gas or electric? best brand?

[taj266]

returning to the forum after a long time off while installing a new engine in my 01 EZGO TXT. Unfortunately the cart burst into flames on first start and nearly burned my house down. $30,000 later damage is still being repaired.

So I am back to try again and looking for advice on the best cart. I have been looking at electric Precedents and finding pricing around $2000 for 2004 to 2006; however, having read some of the posts here it sounds like this model may be one to avoid.

Gas or electric? Brand/model preference?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[scottyb]

How in the heck did that happen ! ???????

[ruredy]

Kinda sounds like you may want to stay away from gas carts for awhile, sad thing is electric carts have been known to catch fire as well.
really depends on what your going to do with it as to what i'd choose, I prefer gas, the always being ready to use thing is what does it for me. As for the brand, well lots of things could come into play there like what are you going to be doing with the cart? some of them are better suited for specific tasks than others. who's a close dealer for support(if your not going to do the maintenance yourself) I favor ezgos but that's only because they're better I'm kidding a bit.......a little t-tiny bit You did ask this in my favorite section on the forum (ezgo gas) so naturally you could expect my answer to be that.

[scottyb]

Don't be Shy Jon, By Far the Ezgo TxT is the best cart available to most people no matter what you intend to use it for and The RXV for the new cart buyers

[taj266]

Originally Posted by scottyb

How in the heck did that happen ! ???????

I wish I knew scottyb. I have been rebuilding and or working on gas engines of all sizes and vintages for over 40 years and with great success. This was a brand new MCI Robbins 295 along with new muffler, fuel pump, fuel lines, igniter, battery, battery cables, etc. The install was clean, no issues. The only original part was the air box. The engine turned over and started almost immediately; 20 seconds later I heard a small "pop" the engine stahled and flames were already coming out from under the seat. Fortunately I had driven out of the garage in those few seconds but the heat was so intense it melted the side of the house, garage doors, windows and one side of a car parked in the drive. The cart looked like a war zone.
Generally you know when your doing something like this if it's problematic. This was truely plug and play. So I'm at a loss as to the cause.
A lesson learned, I'll never start any small gasoline engine in the garage again. That includes mowers, snow blowers, leaf blowers, weed wackers, and even my quads I roll out before starting now.

[scottyb]

Another member had a similar accident with a Rhino and a backfire situation? They lost an outbuilding and the Rhino. I guess you just can't be too careful. Glad to hear that nobody was hurt

[crash12888]

Not knocking my luck but I have 4 of the little home owner and 2 commercial fire extinguishers around my garage and one mounted to my welder.

[scottyb]

ONE AT EVERY EXIT
Firefighter's rule #2

[ruredy]

Originally Posted by crash12888

Not knocking my luck but I have 4 of the little home owner and 2 commercial fire extinguishers around my garage and one mounted to my welder.

crash, your a wise man. I learnd this lesson the hard way with the total loss of an old hot rod I had when I was younger. I was lucky cause it was outside, it only took a few minutes to burn the car to the ground. It was in the 70s and I had $5000 in building the car's engine/trans/rear. I know this doesn't seem like much by todays standards but back then I could have bought a top fuel dragster with a hemi for around that much.

[taj266]

Great advice for all. I learned the lesson about the extinguishers as well. By the time I got to mine the cart was fully engaged. Now have more and easier to get to.
To add insult to injury when the fire chief arrived within minutes ( he only lives 2 miles from me) the BIG extinguiser on his fire vehicle was empty. By the time the first of three alarm companies arrived the cart was a molten pile melted into the asphalt drive. The big focus then was to save the house. The speed of escalation was nothing short of shocking, unbelievable. Just about everything on these carts is flammable, in particular the plywood seat base which in an 01 was very dry; it fueled alot of additional combustion.