Thinking of an upgrade, suggestions?

[tankdogg60]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

Sounds like you upgraded all 10 of the high current cables to 2Ga and you're using a 200A solenoid, so there shouldn't be any bottlenecks in the Amp delivery system.

The tell-tale sign of a bottleneck is heat, but some components warm up during normal operation and the motor can get hot. After a hard workout, the 2Ga cables may warm up to about 10°F above the ambient air temperature, but all 10 should feel about the same. The two heavy cables going to A1 & A2 on the motor might be slightly cooler since they carry the least amount of current. The solenoid gets warmer, but that is due to the current flow through the coil rather than the high current flowing through the contacts. The MOSFETs in the controller drop about 0.1V per 100A of current flow through them, so the controller warms up a bit more than the solenoid, but 110°F is the highest I've ever recorded on mine. On the other hand, the motor converts Amps into either motion or heat and it can (and does) get mighty hot. Hot enough to boil water!!!!

The max allowable temperature for the Class-H wiring in the motor is 356°F, but we don't typically have the ability to measure the temperature of the wiring itself, so we measure the case temperature and the max case temperature is 239°F. Hard acceleration, climbing steep inclines and creeping along at walking speed or less, is when the motor generate the most heat.

EV Drives' comment about the controller and climbing hills is essentially correct, buy only if both the Max Output Current and Top Speed sliders are set to 100%. Also, it has to have the correct Filed Map installed. The controller does not push Amps through the motor. Instead, it limits the number of Amps the motor is allowed to draw. What actually determines how many Amps are drawn by the motor is the motor's RPM and the mechanical workload being imposed on the motor.

When your cart is cruising on level ground at 25MPH, the motor is spinning at about 5200RPM and drawing somewhere in the 50A to 70A range. When you start climbing a hill, the mechanical workload increase and the motor slows until it reaches an RPM that allows it to draw the Amps needed to generate the torque needed. The max Amps your controller will allow the motor to draw is 400A, but the motor has to be loaded down to a very low RPM before it is capable of drawing that many Amps.

Bottom line is that your battery pack cannot produce the Amps needed or the motor cannot produce the torque needed at the RPM needed to climb the hill at an acceptable speed.

Connect a DVM to the battery pack and monitor the voltage while climbing a hill. It is going to drop, but it should stay above 1.75VPC (Volts per Cell) which is 31.5V for a 36V pack.

Also, measure the pack voltage and the individual battery voltages about 12 hours after the charger shuts off automatically.
The pack voltage should be 38.2V, each battery should be 6.37V and should be no more than 0.1V from the others.

This is excellent information, I really appreciate all of your time and help. I'm going to test the voltage on all of these components and get back with you the results. I will try and find a network cable also and see what the settings are on my controller. I will post the results as soon as I do and hopefully figure out what I can do to solve this issue. Again I really appreciate your help!