local guys is building EZgo's but parts questionable.

[Racing4funn]

So the short story I get today is that he buys the frame from EZGO (so that is has a VIN) and bodies and everything else he orders from different places. He told me it has a AC motor (dont they all these days?) and a controler, had 4 large 12 volt batteries (thought a better battery was 6 8s or 8 6s). Now the controler is the main reasion for this post.

The controler looks to me like 20 year old tech. It has a large coil and a IC chip or transisiter on a large heat sink. Now heat is loss and this type of design surly isnt used anymore but Im asking. I believe it is cheap and maybe the motor is too.

[JohnnieB]

Considering that Lead-Acid battery technology is over 150 years old, 20 year old technology is still in its infancy.

Some EZGO carts rolling off the assembly line today have 4 x 12V battery packs, but others have 6 X 8V and 8 X 6V battery packs . In fact, some have 9 X 8V (72V) battery packs. The bottom line is that the battery pack should match the cart's intended usage.

No, all carts do not have AC motors. Many of EZGO's current offerings have SepEx motors (Shut wound DC) and some might have Series wound motors, but I'm not sure of the latter.

The coil and other stuff mounted on a heatsink is probably not part of the controller since controllers tend to be enclosed in hermetically sealed cases.

I suspect the coil you see is a high power rated resistor that is used to dump electrical energy when the battery pack is too full to safely accept the electrical energy being produced by regenerative braking. I'm not sure if the currently produced RXV's use this battery saving technique, but the earlier models did.

[cgtech]

Current RXV does still use a "energy dump resistor", and will continue to do so until real brakes are used. Gotta have somewhere to dump braking energy when batteries are full, if you lived on a hill for example. Regen braking energy frequently exceeds 150a for brief periods.

[JohnnieB]

Thanks CG, I know EZGO's DC carts reasonably well, at least the pre-2010 varieties, but I'm definitely not up to speed on their AC stuff and don't know if they are putting out anything with Series Drives these days.

I like Regen Barking and use it a lot with my SepEx drive, but wouldn't feel comfortable with it being the only braking system on the cart. Are there aftermarket wheel brake systems available for RXV's?

[cgtech]

Ezgo's 2five AC LSV model has nice 4 wheel hydraulic discs (plus a lot less agressive regen and No energy dump resistor). As far as aftermarket brakes, i dont know. I added ausco discs to the rear of a RXV for a hotrod conversion i did (i had to weld brake mounting plates on the axle tubes, none are present).