Which Would You Buy?? '06 Precedent (stock) vs Tricked up DS

[rabbitreborn]

Originally Posted by scottyb

I would pass on the club cars and step right up to the Ezgo Hey, he asked!?

NO FAIR! That option wasn't available ....... But I like the way you think lmao

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Well I'm gonna jump right in and shake things up a bit.... No disrespect to any DS owners at all. It's an excellent car but I'd go with the Precedent. I like the way they ride, steer, and handle far better than the DS. Not to mention the fact that they are MUCH easier to work on... Front end repairs... no need to remove the cowl. Motor removal... simply remove access door and pull it out. No need for jacking up the car and crawling under it. Controller, Solenoid, and OBC are all located under the seat. No need to remove any rear seat kit or box bed to access the components. Everything is so much easier to access on the Precedent. However, if the price is similar for the two. I wouldn't hold it against you for buying the DS if all of the customizing has already been completed. But hey, thats part of the fun to me. Doing it myself. Let us know what route you go and we'll all support you either way.

[BigBlockMan]

Originally Posted by TahoeDawgZ71

Well I'm gonna jump right in and shake things up a bit.... No disrespect to any DS owners at all. It's an excellent car but I'd go with the Precedent. I like the way they ride, steer, and handle far better than the DS. Not to mention the fact that they are MUCH easier to work on...

Really? Perhaps you can enlighten me. How do you remove the drive clutch on a gas Precedent? Change the brake cables? Attach a hitch to the total plastic rear of cart? Don't even get me started on all the self tapping sheet metal screws instead of bolts and nuts holding everything together. I'm not trying to start a pissing contest here, I'm just shocked. You would be the first cart tech I have ever heard of that pefered the Precedent over the DS.

I have no experence on elec Precedents I have only worked on gas, But the wimpy front end parts are the same. I assure you I mean no disrespect here, I am just surprised by your response. Tahoe do you work on many Precedents? Tell us more, Maybe I have been to quick to judge.

[essness]

Originally Posted by scottyb

I would pass on the club cars and step right up to the Ezgo Hey, he asked!?

Originally Posted by rabbitreborn

NO FAIR! That option wasn't available ....... But I like the way you think lmao

cough, cough, yamaha, cough, cough

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Originally Posted by BigBlockMan

Really? Perhaps you can enlighten me. How do you remove the drive clutch on a gas Precedent? Change the brake cables? Attach a hitch to the total plastic rear of cart? Don't even get me started on all the self tapping sheet metal screws instead of bolts and nuts holding everything together. I'm not trying to start a pissing contest here, I'm just shocked. You would be the first cart tech I have ever heard of that pefered the Precedent over the DS.

I have no experence on elec Precedents I have only worked on gas, But the wimpy front end parts are the same. I assure you I mean no disrespect here, I am just surprised by your response. Tahoe do you work on many Precedents? Tell us more, Maybe I have been to quick to judge.

