How necessary is a controller upgrade?

[Davey11A]

Originally Posted by augiedoggy

Let me put it this way...not sure if your into engines or hot rods but. Performance wise the controller is the closest component to a carburetor on an ICE engine as it regulates the power band and the batteries are like the engine block itself...

What your considering is equal to pulling a 350cu v8 and swapping in say a 165cu 4 cylinder but then asking about going from the 650cfm sized carb the v8 had to an 850cfm sized carb for the smaller engine... see how thats backwards?

the larger 23" tires already are costing you a considerable amount of power to the ground vs the stock sized wheels. they look cool but do absolutely nothing for performance unless its an offroad rig thats had other upgrades like bigger batteries and more reserve to compensate along with a bigger controller, wiring and solenoid.

when you go to a bigger wheel it changes the gear ratio of the rear end and puts more load on the motor which increases the amp draw and reduces your range.

That was a good analogy.
If you install a higher capacity controller you have to have the available power/battery amps to feed the controller that feeds the motor.
I realized the need for a 350 amp controller was after the long travel lift kit and 25" tires the cart could not climb any hills. Installed a Curtis 350 amp controller and Eco Battery 105 amp hour lithium battery. The cart will climb any hill now.
Going to a lithium battery pack is a huge upgrade. Cart is 270 pounds lighter and the battery is always putting out 51 volts + or - depending on the load.
I should have gone to a lithium battery five sets of 4 x 12 volt battries ago.
Before buying a lithium battery look closely at the rated amp output.
I see the amp draw well over 200 amps when I start up the steepest part of our road.
From EB website.
Max Continuous Discharge 175A
Max Discharge 3 Sec 600A
Max Discharge 30 Sec 300A This very important.
Recom. Voltage Cuto� 48.0V
BMS Voltage Cuto� 43.2V
BMS Voltage Recovery 46.4V
Discharge Temp Range -10F to 140F

I have not had a BMS shut down with this controller/battery combination.
Hope this helps.

[mgray70]

Do your homework and read the lithium section on here. The big difference between lead acid and lithium is the fact that lithiums have a BMS that manages the output like a regulator. Lead acid has no regulator. The 4 100AH batteries your talking about will have 4 different BMS units. They don't always work well together. That's why they are cheaper. The battery set up that is best will be the one battery pack setup with one BMS that is large enough to produce the current that the 500 amp Alltrax will be drawing. So at least 500 amp surge and 200+ continuous.

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