New owner of 1973 HD DE4 electric golf cart

[michaelalanjones]

Without asking me, my wife bid $245 on this 1973 Harley Davidson DE4 electric golf cart and won it. It was only 75 miles away, so we just picked it up today. It came with a 36V Lester charger. The seller forgot to mention that there were no batteries in it!

I am wondering if it is worth the cost of buying 6 deep cycle (marine) batteries for it. That is going to be a serious cost. It will be at least $600, on up. I wonder if I should/could just put a gas motor conversion in there for less than that?

Just trying to see, before I spend possibly a grand on batteries.

[Dbrockman1972]

I have the exact year cart! Mine has 3-12 volt deep cycle batteries. It runs, but I have no reverse and the rear wheels have a ton of slop. Also, the contacts for the gas pedal are on the way out. I am considering cutting mine in half to make a limo cart and converting to gas also. I am looking for a cheap polaris atv and doing an engine/rear swing arm swap. Selling all the electrical parts on eBay and selling all the quad parts I don't need hopefully will cover most of the cost on the conversion. Good luck on the project! Have some fun with it!

[michaelalanjones]

I wondered if I could just put three deep cycle batteries in there, instead of six. Will it run like that, with only three batteries, I guess? Maybe just not as long?

[Dbrockman1972]

mine runs fine, but I never had the 6-6volts to compare it to. I have heard the 3-12 volts don't have the range. not sure. a decent running gas powered cart wont cost nearly the 600 dollar battery cost every few years, so that's what im doing. a lot of fuel and oil changes can be had for 600 bucks.

[johnny reb]

you could probably find a gas cart and fix it up easier than changing the whole rear end and removing all the relays and electrical. my dad loves his electric cart. they arent as noisy as the 2 strokers.
batteries will run more since you will need a core. you could do 2 12 volt and 2 6 volt to keep the forward reverse set up working. as for slop check the wheel hub and axle. ours had that it was caused by a improper key stock in the slots.

[joe100]

Here's Mine it's a 1976 needs batteries maybe in the spring?