Which Motor is Your preference

[DGKeowee]

Just curious about this:
Which motor would be preferable to you guys in a cart;
a) 4.4hp / 3.3kW AC motor in EZGO RXV
B) 6.7hp / 5.0kW DC motor in YAMAHA Drive2

(I’ve already ordered my 2017 RXV but haven’t received it yet. After looking at many carts I noticed the motor stickers in 2 carts I had tested).
Sorry if this is a stupid question.

[OnceARunner]

There are other differences that I'm sure others will get into, but if you live in a hilly area, I would go AC just for the extra power up the hills alone.

[DGKeowee]

Originally Posted by OnceARunner

There are other differences that I'm sure others will get into, but if you live in a hilly area, I would go AC just for the extra power up the hills alone.

Yes, thank you. I realize the AC motor takes hills better which is exactly why I went with that and ordered the RXV with the AC motor. I just saw looking back on my pictures I had taken of the various carts I had looked at and noticed the large Horse Power difference in the motors and it got me wondering. The Yamaha 6.7hp DC Hitachi motor versus the 4.4 of the RXV AC motor.

[JohnnieB]

HP is a rubber yardstick. Electrically, Volts times Amps divided by 745.7 and mechanically it is Torque times RPM divided by 5252. In other words it is two variables divided by a constant factor and the same HP can be obtained by entirely different values of the variables.

A true comparison of cart would be the linear force applied where rubber meets road and in addition to the amount of torque the motor produces at a given RPM, the differential gear ratio and the tire height are both contributing factors.

In general terms, AC motors can be spun at significantly higher RPMs than DC motors, so the differential gears in carts with AC motors tend to be numerically higher allowing the motor to spin faster for the same axle speed, thereby multiplying the torque generated by the motor more.

I don't know about Yamahas, but an EZGO TXT-48 has a gear ratio of 12.44:1 while an RXV has a 16.99:1 ratio, so the AC motor spins about 37% faster to move at the same speed as the DC cart on the same sized tires.

[kernal]

Pretty sure the 5.0KW motor in the Yamaha is AC. Current Yammies don't offer DC motors at all any more.

On paper the Yammy is a beast and significantly more powerful than the RXV and includes a 350amp controller vx the 235 amp in the standard RXV.
HOWEVER, the controller is locked down tight in the Yammy and can only be tuned to the legal 19+ mph setting (on standard 18" tires). Even this is only allowed on the PTV models by Yamaha far as I know.

Either cart will perform much better on hills or with added weight than a DC motored cart. The Curtis controller in the RXV is not as locked down as the Yamaha so there is an option beyond factory settings in certain conditions.

[DGKeowee]

Originally Posted by kernal

Pretty sure the 5.0KW motor in the Yamaha is AC. Current Yammies don't offer DC motors at all any more.

That Yamaha I tested was a 2014 and the guy told me it had AC Motor. He had purchased it and fixed it up and apparently hadn't looked at the motor. I cleaned the motor off and took the attached picture and showed it to him. So not sure if that Hitachi DC Motor was stock or if someone else had put it on. I don't think it's the 5.0kW that the sticker on the body says. So probably got swapped out with a DC Motor.