1999 Club Car DS Upgrade Plans - Advice wanted

[blounsbury]

Hi All,

We recently bought a 1999 Club Car DS. It looks to have a series motor based on the lever it has. I put a 6" jake's Double A-Arm lift kit on it and upgraded my tires from the stock ones to 23" from 18" tires (with 14" rims).

Prior to the upgrade I was getting 15mph on flat ground and I'm still getting 15mph on flat ground (I was expecting to see some gain due to larger tires). Prior to and after the upgrade the cart struggles going up any kind of incline (speed drops to 10mph).

I took my volt meter and ran it across my batteries. While the car is not being used the voltage reads at 50.5V, at full speed it reads 48-48.5V, while accelerating it reads 47-47.5V, and while going up hills it reads at 45.5-46.5V. I'm seeing a pretty large voltage drop.

Upgrade goals: I'd like to get to about 18-20mph on flat ground and not have the motor bog down on small hills. Normally its me, wife, and son (5) in the cart. Sometimes my two nieces (11 and 9) ride with us as well. I also don't want to spend a huge amount of money. Right now paying $500 for a controller is a bit more than I want to put into the cart, and I don't think it'll get me the best bang for my buck.

Upgrade plans:

1. Upgrade all the wiring in the cart. Its currently stock wiring, I'd like to take it to 2GA or 0GA. I'm pretty good with electronics and electrical work, so I'd have no qualms making my own cables given that sets seem to be in the $250+ range which seems a bit much for <20ft of cable and some connectors.

2. Upgrade the solenoid and motor. I'm looking at the Plum Quick Bandit. They state 25% increase in torque and speed on the bandit. The upgraded solenoid from them is only $98 and the motor is $225, which puts the upgrades within my budget. I could possibly hold off on the solenoid until I upgrade the controller and get both at once from some place like cartsunlimited.

[bird6246]

the upgraded gauge of the cable is very very minimal at best as in you will not know you changed it. 4 gauge cable is plenty up to 500 amps. Save you money, upgrade your solenoid and your motor, that will give you a noticeable improvement, and as soon as you can do the controller, amps are your horsepower, the more amps the controller can produce the more power you make. I say do the motor first, 2 reasons. stock motors are not big fans of aftermarket controllers, and motors have a break in time. give them the specs of the controller you will be buying, and they can match it. Also check out D&D, i have used them a couple times. Hope this Helped

[blounsbury]

When you say save my money, are you saying to skip upgrading the cables at all or to buy 4Ga instead of 2Ga/0Ga? The stock cables in my cart right now seem to be 6 gauge which i assume is why I'm seeing a voltage drop.

[NCPW]

You don't see much of an increase in speed because your stock controller and motor can't push those new big heavy wheels/tires efficiently.

Upgrades you should consider:

Skip the 4 awg cables and go with 2 awg cables for just a few bucks more. They should be more than enough for any controller you eventually decide to go with. Make sure to replace ALL cables in a series cart.

If you're slowing on hills right now, the Bandit upgrade isn't going to help you. Save your pennies and go with a SR48500 controller and new motor of your choice. The Admiral A1 is a good choice for speed and an increase in torque to get you up those hills faster.

Going with a bigger controller will require an 400 amp solenoid and HD FNR to go along with those 2 awg cables.

Remember with series carts: Amps = torque and Volts = speed.

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[blounsbury]

Thanks for the Info. If I'm reading what you've posted correctly, I might get some minor benefits out of the wiring upgrade (and it'll be needed for your suggested other upgrades), but that a higher torque motor isn't going to see benefits with the stock controller and solenoid? I would have thought that something like the bandit would have given me noticable improvement given that it states 25% torque improvement with stock controller.

Do I need to upgrade the motor and the controller and solenoid all at the same time, or can I do the controller/solenoid and then the motor later?

[scottyb]

The controller and solenoid can be upgraded anytime. The cables and F&R switch are the pathway by which the motor draws amperage. IF the controller is upsized the delivery path needs to be upsized too. We see alot of stock motors on 400-500 amp series controllers with no problem but, a 2 or 3 hp motor can only make so much power even it is refreshed to some wishful percentage.

[SEHunter]

My mods are in my sig. I’m at 19-20 mph with 22”tires on a flat and enough torque that the cart will wheel stand if punched from a dead stop with charged batteries. The cart will lose traction and spin before it will stall on any incline I’ve been up. I’ve not stalled it yet (not that I try to)

You’re performance comes from the controller and motor. Everything else is just upgrades that support the added current draw but you still need them to get the full potential from the motor and controller as well as not melting stuff or having part failures. Can’t say enough about the D&D ES-58 motor and Alltrax SR48600 combination. Add #2 cables, HD F/R switch or reversing contactor, and HD solenoid and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

[blounsbury]

Originally Posted by SEHunter

My mods are in my sig. I’m at 19-20 mph with 22”tires on a flat and enough torque that the cart will wheel stand if punched from a dead stop with charged batteries. The cart will lose traction and spin before it will stall on any incline I’ve been up. I’ve not stalled it yet (not that I try to)

You’re performance comes from the controller and motor. Everything else is just upgrades that support the added current draw but you still need them to get the full potential from the motor and controller as well as not melting stuff or having part failures. Can’t say enough about the D&D ES-58 motor and Alltrax SR48600 combination. Add #2 cables, HD F/R switch or reversing contactor, and HD solenoid and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Do you have a link to that motor? I don't see an ES-58 on there. I see an ES-81 at this point, but I have to call them and talk to an engineer before i can purchase, which seems like more motor than i probably want.

[scottyb]

For a series CC the Admiral MOT-A1 is a great choice. Everybody raves about the torque, the speed, and $400 price Plus You don't need an engineer to install it

[SEHunter]

Originally Posted by blounsbury

Do you have a link to that motor? I don't see an ES-58 on there. I see an ES-81 at this point, but I have to call them and talk to an engineer before i can purchase, which seems like more motor than i probably want.

You’d have to call to order it. Vic is the guy, a lot of folks in the forum know him. They may be considered on the premium end of the scale. The Beast 48 cart, some bad boy buggy’s, various Taylor Dunn and Pack Mule vehicles use D&D motors. They’re widely known in the EV industry. Many Plum Quick motors are originally D&D that are rebuilt or modified.

There are several other high torque motors that have good reviews. The AMD 7114 “Beast” is an excellent motor. The Admiral that ScottyB sells is supposed to be a good motor and it’s probably also the least expensive if you’re working in a budget. The price he stated is a couple hundo under what I paid for mine.