Safety First!!

[VanillaXtract]

I had my wheels turned at a stop. I must have pushed the pedal too hard and my cart whipped around and fell on me, pinning my feet down. While I came away relatively okay, it could have been so much worse if I didn’t have my batteries bolted down. Please do not drive your cart without securing everything first. Where I was pinned, the batteries may have fallen on my face. They could’ve shorted against something too.

[LukeL]

Originally Posted by VanillaXtract

I had my wheels turned at a stop. I must have pushed the pedal too hard and my cart whipped around and fell on me, pinning my feet down. While I came away relatively okay, it could have been so much worse if I didn’t have my batteries bolted down. Please do not drive your cart without securing everything first. Where I was pinned, the batteries may have fallen on my face. They could’ve shorted against something too.

Wow, that looks terrible. I'm glad you're somewhat OK. We definitely need to remember safety with all this golf cart work. Just because they don't way 3 tons doesn't mean they cant hurt you!

[scottyb]

Early on in my mechanic career I have a 48v Marathon on full charge while I decided to work on the sticky gas pedal. I slid underneath the cart where I could reach both the pedal and the business end underneath. Not sure how but, I popped the return spring off of the go pedal. It fell with a thunk and the rear wheel by my ear started burning rubber on the shop floor... almost immediately it caught my shirt. That wheel never stopped spinning as it jumped up onto my shoulder & ran down my ribs, over my hip, down my leg, and finally over my foot. The foot may have broken a small bone... the cart was now moving at speed and not yet out of charger AC cord. Running 60 volts through a 36v motor the old MElex plowed into my big 4x8 workbench and pushed it into a wall bench spilling pounds of nuts and bolts etc. The wheels still spinning and burning rubber as the wall would not give...
I hopped over to it and took it out of gear, then turned the key off. 2 things I wish I had done moments earlier.

Be careful out there !

[Mooncarter]

Glad you didn't get hurt worse. Were you on a hill or something?

[VanillaXtract]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

Glad you didn't get hurt worse. Were you on a hill or something?

I wish I could say that or that I was drinking or something. Just at a stop sign and then took off. Certainly made me realize how dangerous this stuff is.

[JohnnieB]

Look at it as a learning experience as to why the body and frame of a narrow track, short wheelbase, top heavy vehicle shouldn't be lifted off the axles.

[dundeebarnbuggy]

Glad you wern't seriously hurt!!! This proves a point that I have been trying to convey. Lifted carts, especially those with big torque, are inherently unstable, especially on asphalt. To those people who haven't spent their lives driving top heavy equipment this can be a problem. One thing that can be done, is to turn DOWN the acceleration rate in the controller some so that one slip of the foot does not flip the cart. And no, I am NOT a safety nazi but just pointing out the issue. Anybody else here have similar or other thoughts on this?

[Goliath]

Glad no permanent damage.

Just finished getting my 92 Western (Marathon chassis) running. I had it on jack stands, and first time key on, everything worked perfectly! I was so stoked, I decided to take it for a ride.

This is a 400 2+2, and is extremely long. But, I have a 4" Jake's lift, so the weight, as I found out, shifts easily.

Also, I took out all the batteries, and installed a Lithium pack. This took out another 300(ish) lbs from the vehicle.

I backed out, put it in forward, and slowly took off. Super happy it's working.
Come to a stop sign, and am going to turn left. But, I forgot I had the "Personality" switch on, and I had programmed the controller several weeks earlier to be really aggressive when that switch was on. I had the throttle rate at 35%, cuz I didn't know that was a lot.

I decided to romp on the pedal. Surprisingly, the front end lifted immediately, and I found my old Western doing a wheelie, to the point where the rear moulding started scraping. All this was after I had started a turn. I backed slightly off the throttle, and the front came slamming down. The speed was increasing into the turn, and it started going up on the right two wheels. Fortunately, the street is wide, and I had room to turn slightly right to slam it back down on the other wheels.

I pulled over, and a neighbor's kid was clapping. Apparently he couldn't tell I almost crapped my pants. I was fortunate, as it could have been a lot worse.

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by Goliath

Glad no permanent damage.

Just finished getting my 92 Western (Marathon chassis) running. I had it on jack stands, and first time key on, everything worked perfectly! I was so stoked, I decided to take it for a ride.

This is a 400 2+2, and is extremely long. But, I have a 4" Jake's lift, so the weight, as I found out, shifts easily.

Also, I took out all the batteries, and installed a Lithium pack. This took out another 300(ish) lbs from the vehicle.

I backed out, put it in forward, and slowly took off. Super happy it's working.
Come to a stop sign, and am going to turn left. But, I forgot I had the "Personality" switch on, and I had programmed the controller several weeks earlier to be really aggressive when that switch was on. I had the throttle rate at 35%, cuz I didn't know that was a lot.

I decided to romp on the pedal. Surprisingly, the front end lifted immediately, and I found my old Western doing a wheelie, to the point where the rear moulding started scraping. All this was after I had started a turn. I backed slightly off the throttle, and the front came slamming down. The speed was increasing into the turn, and it started going up on the right two wheels. Fortunately, the street is wide, and I had room to turn slightly right to slam it back down on the other wheels.

I pulled over, and a neighbor's kid was clapping. Apparently he couldn't tell I almost crapped my pants. I was fortunate, as it could have been a lot worse.

I had a similar experience yesterday when I dared to stomp the throttle pedal after getting the lithium conversion completed on my 2008 RXV. I didn't have the wheels turned, but the RXV started migrating to the right even though I had it pointed straight down the centerline of the road. My friend yelled to his girlfriend that I just wheelied the golf cart. I was not expecting it to do that. I found that one rear tire was a little lower on air pressure than the other. The accel rate was such that it would not wheelie with the lead acid pack. I had to back it off some more.

[Cartmaster]

This is a problem with the new EZGO lithium carts in the UK. the weight distribution is all wrong now and even at normal buggy speeds, several have been turned over during a turn manouvre. The UK suppliers have now stopped supplying them until the problem has been solved. We were expecting thirty TXT elite vehicles ro be delivered this month but now we will be getting wet batteries instead. Looks like we are having another three years of problems with batteries LOl.
I too in my early days made a few mistakes with carts and my business partner was loading a PDS ezgo onto the back of a truck when his foot slipped, it shot up the ramps and missed the side of the truck, did a wheelie and came off the truck sideways. Luckily he was not hurt, but the guys in the paint shop next door wanted to order one of our "stunt" buggies.