Finally Bought a Cart, now the fun begins.

[dougmcp]

Thanks to all for the advice and guidance I received over the past month or so.
I finally bought a cart, so here's what I bought:
1998 Western Model 400
42v - 5 HP motor
7x2004 Trojans in good condition
Top Speed GPS measured yesterday on the flat 21mph
Mods coming:
New wheels
4ga cables
48v conversion for more speed
Overhead console and tunes
Any comments, questions and advice will be welcome
Thanks again guys!
Doug

[madd matt]

Cool rig, let the fun begin....

[dock98]

good luck?.nice looking cart.where are you getting the cables?

[rifter]

Western?? I haven't heard of that Brand, but it sure looks good, wish I could see it without the curtains. I really like the headlights and tail lights.

[buscopat]

I like the look of that cart.
Good luck and have fun.

[dougmcp]

Originally Posted by dock98

good luck?.nice looking cart.where are you getting the cables?

I think I'm going to make my own cables. I have access to a crimper and cable ends. All I need to buy is the 6ga welding cable.

[dougmcp]

Originally Posted by rifter

Western?? I haven't heard of that Brand, but it sure looks good, wish I could see it without the curtains. I really like the headlights and tail lights.

Western is a custom cart company that comes from Southern California and bill themselves as the largest custom cart manufacturer in the world. I believe that the economic crisis has hit them as hard as anyone and they have not built any new carts since early 2008 although their website is up and running.

These were originally built, I believe for the NEV market and golf cart communities where amenities and bragging rights are an important feature. Standard features for these include, full carpet, adjustable velour seats, headlights, tailights and horn. Options were about anything you could imagine in a cart up to and including color TV and air conditioning. These are not something you will see on a golf course as a fleet cart but more in a golfing community.

The bodies are custom made and set onto an EZGO chassis with EZGO running gear and wiring. From an operational/maintenance standpoint it is the same as an EZGO non-DCS cart and the wiring diagrams are virtually the same with the exception of the lights, horn, signals etc. The controllers are made by Curtis so humping it from a 36v to 42v is almost a non-issue.

Some of the cool things about this cart is that they have a trunk in the front and a built-in ice chest behind the seat.

Here is the only photo I have without the winter cover and also the trunk.

[bhfear]

ya your spot on there with your western info there good cars, the wiring can be a little overdone sometimes, but not all westerns are actually built on "ezgo frames" all the older westerns were on a marthon frames but some of the later cars are on a copy txt frame, they have brackets on the chassis from ezgo such as steering box mounting, brake pedal brackets, etc, but you can clearly tell they are made by someone else, just my 2 cents, very cool cart though

[dougmcp]

Thanks bhfear. You're right about the wiring, it's pretty much a dog's breakfast when it comes to the accessories. I'll change that over time and put a true fuse block or circuit breaker panel in so that when I upgrade with some tunes it will make life easier.

One thing I discovered with his cart is that because it's a 42v cart and no 42v solenoids are made for this type of application, they simply wired the solenoid on battery pack, short 1 in the pack and used a regular 36v solenoid.

It has a Curtis controller and by the sizing it appears to be a 400 amp unit but the tag is on the bottom and I can't get to it unless I uninstall it and I'm not doing that yet.

As time goes on I will be needing help identifying pieces of this thing so when I'm making upgrades or replacements, I'll know what to get. With the exception of the body I'm sure the basic cart is a Non DCS E-Z-GO.

If you have any information on these I sure would like to know more.