Thoughts from installing my Trail Tech Striker

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I thought I'd share my experience installing a Trail Tech Striker Speedometer/Voltmeter.

I had wanted something a bit more sophisticated than a simple voltmeter, and wanted a speedometer as well. I had seen several models that I liked, most notably the Alltrax ExRay Volt. They are a bit expensive, at $200 - $240.

I did a bit of research, and found that the Trail Tech appears to be the exact same unit, at $129 with free shipping. I decided to take a chance, and bought one. At the recommendation of a TrailTech tech support person, I bought the version for a Blaster 4wheeler, which had a bolt style temperature pickup, and a simple wheel speed sensor to adapt.

I needed an extension cable for the temp sensor, which was another $6. It is only 24" long, more on that later.



I made a simple bracket out of some aluminum stock, mounted it on a wheel spindle, attached the wheel magnet (tapped/threaded the bolt into a wheel stud mount).



The temp sensor was a bit of a challenge. The sensor was supposed to go under a field coil mount bolt, but my motor doesn't have these, it's a can-style motor.



Instead, I simply used double sided tape to hold the thermocouple against a place on the motor where I cleaned away all the paint. Then, I covered it with aluminum insulating tape. The 24" extension was "just" long enough to make it work, but a few extra inches would have been nice. TrailTech doesn't sell a longer cord, but the 72" Alltrax cord, at $20, would have been better.

A simple bracket fabricated from sheet aluminum, held to the steering column by a hose clamp, completes the install.



The unit does a lot of nice things; it tracks motor temp, max motor temp, ambient air temp, speed, distance, run-time, voltage, max voltage. It has alarms for low voltage, very low voltage, high temp, and very high temp. Setting these was very easy, and the suggested settings are available on the Alltrax website.

After all is said and done, I think I would have simply bought the golf cart specific kit for $200 from evdrives. Although my install, at $135, worked out ok.

[kellybell]

Cool!

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Thanks!

Minor drama with the cart today; it got stolen at 1am! Spent all day driving around, texting people to look for it, etc.

Got spotted by my niece at 4pm today, driving thru the middle of town!

The kids abandoned it behind the Elks Club, and ran, but 6 cop cars brought them down! Two 15 yr olds in custody.

Going to search threads on how to secure a golf cart now...

Michael

[JcXtreme72]

I installed the trail tech vapor gauges on my bike. One of the best mods so far.

[Stevegrmich]

. . I installed a Harley barrel key lock in mine to eliminate the generic CC key . .

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Originally Posted by Stevegrmich

. . I installed a Harley barrel key lock in mine to eliminate the generic CC key . .

That's pretty much what I came to, after reading a dozen anti-theft threads.

I like the idea of an alarm; the ability to arm it from in the house, whether the kids left the key in it or not, etc.

On the other hand, I have seen how butchered car wiring harnesses become with the addition of one. I'd like to not do that to my cart...

[Hoof Hearted]

Michael very cool mod!

You might think about putting a looped diconnect like andy has on his 72 volt race cart (for diconnecting the system if the solenoid gets stuck). This would give you a big "key" that no one would be able to duplicate!
Third pic down in this post:
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/golf-...er-bypass.html

Can you tell me if this unit could be flush mounted in a dash? I can't tell from your pictures (or maybe post a link to the unit on line).

Also maybe a pic or two of the temp sensor install?

Thanks, Gary

[TheWiltz]

It's a shame those kids wore your batteries down, ruined them, and will need to buy you a new set of crowns!

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Originally Posted by Hoof Hearted

Can you tell me if this unit could be flush mounted in a dash? I can't tell from your pictures (or maybe post a link to the unit on line).

Also maybe a pic or two of the temp sensor install?

Thanks, Gary

Sure thing Gary. I didn't see anything to flush mount the gauge, but they make nice surrounds for these gauges:

http://trailtech.net/striker.html

I didn't take a pic of the temp sensor install. My sensor doesn't look exactly like the one in the photo above; mine doesn't have the 90* bend in it, that's just a stock photo from the website. I used a scotchbrite cookie in a die grinder to strip the paint and polish the metal of the motor case. I sprayed brake cleaner to remove all contaminants. I slipped a piece of aluminum insulating tape over the sensor, then held the copper sensor against the case, and laid a piece of foam tape over it. Then, I pressed the aluminum tape over it all, and then used 4 pieces around the edges to hold it down.

I did search around for one of those disconnects last night! Thought that would be perfect, serving dual purpose; a disconnect and anti-theft...

I hooked up a recently calibrated Fluke 73 voltmeter, and compared the readings with the Striker. They were within 0.1v, quite close.

[Hoof Hearted]

Thanks! I went to Trail Tech's site and looked at those.

I originally thought the ring terminal connected to a "sensor" but I now see that it is meant to go under a head bolt.....so you just taped it down.

Napa carries those "disconnects" I use them on my farm trucks for a "quick connect" end on jumper cables (so does the highway patrol).