Melex 512E very slow up hill

[Jsmith522]

I recently purchased my first golf cart and had no idea what to look for. I ended up buying a 1996 Melex 512E. When I test drove it I was only on level ground. I took it home and driving around the neighborhood I realized it is very slow going up even slight hills. It does about 15 on straight away, 20 downhill, but coming up it does 5. I have a neighbor that has a brand new sat off batteries so we swapped them out fully charged thinking batteries were the issue. There was no difference in the speeds. I do not need it to be fast, but I feel like it should go better up a hill. Now the hill size does not seem to make a difference and it does not slow if the hill is longer or shorter. It stays a constant 5 mph. Does anyone know if this is just all the cart can do or something else I can look at? Also if this is as fast as the cart can go is there any simple modifications or swaps I can do to increase the up hill speed. Thanks for looking and your time.

[BobInOK]

Just bought a 512 that has the same issue. My plan is to jack up the rear end to get the wheels off the ground and use the breaks to simulate going up hill. Using a volt meter hoping I can find the component or components causing the voltage drop under load.

May discover it's just the nature of the beast but hope not. May be a while but if I do find anything I will update this thread.

[BobInOK]

I have pulled out all the electrics and cables. Controller checks good, going to clean up the contacts on the reverse switch, replace all the cables with #4 welding cable and clean all the connecting studs. Looks like the original cables were just crimped and not soldered. Several show signs of being over heated. Also found it had a bad throttle pot, best price I found was Amazon. If this doesn't completely fix it will pull the motor and see if it needs anything. Going pretty slow so may be a while before I get it all back together.