cables are about half the recommended thickness.

Also, running at 36V the motor draws 33.3% more amps to do the same amount of work than it would at 48V and the amount of heat generated by the resistance in the cables, connections and contacts is the square of the amp flow. (W = I² x R) Same is true of motor heating.

In addition, if your tire height is taller than stock (18"), the motor spins slower at any cart speed, so it can draw more amps that it could with stock height tires.

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Connect a laptop to the SR and record a data log while spraying and you'll see how many amps are being drawn.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by BBBHC

Would adding a small fan be of any real help in this situation?

The resistance of the copper conductors alone generate a bit over 2kW of heat with 600A of current flow, and the resistance of the connections double that (or more), so even a big fan probably wouldn't help much.

[radioman]

Going slow does seem to generate more heat. I have a stock PDS cart I use for spraying fire ants and weeds. The controller would go into thermal shut down every time I drove around slow especially on hot days. Seemed to work ok when operating at normal speeds. I finally installed a small 12 volt 35 CFM 3-1/8"x 1" NMB fan at the top of the controller to circulate air around the heat fins and eliminated most of the problem. But a small fan would not solve OP problem.

[Sougentlmn0140]

Great, Thanks for response. I'll look at changing the Wires. AND driving a bit faster when spraying..lol