New project 94 DS

[joejax]

Hey all, its been awhile since I've been on here, I hope to learn loads about this thing, I'm new to electric carts. Basically gutted, I have the wiring, need motor and batteries. Debating going up to 48v. Frame up resto planned. Thanks for all the help.

[LukeL]

I’d do 48V if you’re starting from scratch. Looks like a fun project.

[joejax]

Thanks Luke, it will probably come down to cost vs improvement. It came with some new parts and charger. The wheels and tires are pretty sweet too.

[Fairtax4me]

All comes down to how you want to use the cart. Flat streets, high speeds? Golf course, Cart paths, grass and some minor hills? Off road, mud, climbing steep hills, hunting? These factors determine which type of upgrades will suit you best.

Really no matter what you plan to use it for, 48v gives you more range, more power, more speed, more options for future upgrades if you so choose. And 8v batteries take the same amount of space as 6v, for basically the same cost.

That’s a toaster cart right? Resistor coils and solenoids behind the batteries?

Those are basically designed to run at full pedal all the time. The resistors give you other slower speeds, but they waste huge amounts of energy as heat, and they’re not designed to run at those lower speeds for long periods of time. So if you need to putt around at 10mph or less, there’s a very high chance that you end up just melting resistors.
You also have only a few “steps” for throttle control, and each step “clunks” up to the next slightly higher speed. Which again, depending on your usage, can cause some issues with being too fast or too slow, and each of the first several steps run power through the resistors to obtain that lower speed, until you get to full speed. Full speed for that cart, will probably be only about 12mph, and it’s gonna be a slug if you need to go up any kind of a hill.


An upgrade to a Sepex motor and controller setup, MCOR throttle, and 48v pack gives you much more power, much higher efficiency, longer range, and much smoother throttle and speed control. You can also then have regenerative braking, if you choose, and you won’t have issues with components burning out or getting hot when running at slow speeds, and depending on which motor you decide to go with you can run anywhere up to 20-25mph. The beauty of a Sepex setup though is you don’t Have to go that fast all the time. The cart will have the ability to cover the whole range of speed, from Crawling up to Full speed, with very little negative effect.

[joejax]

Thank you so much for the great response, fair tax, definitely thinking more about it now.

[joejax]

Definitely going to need some help trying to figure out which kit to consider...

[Fairtax4me]

Tell us what you might ultimately want out of the cart, and where you plan to drive it.
Will you stay with the stock size wheels, or add a lift kit and bigger wheel/tires?

[joejax]

No lift. Stock tires. Might put it on the back burner for now, just added to the fleet, flawless 03, 48v, batteries are weak.☹️

[fsu1tm]

PM me if you think you may want to get rid of the '94 now that you have the '03. I'd love another project cart. It'd have to be reasonably priced for a non-running, no wiring cart though.

[joejax]

I'm still debating it, might be a cool project as soon as I come up with a plan. I still want to know the way to go on the whole system. I might make the 94 into a mini car, roadster type design, move the batteries around, make it so you are sitting in it down low like a go cart type thing but with body work around.