2005 ezgo TXT crawling uphill

[Mishinglepuss]

I just purchased a used 2005 ezgo TXT. It is a 36v cart. It has a 5inch lift kit on it. 18inch tires and a rear facing seat. The guy I bought it off of told me the batteries were a couple years old. First time I drove it after charging it the cart drove fine on flat road but crawled to a slow walking pace going up a hill, and not that steep of a hill either. Went out and bought new batteries but it did not really help much. My kids use it daily to get to and from the bus stop that is about a mile away. Even with just the two of them in the cart (200lbs of passenger max) it still crawls really slow up the hill.
I plan on eventually upgrading to a new speed controller and solenoid, but in the meantime, is there anything I can do to help fix this issue, or at least help improve torque?

[scottyb]

18 inch tires are stock. A cart with stock tires and a 6" lift would have at least 6" of air between the tire and the body. Is this correct or do you have bigger tires on the cart? Can you post a picture ?

Can you ID the drive system using the chart below?

[Mishinglepuss]

Ha! I was just on your website reading about controller upgrades!
misspoke earlier, meant that the cart was fitted with 20inch wheels after the lift kit was added. It is a series drive system.

[scottyb]

That's cool, there is lots of good upgrade advice everybody interested should read, which drive system is the cart?

[Mishinglepuss]

Series drive system.

[TexTurbo]

FYI.. Scotty is "Yoda" around here !!


He is a straight shooter, and can give you plenty of help to get that buggy
up and down the hills !!!

"Just my $0.02"...

[scottyb]

Yoda? Yo-da lady who?

Series carts. We hear this complaint about series carts alot. Series drive makes more torque than speed. And since electric motors make the most torque at their lowest speed they tend to slow on hills where they need to reduce rpms to climb. A bigger controller allows the motor to access more amperage and make more torque but the biggest improvement is made when a bigger controller and more voltage is added.

[Mishinglepuss]

If I upgraded to a 500amp controller, HD solenoid, HD F/R switch and got thicker gauge cable, BUT stayed at 36v, how much of a difference do you think I would see?
Will probably up to 48v down the road, but I just replaced the batteries and I would rather not have to buy a new charger on top of everything else. Just don't have that kind of cash to drop all at one time.