2009 Club Car Villager 4 - Eco Battery 105ah upgrade

[Eleven]

2009 Club Car Villager 4 with 4 12v Trojan T-1275. Run time and performance started to go down and after some troubleshooting I found one of the battery’s to be week. They were 2016 batteries so I felt like they had a good run. I wanted to free up room, weight and reduce maintenance/mess so went lithium. I know just enough to know when I don’t know enough, so I went with a kit type set up instead of building my own.

I got my kit from Niko at Net Performance Carts in Mississippi. Not sure if he is on here, but hes a good dude and very knowledgeable about carts. He is also a dealer on Eco Battery’s website. Charged me what was listed on Ecos website and included gen 2 105ah battery, onboard charger, voltage reducer, wire harness, new vers. Gauge, cart specific charging receptacle ( I reused the backing plate) and 14/3 extension cord. ( see attached picture). I had to provide some wire terminals/connectors and zip ties, but that is cart specific - otherwise it’s plug and play.

I removed the batteries, charging receptacle and power washed the compartment. Then used Woodys wax and a 000 steel wool to clean all the corrosion/ goop and get it looking semi new. I cut one of the raised brackets in the center so it would be flush and added some angle to make a compartment the size of the battery. (See pictures) The aluminum angle I got from a box store was 1/8” thick. I needed just a little more so I got a piece of flat that was 1/16 thick and that did the trick to make a level surface for the battery to sit on.

It took some head scratching to figure out where I wanted to mount the charger and reducer. The aluminum frame had limited area and I did not want to drill into the body. I got the idea from Niko and his cart, but mounted them on a vertical plate. I bolted a 2”angle to the frame for the charger and was able to use an existing one for the reducer (see pictures).

Running the wire for the gauge and key on switch was supper easy and only required 2 zip ties after mostly threading it through existing ones. The dash comes out easy with two screws (pop the clastic cover for the screw off with a flathead) and just wiggle it out to get access. I wanted to remove the low voltage light and put the gauge there, but after getting the cover off there was a bunch of plastic supports there an I did not want to tear it up, so I just put it next to it. There was a support near where I put it, but it worked out. Just make sure you check. I am sure if you pulled the whole dash off, you could easily cut any supports out, just didn’t want to go that far.

The new gauge takes a 2” hole saw!! I am glad I had some some research and Niko informed me, but Eco Battery’s manual was not included with my purchase and the one you can download from their site has the old one that is a little bigger.

To connect the voltage reducer, this cart had one positive with a spade disconnect pulled from the harness to one of the batteries. I disconnected that and used a female heat shrink for the spade to go in. There is a negative bus, so put a female heat shrink on the voltage reducer negative and connected to the bus. For the orange key on wire I used a double stack spade to the one that had power when the key was on and no power when it’s off. (See pictures)

Connecting the battery I stacked the terminals heavy consumers to lighter, so motor, charger then reducer.

Flip the run/tow back run, press battery button on and let her rip. It was at 50% charge and took about 2.5hrs to get to 100%.

Everyone’s setup will vary, but I gained 2 or so mph and a whole lot of torque. Also a much cleaner/tidy compartment and room for some upgrades.

[Eleven]

Additional photos

[Eleven]

And a few more…

[Volt_Ampere]

Nice install! Once you experience Lithium, you will never go back to FLA!

[Eleven]

Double post

[Tom47]

Congratulations on your very nice installation! You're gonna love it!

[simicrintz]

Looks great; and I love the Margaritaville sticker!!

[tyrone shoelaces]

Beautiful.
What controller?

[Eleven]

Thanks! Yes, very happy with everything so far.

Haha. Nancy - the previous owner - liked her margaritas I hear. I thought they were a nice touch. My wife wants to remove them....

Everything (except new battery) is stock - Curtis IQ controller.

[Eco Battery]

Great write up, love the details. Very nice install!