Benefits of Changing To Controller

[CCFanatic]

What are the benefits of getting rid of the resistor coils and change to a controller?

[93yellowclubcar]

Updating to solid state is more efficient. The coils on a resistor cart are there to slow it down and offer electrical resistance. What they do is get rid of energy as heat in exchange for slower speeds. A controller doesn't waste energy in this manner. Controller carts can also be upgraded much more in terms of speed than resistor carts can, as resistors will burn out under too much load.

[CCFanatic]

So with a controller, the cart will gain a small increase in speed? Also, if I am not mistaken, it will not only increase battery run time because of it no longer burning off excess voltage, but it will also increase the battery pack life time. Correct?

[93yellowclubcar]

A controller won't typically get you any speed. The "magic formula" with a series system is volts = speed and amps = torque. The higher amp controller you install, the more torque you'll have, a must if you plan to lift the cart and have larger tires. Speed improvements can come from either adding batteries (convert to 48 or even 72 volt) or from a motor upgrade. For really wild results, you can do both.

You will gain a small amount of runtime from your batteries and therefore probably some overall life. This will especially be true if you do a lot of driving at part throttle, which is where a controller really shines and stands out over a resistor system, both for saving energy from the batteries and also by keeping the heat output significantly lower than that of the coils.