Voltage Boost for a Series Cart

[Golfdog]

I have a faithful 2000 DS 48v Series cart that I upgraded to a reversing contactor fwd/rev from the manual lever. She is a typical series, slow and dependable, and I would like to give her a bit of a boost. Short of upgrading the whole system (excluding the motor)to say 60v or putting in a 36v motor, is it possible to connect a 12v battery via a separate solenoid directly to the motor and when I want the extra I just press a button. Sounds too simple to work.

[jakesnake27]

You can't just add voltage and make a cart faster. You must supply more amperage to the motor with a bigger controller. Also, a high speed motor will get you more speed. But simply throwing a 12v in to make it 60v will just burn up the motor, controller, solenoid, etc

[gornoman]

Install a 36v motor and hold on. It doesn't get any easier than that.

[sportcoupe]

Originally Posted by gornoman

Install a 36v motor and hold on. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Agreed but unless you buy new it's hard to find a used 36v cc motor. Looking for two myself....

[lowvolts]

Originally Posted by Golfdog

I have a faithful 2000 DS 48v Series cart that I upgraded to a reversing contactor fwd/rev from the manual lever. She is a typical series, slow and dependable, and I would like to give her a bit of a boost. Short of upgrading the whole system (excluding the motor)to say 60v or putting in a 36v motor, is it possible to connect a 12v battery via a separate solenoid directly to the motor and when I want the extra I just press a button. Sounds too simple to work.

Sure you could add a like battery and solenoid setup it would defiantly give you more speed. you would need to charge separately, the cost of solenoids and battery are almost the cost of new motor.

[lowvolts]

Originally Posted by lowvolts

Sure you could add a like battery and solenoid setup it would defiantly give you more speed. you would need to charge separately, the cost of solenoids and battery are almost the cost of new motor.

EXAMPLE:
Take out one battery from the pack and what would happen? the cart would go slower!

also I was thinking of adding a battery after the controller unless the controller can handle higher voltage.

[Golfdog]

Originally Posted by jakesnake27

You can't just add voltage and make a cart faster. You must supply more amperage to the motor with a bigger controller. Also, a high speed motor will get you more speed. But simply throwing a 12v in to make it 60v will just burn up the motor, controller, solenoid, etc

I am not sure that I totally agree, to add speed to a Series motor you need to add voltage, amperage will only give you more torque. A 36v series motor runs without problems in a 48v series cart. The major issue is whether introducing the additional voltage after the controller will have any detrimental effect on the controller itself.