I'll be the first to admit you're 100% correct on the gas cars... The drive clutch issue is a joke... It's not that bad though once you know how to do it... Take the bolts out of the spring shackles and the bottom of the rear shocks and jack the body up... You can get right to it. I agree with you though, it's ridiculous, although not so bad once you've got the procedure down. None of the courses in our area have gas cars and we barely ever see any of them. As far as the self tapping bolts go... yeah.. they're extremely easy to work with. I love them. If they break, grind it off and tap a new hole. 2 minutes worth of work. I'm guessing you're mainly referring to the ones that hold down the pedal group. They can be a pain if they're rusty however they're no where near as big of a pain as changing the accel brackets under a DS car when they get worn. Then it's gotta be perfectly re aligned to allow the brakes to lock... a pain. Brake cables... there's a tool for that that lets you change them with ease, Spray WD-40 on the clips and slide the tool over them and they pop right out. All-Sports makes a hitch for the back of a Precedent that works very well. We've used several and never had any issues. It bolts right on. I understand it's plastic, but it's a light duty hitch. However, a Precedent with a factory 4 seater kit has two steel crossbraces under the footrest that tie into the main frame and allows more than enough strength for a pretty beefy hitch to be attached. About the front ends.. let's set up a scenario here... You've got two courses. One with DS cars, and one with Precedents. Both call and say they've got 3 cars with front end damage. 2 of the DS cars have to be brought back to the shop to have the I-Beams straightened with a Porta-Power and the other one is repairable on site, but the cowl has to be completely removed and the shock tower must be replaced. 45 minutes later, you're done. In that amount of time, our other mechanic at the Precedent course could have changed A-Arms on 5 or 6 Precedents. Yes, the A-Arms are wimpy, I give you that... but the reason for that is to keep other, more expensive parts from getting bent, such as Frame beams and shock towers... They absorb the shock of the impact and 9 times out of 10, that's all that's bent. It's extremely easy. Only once in my career have I seen a Precedent hit hard enough to bend the shock tower, and never have I seen a frame beam get bent. As far as percentage goes, yes I work on very many Precedents. Probably 80% Precedent to 20% DS. But I'm very familiar with them as well. I worked on cars quite a few years before the Precedent came out, but when they did my job definitely got a whole lot easier. I also mean no disrespect, just backing up my story.

[BigBlockMan]

Good Deal, Thanks for the education. I guess there is quite a bit of difference between gas and electric. Just cant bring myself to bolt a hitch to plastic. LOL I know its only a cart, What are you going to pull? This from a guy who pulled a 8x10 trailer loaded with 2 stock carts 35 mph behind my 29 HP Kawasaki powered DS.

[scottyb]

Wow what a great bit of info from both of you guys


Poor Scot here sounds like he has something foreign caught in his throat....


None of what I have read makes me want to give up my ezgos

Originally Posted by essness

cough, cough, yamaha, cough, cough

[rabbitreborn]

Yeah, sorry, I'm sticking with Scotty on this one..... About the only fault I can really find in the E-Z-GO is the older carts framework.... Since they shifted to the E-Coat though, the rusting problem isn't nearly as bad.....

[bikinbob]

Gents, this is great stuff. Exactly the kinds of feedback I was looking for.

And Tahoe, thank you. I read about 100 of your posts this morning, well before I threw this thread out there. I was really hoping you'd respond to this one. It's great having people with tremendous experience weighing-in on things I know nothing about. Giving me things to pay attention to.

BBM -- Great stuff too.

I want to be happy when I jump in the cart. Not disappointed, or feeling like I made big compromises. But since I'm pretty set on keeping this at $2700 or less, I'm gonna have to work to find the right answer (with batteries a year old or less).

And yes, I did like seeing the EZ and Yamaha topics come up too.

I've still got very mixed feelings, but maybe some more good rides will help settle things...

I'm lovin the learning.... If you've got more to say, I'll glady take the time to read it, and absorbe it.

The tricked-up DS would come in $500 - $700 cheaper than most of the Precedents I'm looking at. And it already has the rear seat that we need. The DS is about 4 years older, but all the motor, the controller, and the rest of the mods are fresh.

Thanks all,

Bob G

[OLD MEC]

BIKINBOB--Remember that whatever cart you end up choosing be very careful to check on quality and age of batterys. A used cart can have almost anything for batterys and yes QUALITY of batterys is important, PRICE IS NOT. There are such a range from junk to ideal for golf carts? I know I will hear about this but "Trojan" is my pick hands down. Then the issue of age as a battery with anything older than 2 years is just waiting for a $500.00-$900.00 replacement. Quality used batterys if cared for correctly and broken in correctly should last 5-7 years, and if not cared for ( as a used cart could have ) might last 2-3 years? My own Trojans are now 8 years old and still doing a good job of handling the extra weight of my custom bodied cart.