Club Car series-uphill speed

[Shuswap]

My 48V 2003 Club Car DS series has always been very slow going uphill. MCOR was originally suspected and changed - no difference. Batteries have been changed and check good - no change. Cart has F/R lever, silver Curtis 225 amp controller, 3.10 hp motor, and freewheels downhill. Reverse buzzer recently quit but seems to make no difference. How do I get more power to get up hills?

[NoleFan4Ever]

If you have tested your batteries under load as you are going up the hill and they are ok, all you can really do is upgrade. 2 gauge cables and higher amp controller will get you there.

[Frizbgolf]

My 03 series ds was extremely slow uphill when I first got it would only climb the hill out of my neighborhood at about 7mph. I put a plumquick bandit in it and that solved the slow hill climb got me to about 15mph up the same hill and 21/22mph on flat ground. I later upgraded to 2 AWG cables throughout and had the controller rebuilt to 400A by FSIP. With a good battery pack cart will run 24mph on stock wheels.

[scottyb]

All electric motors slow under load because it is at low rpms that they produce their maximum torque....that being said and understood.
You can test your throttle signal to be sure the controller is being told to pass it's full potential. If not ....
Throttle pedal slop is a known problem with these carts. With the cart off get under there and see if the pedal action is sloppy.

If throttle signal is good - check battery pack voltage under load when the cart is going too slow. If pack voltage is dropping more than 1 battery value you have a battery problem. Repeat the voltage test for each battery individually. Record the results and post them here.

[WalterM6]

Shuswap, Where are you located? Keep in mind that your hills may vary from those in Picayune, Mississippi. But the bottom line is you need more HP and Amps, 3.1 HP and 225 amps is only good for flat land.

[Shuswap]

Thanks for the great replies. I downloaded a shop manual from servicemanualvault.com for $4.95 and did most of the electronic testing today. No problems found yet. Battery pack tests 51.4 V 24 hours after full charge. Hope to test the MCOR and Scottyb`s battery hill climb test tomorrow. Will post the results.
2 points. I have had 2 previous Club Car DS`s and they did not have this "slow hill climb" problem. And I found that shop manual download of great value. It has supplements for IQ Plus, 48v PowerDrive, and V Glide electronic systems and seems very complete. Highly recommended.

[Shuswap]

Sorry. That should have read "36 volt V Glide" systems.

[Shuswap]

Finished electronics testing today. Apart from the MCOR voltage output 7.66 volts instead of "around 7.8 volts" as specified in the shop manual, everything tested good. Don't think that .14 volts is the source of my problem.
So on to scottyb's battery load test. I drove up a 5-8% grade for about 1/2 mile, and it was as slow as ever. Pack voltage at start, 50.9v; lowest during climb 46.0v, and at the top 49.6v and slowly rising. All 6 batteries 8.4v at start, and 8.3v at the top.
Bottom line - I'm stumped. Surely CC wouldn't design a cart like that. Or would they? Maybe as a cheap fleet for a flat golf course?
I see two options for me: upgrade this cart or upgrade to a new or newer cart that will climb a hill.
Anybody got other suggestions?

[TahoeDawgZ71]

These series cars were built with golf in mind. They were also intended to run about the same speed as their 36 volt predecessors, only more efficiently. 12-14 MPH is what they're supposed to do brand new from the factory. Uphill climbing speed may reduce at such a rate that you feel like you could almost get out and walk faster than the cart is going. A high speed motor such as the Admiral MOT-A1 would REALLY wake that cart up and get you up to speeds around 20 MPH.