1981 ezgo marathon

[bkfogle]

Have the chance to pick up an 81 ezgo electric cheap ($500). Is it easy to make these faster? looks like a resistor controlled motor. I have little experience here so any info is appreciated.

[rlw]

BK,

Welcome to BGW!

I have an '84 Marathon resistor cart - so far, it's STAYING a resistor cart since I'm happy with its performance, it does what I need it to do, and I can pretty much fix anything with wrenches, screwdrivers, and a voltmeter.

It's a pretty tall order to upgrade a Marathon resistor cart to a modern (electronic) drive system. If you're looking for a project, that cart was built like a tank and could be a good place to start. If you want to drive it fast next week, maybe it's not so good a choice.

That being said, there ARE things you can do to make it faster. There are quite a few threads on the forum that discuss upgrading carts, and the site sponsors will be glad sell just about anything you'd need to upgrade your cart.

Making a Marathon resistor cart fast requires a number of things:

• Larger wheels/tires and a lift kit
• Replacing just about the whole electrical system
  • Motor
  • Batteries (up the voltage from 36v to 48v - from 6 6v batteries to 6 8v batteries)
  • Dump the resistor and replace it with an electronic controller
  • Dump the wiper board and replace it with either a "pot box" or "ITS accellerator" (depends on the controller you buy)
  • Dump the 6 gauge cables and replace them with heavier duty 4 or 2 gauge cables
  • Replace the FNR switch (Forward, Neutral, Reverse) with a heavy duty switch
  • Oh, yeah, you'll need a new 48V charger as well.

Since it's an '81, and if you haven't bought the cart yet, take a fine-tooth comb to it and make sure the battery tray and the chassis isn't rusted out. If it is, you'll need to get all that fixed up before you even start to think about making it faster.

I'd suggest familiarizing yourself with the "sticky" threads at the top of the forum page and using the search tool.

I'm sure that someone else will come around and post more suggestions for you.

Again, Welcome to BGW!

RLW

[tculpepper]

You can make them faster but, not a whole lot from my experience. Bigger tires and bigger cables to start. ScottyB sells a kit that will upgrade them to a controller cart.