1993 Marathon- new owner, new member

[Yeoman]

I recently acquired a 1993, 36v Marathon. It's lifted, 22" OR tires, rear ball hitch and came with (timer) 25amp charger. Primary uses will be hauling tools and cart for tree & brush trimming, of which I have a bunch (15acres), and to move boat trailers etc.. I do some welding so will be fabricating a cargo bed, tool rack and such.
As a new owner, I've spent hours on the net looking for ideas, accessories and such. It's been a frustrating task as I have yet to find a cart site with the ability to search by cart model, year etc., and can't understand why this doesn't appear to exist.
I have lots of old equipment: tractors, outboards, mowers - most older than this cart, and there are numerous parts sites where the year make and model are entered to narrow the search to items suitable to fit the equipment in question. Am I missing something here? It's been an enormous time buner chasing links in search of an accessory for this cart, to find it only fits a TXT, or club car, or ....
Why do you suppose none of the suppliers appear to offer a model specific search engine? I'm hoping I've just missed them and some of you are aware of one or more and would be willing to share.
Thanks and excited about my cart project!

[Yeoman]

I have finally found a site which does purify the search by model - Everything Carts. Not a huge number of items for a Marathon, but at least their search function is up to speed.

[Sir Nuke]

Congrats on the new ride and Welcome to our happy little corner of the net, and to BGW. There is a BIG fridge on the back porch with anything you can think of in it...help yourself...of course only take what you can LEGALLY have. Make yourself at home on one of the big fluffy couches, kick your shoes off, put your feet up on one of the tables, yes we are allowed to do that, mom's, wives’, husbands, girlfriend’s and boyfriends here don't care....and take it easy.



oh...btw....every once in a while a food fight breaks out...so you may not want to wear nice clothes here.

Welcome!!

[BobBoyce]

You'll be asking an aweful lot out of that Marathon for towing when you have 22" tires on it. At least it should be a series motor, the workhorse of DC golf cart motors. Go to...

http://www.cartsunlimited.net and look at the upgrade options there. Lots of educational material there as well.

[Yeoman]

It is a series motor. It did struggle getting up a 5' rise on a 40' run pulling a single axle trailer and 14' jon boat. Batteries were 6.17. Charged it that night. After 48hrs, showing 6.3v. Most of my trailer moving is on fairly flat ground and mostly empty trailers. That's a minor use relative to hauling chainsaw, tools and climbing equipment around the place. Built a cargo box yesterday. Need to weld a frame to attach it next. Thanks for the upgrade link.

[bronsonj]

If you don't want to jump into a new controller right away, reducing the tire height will add torque. Your stock tires were approx 18" tall. You've got 22" tires on it now. If you search on craigslist you'll probably find someone selling stock wheels near you for $10 to $20 each. I recently picked up 4 stock tires and rims for $20 total.

If you put on the stock wheels/tires that will help, until you get a controller upgrade.

Also, make sure your tires are fully inflated, no use having any additional resistance.

[Yeoman]

What % gain in torque would occur going from 22" down to 18"?

[bronsonj]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

The 23" tall tires should have increased [top speed] by 27.8%, but the 23" tall tires also reduced the effective torque where rubber meets road by 21.7%

The above quote was lifted from this thread:
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...n-worth-2.html

JohnieB loves posting the percentage gain/loss for tire height conversions. Your tires are 22" so the change will be a little less dramatic than the 23" tires he referenced here. So it would appear about a 20% loss of torque going with the larger tires so you'd get that back if you went back to stock height tires.

[bronsonj]

Actually, I think that the formula is stock height divided by new aftermarket tire height for the torque amount retained. Subtract that from 100% and you get the amount lost. So in your case the 22" tires netted you a loss of 18.2% torque.

I probably got the formula wrong. JohnnieB, if I goofed that up horribly please don't give me detention...

[Yeoman]

I should have asked at the same time "What gain on torque would be achieved by upgrading the controller to a 325amp?" Is there a "formula" for this?
Thanks for the info on torque loss with 22" tires.