Cable Upgrade - TXT 48V

[geoffarias]

New around here but been doing alot of research and had the pleasure of getting a stop from Bob Boyce last week. He did his magic on my cart (2013 TXT 48V running 22" tires I believe). I put brand new trojans in about 2 -3 weeks ago and the cart runs about 18.6-19 MPH.

Unfortunately on the morning Bob stopped by my wife hadn't fully seated the charger the day before so she left it half charged according to Bob's handheld device while we were running. I was still running 19 MPH that morning with 50% DOD. He checked all my settings, enabled freedom mode, etc etc. I am still running 19 MPH. He said I need to change my cables out to 2 gauge as thats my bottle neck currently. Anyone have experience with this and can attest first hand to before and afters of changing out cables with the controller already programmed to pull more amps and voltage? Im guessing if thats the case, my cables should probably be hot as Bob's programming should have the controller pulling as much through those cables as they can handle?

[country_bumpkin]

I'm new to this, just got my first cart but this makes total sense to me. I'm thinking about upgrading to 2 gauge with my stock controller. My cart is about 18 years old and I believe will just help all around. Think about how much water you can push out of a garden hose compared to a fire hose. Same thing here.

[jkenprice1]

Bob did my RXV on the same trip. I didn't question when he said get new cables. I also did 20.5" tires. I can do 30mph easily and 33 on a long run. Wanna race?

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by jkenprice1

Bob did my RXV on the same trip. I didn't question when he said get new cables. I also did 20.5" tires. I can do 30mph easily and 33 on a long run. Wanna race?

The stock motor is turning 6730 at 33mph. I would limit how much of that the motor is subjected to. 30 mph is 6117 which is closer to the generally accepted 6g limit for non-modified golf cart motors. Have fun and be safe!

[yurtle]

Originally Posted by scottyb

The stock motor is turning 6730 at 33mph. I would limit how much of that the motor is subjected to. 30 mph is 6117 which is closer to the generally accepted 6g limit for non-modified golf cart motors. Have fun and be safe!

I haven't seen/heard anyone use "g" for a long time, except for money. My high school buddy had an 8 grand tach. Now it seems everyone used "k".

[jkenprice1]

I think the g is pre-metric. k is definitely metric. Changing culture. The one that gets me is ft/lbs changing to lbs/ft. I don't even want to start on that rant.

[jkenprice1]

Originally Posted by scottyb

The stock motor is turning 6730 at 33mph. I would limit how much of that the motor is subjected to. 30 mph is 6117 which is closer to the generally accepted 6g limit for non-modified golf cart motors. Have fun and be safe!

I normally don't run near wide open. Just saying what it can do. Top speed wasn't the real purpose of that post anyway.

[orangeman6]

Originally Posted by geoffarias

New around here but been doing alot of research and had the pleasure of getting a stop from Bob Boyce last week. He did his magic on my cart (2013 TXT 48V running 22" tires I believe). I put brand new trojans in about 2 -3 weeks ago and the cart runs about 18.6-19 MPH.

Unfortunately on the morning Bob stopped by my wife hadn't fully seated the charger the day before so she left it half charged according to Bob's handheld device while we were running. I was still running 19 MPH that morning with 50% DOD. He checked all my settings, enabled freedom mode, etc etc. I am still running 19 MPH. He said I need to change my cables out to 2 gauge as thats my bottle neck currently. Anyone have experience with this and can attest first hand to before and afters of changing out cables with the controller already programmed to pull more amps and voltage? Im guessing if thats the case, my cables should probably be hot as Bob's programming should have the controller pulling as much through those cables as they can handle?

It might be applicable to ask which size cables you’re currently running. I’ve seen the debate here by the smart guys about if 2g was overkill compared to 4g for most upgraded carts. I’ve never seen one of them recommend the stock 6g cables. And, Bob is crazy knowledgeable about this stuff. If he was tuning my cart and recommended something, I’d do it.

[JohnnieB]

Overkill is underrated.

2Ga has 59% less resistance than 4Ga and 153% less resistance than 6Ga.

If you have about 20' of high current cables in your cart, with 6Ga cables you lose about 79W/100A, with 4Ga it's about 50W/100A and with 2Ga it's about 31W/100A.

However, the biggy is going from OEM cables that are more than a year or two old to new, high quality, 4GA or 2Ga cables, or thicker if controller throughput is over about 500A.

My first very upgrade was going to 2Ga cables in an otherwise stock, 3 year old 36V PDS and I got a seat of the pants increase in acceleration.

[cgtech]

Originally Posted by scottyb

The stock motor is turning 6730 at 33mph. I would limit how much of that the motor is subjected to. 30 mph is 6117 which is closer to the generally accepted 6g limit for non-modified golf cart motors. Have fun and be safe!

The stock Rxv AC motor in "freedom mode" runs all day at 6400-6600 rpm from the factory, no problem (16.99:1 gear ratio and 18" tall tires). I have run them up to and above 9000rpm (and have seen datalogs indicating speeds in excess of 10k). Never seen any motor failure related to the rotor rpm, only temp sensor and encoder issues.