New to me cart struggling up hills and batts appear ok???

[top1000nole]

Hey everyone, I just got my first golf cart and am very excited about, been wanting one for a long time. Cart appears in good shape and seemed fine on the flat test drive.

Catch is when I got home and took it around the neighborhood which is very hilly (especially my driveway) it will barely, and I mean barley, make it up the driveway. To be more specific, after full charge from a dead stop it will make it up the driveway once slowly and then after that I have to help it.

I am pretty mechanically inclined and did some poking around and everything seems operational.

It does have 22" tires on it, would that be enough to make it struggle so bad up the driveway?

Really appreciate everyone's input ahead of time.
cart1.JPG

[scottyb]

Series cart 36v?

[top1000nole]

Yes sir 36V trojan batts I believe supposedly a couple years old.

[scottyb]

This is a common complaint with this drive system. It makes a lot of torque but it needs to reduce rpms to do so. The best upgrades for this good looking cart would be a 400-500 amp Alltrax SR controller and 400 soelnoid, This will allow the motor to make more torque and reduce slowing somewhat. The biggest improvement could then be made by changing the pack and charger to 48v. That will solve the problem.

[top1000nole]

Ok thank you for the suggestions. It looks like you post a lot, would you have any links or maybe be able to show me where to start to begin these upgrades. Would I be better off just going to a smaller tire and not worrying about the rest of the changes. Have to admit with my lack of knowledge they do sound intimidating. Thanks for the help.

Also is there a easy way for me to make sure its just not the batts? I would hate to do the upgrades then find out my batts need replacing also

[cgtech]

I would start by replicating the symptoms you described, but this time put your meter probes in the charge port, so you can observe the voltage when coming back up that driveway. If it's below 31.5v, you got big battery trouble ahead. This should be done before any upgrades are considered, because upgraded parts may perform even more poorly with bad batteries.

[top1000nole]

great suggestion CG I will do that when I get home tonight at report. I did mean to mention I left the headlights one for about three hours last night and did not notice any noticeable dimming but i'm not sure if that is enough drain time to make a difference.

They do dim some when it is creeping up the driveway even after full charge but once again I am not familiar if that should be enough stain for them to normally do that even after charge. Thanks for the help guys.

[orangeman6]

Nole, you've got two of the best guys on this forum locked onto your thread. Stay with it, and you'll get the best possible info from these two.

Just to add: you said you were mechanically inclined. For those of us with little to no experience with these things, diagnostics can sometimes be tricky, but upgrading the drive system is not. Scottyb sells the best stuff, at great prices, and his parts come with pretty easy to follow instructions. Plus, as you'll soon find out, this forum is very helpful. I didn't know a thing about carts and was able to do a frame up rebuild on mine, while upgrading most of the drive system. There's not a chance I would have done it without this forum.

You may have to spend a couple of $ , but you can get that cart to do a lot, and you can definitely do it yourself. You can also do things in stages if you don't want to throw out a bunch of $ at one time.

Think about how you plan on using your cart: terrain, # of riders, desired speed, etc and cruise scotty's website for some really educational information.

http://www.cartsunlimited.net

[scottyb]

If the lights dim when pulling a load it is indicative of weak battery(ies). If the voltage drops more than 5v going up the driveway get some clamp ends for your meter and repeat the test for each battery - you could have just one bad one.

[top1000nole]

Thanks Orange I appreciate the encouragement. Its kind of disappointing because I am not able to use it like this so I want to get it up and running. The first day I had it the hub spun going up the driveway and I though that was it so you can understand my disappointment after I replaced that i'm still unable to use it.