97 DS Resistor cart 36v - looking for feedback

[zrated]

Hey all, looking for some opinions/feed back or suggestions!

I purchased this cart knowing I’d have a small project. We just moved to a golf cart community and the cart will only be used in neighborhood streets. Everyone around me has all lifted carts and newer club cars. I went with a project cart instead of new because ultimately I want something different!

My plans:
Speed - wanting at min low 20s mph
Wheel/tire - thinking 205/30/14 - looks to be a 19-20” tall tire
Update seats to black
Update roof to black
Possibly wrap the plastics in dark gray/silver/or black vinyl

Cons - It appears I didn’t quite purchase the right cart for this task to be easy or cost effective (oh well) . This is the light duty cart with the 2.9hp 36v motor. I’ve been looking at numerous motors for the cart and reading through various threads and seems Almost everyone is converting these carts and doing away with the vglide controller. Is low 20s achievable with out doing a full conversion?

Pros - this cart is in great condition for the age. Even has working turn signals and brake lights lol!

[Budule]

if you want all the goodies you should convert it ....people have added batteries and ran 48 volts , which will bring the motor to life , but the vglide can melt sometimes....you can convert to 48 volts and keep your stock motor but ditch the toaster coils.....

https://www.cartsunlimited.net/conversion-kits.html

[CP241]

If it were mine, I'd drop 48v batteries in it and run it until it breaks. Either burn out resistors or melt the v-glide, neither of which is catastrophic. If you clean the contact surfaces in the v-glide it will help it last a lot longer too. Once it does break, convert the coil system to a 48v solid state setup per above.

The 36v motor should be fine running 48v. Lot of people use the 36v motors as a cheap man's speed motor in 48v carts.

[zrated]

Originally Posted by CP241

If it were mine, I'd drop 48v batteries in it and run it until it breaks. Either burn out resistors or melt the v-glide, neither of which is catastrophic. If you clean the contact surfaces in the v-glide it will help it last a lot longer too. Once it does break, convert the coil system to a 48v solid state setup per above.

The 36v motor should be fine running 48v. Lot of people use the 36v motors as a cheap man's speed motor in 48v carts.

This is what my buddy recommended. My only dilemma is the batts are a month old. I guess I could probably go lithium? and then if/when I burn it up I could swap over to solid state. That way it would prevent me from a another mod down the road lol

[zrated]

So here are the wheels purchased in the attached. Trying to do a street style as this is just a neighborhood cart. Going to place an order for new batteries tomorrow for 48v since I’ll have to do this in the future anyway.

[Wakko47]

Looks like a nice cart. What did you pay for it? Remember that when you buy new batteries, you have to turn in your old ones for cores. Depending on what brand batteries you have, you may do well enough to sell them and have the purchaser give you his/her cores. Perhaps a local cart shop will allow you to trade them in towards the 48v you want. As far as the wheels, they look good...what are your lift plans? Seat covers can be purchased pretty inexpensively on ebay in some great color combinations, and it's not that tough to recover your seats on your own with them.

[Jake_Daddy]

I would definitely sell my old batteries and get cores! My old 36v batts were about 18 months old and I got $400 for them and a set of cores which made the wallet hit on the 48v set much milder!

[97ccds-custom]

Do you have a lot of hills in your community?

I have a 97 club car ds with the 36v/48v series motor in it that was originally a 36v resistor cart. I now have six 8v batteries, 22" tall tires, a 48v 150A solenoid, a lift kit, 2 gauge cables and the motor was reconditioned at Plum Qwick motors before I bought it. I can do 18-21 mph still running on the resistor coil system. I just have one small hill that I slow down on when carrying passengers on fresh batteries.

