1991 Marathon...Order of upgrades?

[BLK MAJK]

I recently picked up a stock 91 Marathon in need of some refurbishment...and upgrades . Right now its just a 36V series cart with 5 year old batteries. Over the winter I plan to completely redo the cart, including all electronics. I plan to upgrade to 48V, leaf lithium pack, alltrax controller, etc, etc. I am working on cosmetic upgrades right now since I can do them fairly quickly and keep the cart in operation. So far I have installed/ordered:

4" lift - received, not installed
Monroe shocks - received, not installed (until lift goes in this weekend)
12" wheels with 22" all terrain tires - ordered, not shipped
21" LED light bar - installed (temporarily until rebuild)

So the point of the thread...what order do you think I should do my upgrades to keep the downtime to a minimum? Or, just keep it operational as is, accumulate parts and do all the electrical at once? Would it be worth doing the controller/solenoid/FNR switch with the current 36V SLA pack until I can do the leaf lithium/motor swap? I could also use some guidance on controller/motor/FNR/Solenoid combination. Cart will be used on/off road (yard use, no mud bogging type stuff), no major hills around here, will have rear seat for my kids. Would like to end up in the mid to upper 20s for speed and good acceleration. I will also do a personality switch for a 'speed' mode, 'normal mode' and a 'kid mode'. Here is where I'm leaning...

- Leaf 7 cell pack (with BMS)
- Alltrax SR48400 or SR48500 (is price difference worth it?)
- 400A solenoid and HD FNR (hoping to get a whole kit from ScottyB when they come back in stock)
- Aftermarket motor (no idea on this one)
- 2 gauge wires for batterie(s)
- DC/DC converter for 12v accessories (is there a forum favorite? or just one of the million listed on amazon/ebay?)
- Anything I'm missing?

Thanks for any help!

[orangeman6]

Sounds like you’ve got a good project going. You’re going to have a great setup.

You can do like you said and install the controller, solenoid, and f/r now, then do the lithium and motor later. That’s pretty much what I did. The 400 amp solenoid scottyb sells works at 36 and 48v.
I’d give serious consideration to going with a reversing contactor vs the rotary f/r.
You didn’t mention if you’re taking this thing down to the frame. I think it would be a good idea to do that with a cart that old. Get any rust off of the frame and repaint it.
I’d go with the 48500. Iirc, the difference in price from the 400 was relatively negligible and you get the fan with the 500.
Just an FYI, unless something has changed, the fn1 for series carts is a dial as opposed to locking in certain performance characteristics. I disassembled mine and mounted it to the dash, but you could also hide it, if you think that’s necessary.
AMD, D&D, Plum Quick and EMP are all motors you hear about here constantly. I got a custom motor from EMP and was very happy with the effort they put into helping me figure out exactly which motor I needed. I also have the pack you’re getting at. My cart does ~32 on 20” tires and has plenty of torque, but I rarely drive it that fast. Your 22” tires will theoretically make your cart even faster given a similar motor, but will decrease the torque. The motor companies I mentioned will be able to suggest a motor that will get you what you want given your planned setup. EMP has you fill out a decently long questionnaire to ensure your needs are met. Other guys here will have suggestions too.

I’d stay away from the reducers on eBay. I’m sure some of them are fine, but I don’t know which one. I’d go with Scottyb on this too. Whatever you do, make sure the one you get is a 5 wire so you have the trigger wire.

[BLK MAJK]

Originally Posted by orangeman6

Sounds like you’ve got a good project going. You’re going to have a great setup.

You can do like you said and install the controller, solenoid, and f/r now, then do the lithium and motor later. That’s pretty much what I did. The 400 amp solenoid scottyb sells works at 36 and 48v.
I’d give serious consideration to going with a reversing contactor vs the rotary f/r.
You didn’t mention if you’re taking this thing down to the frame. I think it would be a good idea to do that with a cart that old. Get any rust off of the frame and repaint it.
I’d go with the 48500. Iirc, the difference in price from the 400 was relatively negligible and you get the fan with the 500.
Just an FYI, unless something has changed, the fn1 for series carts is a dial as opposed to locking in certain performance characteristics. I disassembled mine and mounted it to the dash, but you could also hide it, if you think that’s necessary.
AMD, D&D, Plum Quick and EMP are all motors you hear about here constantly. I got a custom motor from EMP and was very happy with the effort they put into helping me figure out exactly which motor I needed. I also have the pack you’re getting at. My cart does ~32 on 20” tires and has plenty of torque, but I rarely drive it that fast. Your 22” tires will theoretically make your cart even faster given a similar motor, but will decrease the torque. The motor companies I mentioned will be able to suggest a motor that will get you what you want given your planned setup. EMP has you fill out a decently long questionnaire to ensure your needs are met. Other guys here will have suggestions too.

I’d stay away from the reducers on eBay. I’m sure some of them are fine, but I don’t know which one. I’d go with Scottyb on this too. Whatever you do, make sure the one you get is a 5 wire so you have the trigger wire.

Thank you for the reply. Essentially I am doing minor stuff to the cart to keep it running so we can use it around the yard until it gets too cold, then it will be torn down to the frame to address any rust, coat in a POR-15 type product (still deciding which one) and I plan to do the body in raptor liner. I will have to look more into the reversing contactor vs rotary...the older I get, the more I'm starting to subscribe to the "buy once, cry once" theory. I also sent an email to ScottyB just a couple minutes ago. Thanks for the help!