Two whacky ideas

[Helirich]

I recently bought another cart to replace my old Marithon. I'm rebuilding/upgrading the new cart with some parts off a wrecked 48 V donor cart.

After all is done, I will have 5 good 8 V batteries. (One got wrecked) the old Marithon's batteries are on their last leg. So for the whacky ideas

1. Trade one 6V battery for one 8V. This would give the Marithon some new "pep". (Maybe)

2. Trade all six 6V batteries for five 8V batteries. Do you think this would fry the controller or selinoid? How would the charger like this?

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by Helirich

I recently bought another cart to replace my old Marithon. I'm rebuilding/upgrading the new cart with some parts off a wrecked 48 V donor cart.

Originally Posted by Helirich

1. Trade one 6V battery for one 8V. This would give the Marithon some new "pep". (Maybe)

"old Marithon" would not like this ... no way to charge it
buy 6 new 6v batteries

Originally Posted by Helirich

2. Trade all six 6V batteries for five 8V batteries. Do you think this would fry the controller or selinoid? How would the charger like this?

40v ?? no... you need 48v... no way to charge 40v

[rbuggies48IN]

Apparently there is a charger that may work, but it will need comments from the experts on this site. You can find it on today's posts, but will have to hunt a little as I did a poor job of writing or copying a link. Supposedly will do 24,36,42 and 48 volt charging with a flick of a switch or automatically?. New $ 700.00, but is for sale for $ 350.00.

[rbuggies48IN]

Ooops it is 24,36,48 volt 25 amp charger. Easy to find under today's posts.

nope won't work

[Volt_Ampere]

Bad idea! You would need to match capacity and find a charger for a non standard voltage.

[Helirich]

What I was thinking was a standard 36V system gets charged up to like 38. something volts. So if my raggedy batteries only except 36 volts, the cart is sluggish right off the charger. But if I put one 8v in, it would charge up to over 38 volts. I know the run time would be short, but at least it would go fast. Is my thinking flawed? LOL.

a 36v charger charges up to 44.5 volts
your thinkin is flawed in that it will work but not well the 8v battery will be under charged and the 6v batteries will be over charged
yes it will run, short runs , your new 8v battery will be crap in months

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by Helirich

What I was thinking was a standard 36V system gets charged up to like 38. something volts. So if my raggedy batteries only except 36 volts, the cart is sluggish right off the charger. But if I put one 8v in, it would charge up to over 38 volts. I know the run time would be short, but at least it would go fast. Is my thinking flawed? LOL.

The flaw is technical rather than logical.

Cart batteries are connected in series, so a 36V battery pack is actually eighteen 2V cells connected in series, a 42V pack is 21 cells in series and a 48V pack is 24 cells in series.

When fully charged each cell settled down to roughly 2.122V about 12 hours after charging stops, so a fully charged 36V pack (18 cells) measures about 38.2V.

If you connected five 6V batteries and on 8V battery in series, you would have a 38V pack (19 cells) and the pack voltage when fully charged would be 40.3V.

To fully charge a 2V cell, you have to raise the on-charge voltage to about 2.5V, which means 45V for 18 cells and 47.5V for a 19 cell pack, which in turn means the 19 cell pack would not fully charge if you used a 36V charger since it only raises the on-charge voltage to about 45V.

In addition, the 2V cells in the 6V batteries are typically about 225AH, while the cells in 8V batteries are typically 170AH, and because the cells in the battery pack are connected in series, the same current flows equally through all the cells while being charged or discharged. The net result will be the four cells in the 8V battery that have 25% less storage capacity will be both discharged deeper when used and fully charged sooner when charged.

In a nutshell, it might work to some degree, but it'll be a race between the single 8V battery and the five 6V batteries to see who fails first.

[DaveTM]

There's this island in the middle of my State (Pennsylvania). Fortunately for me....it's downwind of where I live. They call it "TMI" for short, but most know it as Three Mile Island. Now, if you take your cart there and dip it in some "special water" your cart will pretty much do anything you ask of it. Speeds of 200mph are not unheard of.....but the operators have been know to turn green.....and disappear. Voltage? Does that really matter? Well...not so much with that "special water."

Other than that, perhaps stick to the old fashion volts listed here.

Just saying........