If you do that much you can get some life out of the cart without breaking the bank. If you forgo the lift kit then a non-lifted kit will still be able to get up to 18.5" using 215/40-12 wheels and tires which will give you a little speed. The size you listed is a 19" tall tire and that might not fit if your cart is not lifted. So you could go to 18.5" wheels and tires, put in 48v with a new solenoid and live with the vglide and resistor coils until they die or you are ready to drop more change. This will give you a little more speed but you need to get more torque if you have some hills to climb. But as long as you still have the vglide and the resistor coils you still have some inefficiencies that require you to charge and drive a little differently than more modern carts.

Then you can go to a bigger solenoid, lower gauge cables and speed controller at which point you can rip out the vglide and the coils.

I just bought a C54 Upgrade kit from cartsunlimited that includes a 400Amp controller and Alltrax SR48500 speed controller and I'll be starting the upgrade in a few weekends from now.

Judging by the pictures it does appear to be a well taken care of cart. With all the improvement and keeping the stock series motor and getting it reconditioned you could be looking at a jump of 2.9hp on a 36v stock to over 8hp on 48v and plenty of torque to do what you need.

[zrated]

Originally Posted by 97ccds-custom

Do you have a lot of hills in your community?

I have a 97 club car ds with the 36v/48v series motor in it that was originally a 36v resistor cart. I now have six 8v batteries, 22" tall tires, a 48v 150A solenoid, a lift kit, 2 gauge cables and the motor was reconditioned at Plum Qwick motors before I bought it. I can do 18-21 mph still running on the resistor coil system. I just have one small hill that I slow down on when carrying passengers on fresh batteries.

If you do that much you can get some life out of the cart without breaking the bank. If you forgo the lift kit then a non-lifted kit will still be able to get up to 18.5" using 215/40-12 wheels and tires which will give you a little speed. The size you listed is a 19" tall tire and that might not fit if your cart is not lifted. So you could go to 18.5" wheels and tires, put in 48v with a new solenoid and live with the vglide and resistor coils until they die or you are ready to drop more change. This will give you a little more speed but you need to get more torque if you have some hills to climb. But as long as you still have the vglide and the resistor coils you still have some inefficiencies that require you to charge and drive a little differently than more modern carts.

Then you can go to a bigger solenoid, lower gauge cables and speed controller at which point you can rip out the vglide and the coils.

I just bought a C54 Upgrade kit from cartsunlimited that includes a 400Amp controller and Alltrax SR48500 speed controller and I'll be starting the upgrade in a few weekends from now.

Judging by the pictures it does appear to be a well taken care of cart. With all the improvement and keeping the stock series motor and getting it reconditioned you could be looking at a jump of 2.9hp on a 36v stock to over 8hp on 48v and plenty of torque to do what you need.

Thanks man. I have been following your thread as well. Definitely curious to see how yours performs with the new controller and how well it installs.

As for my wheels, I bought a 1” spacer from golf cart Kings (madjaxx Lopro kit) to hopefully clear the front. The rear I found a set of heavy duty leafs, or contemplating just putting a block on the leaf if I need it.

I’m king to take the advice above and try and sell my batteries and exchange for cores. Put some 48v in and see it how it rides.

[zrated]

Originally Posted by Wakko47

Looks like a nice cart. What did you pay for it? Remember that when you buy new batteries, you have to turn in your old ones for cores. Depending on what brand batteries you have, you may do well enough to sell them and have the purchaser give you his/her cores. Perhaps a local cart shop will allow you to trade them in towards the 48v you want. As far as the wheels, they look good...what are your lift plans? Seat covers can be purchased pretty inexpensively on ebay in some great color combinations, and it's not that tough to recover your seats on your own with them.

That’s a good idea on the trade in idea. Going to call a few places tomorrow.

Lift plans I’m just going to go maybe 1” to clear the wheels. I bought a spacer for the front and the rear will clear, but may need to stiffen it up a bit. This will be a street only cart and my roads are pretty solid so there’s no need for “spongy” suspension.

The seats I may just run them to a local uphill shop and get recovered black. I may way on this as I want to do it and top at the same time and I had no idea how much the tops cost! Lol