48V motor in 36V cart?

[thetoddjohnson]

I know it is common to do a 36V to 48V conversion and continue to use the 36V motor. I’m curious about doing the opposite. I have a 48V sepex cart that currently doesn’t have any batteries in it. I have access to a 36V bank that I would like to temporarily put into the cart. Obviously it isn’t going to perform well, and it will be slow, but is there any possibility of damaging the motor? (The controller is rated for 36 or 48 volts.) Is there any reason not to do it?

TJ

[thetoddjohnson]

Well, okay then. I'm gonna do it.

TJ

[mrgolf]

I never responded because I'm not sure, but I think you will hurt the motor, I'm thinking it will run hot from not getting enough voltage. I may be complete wrong. If you try it keep an eye on the motor let us know how it works. I'm guessing it will move real slow.

[scottyb]

I bought a cart like this once, guy said honestly - this cart is really slow up any hill. Oh yeah - and the 48v charger killed the 36v batteries in like 6-8 months.

[jakesnake27]

Todd if you do it let us know what happens. I'm curious.

[thetoddjohnson]

Will do.

TJ

[AgentSmithers]

Originally Posted by thetoddjohnson

Will do.

TJ

Hi Tj!
I'm new to golf carts but as for electronics I can speak to some of this.
When an Electric Motor is build the inside magnetic wire has a gauge that it is wound with. The type of wire is rated at a certain amount of OHM's and the gauge of the wire has an impact on the total amount of resistance. So back to basic's 101 Volt pushes AMP created a larger amount of current. For instance if you touch a car Battery with your hands even though the car Battery can push a Total of approx 100-200AMP's that only depends on the resistance of the subject closing the connection. With only 12V to overcome whatever it is only a portion of the AMP's can be pushed/Pull (However you want to think about it). In this case your Body I think I recall being about 1Million OHM's and the 12V cannot push anything through that so the battery isn't going to run any sufficient amount of AMP's through the body. However with a bare wire Electric motor the amount of OHM's/Resistance is much less thus the volts can pick up the AMPS like a foot ball and run with it. There are a million and one ways to think about this concept and I still find it really confusing so I'm sorry if my response is.

Now if you hook up a 48 Volt motor that is built Physically and rated for 48 volts and attach a 36V source it will have issues overcoming the resistance of the wire that is wound in the motor thus giving you less then 3/4's of the power/current due to the voltage being underrated. I find it hard to believe under a full load that it will overhead due to the motor being built for harsher conditions (I.E. 48V)

DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert I can be totally wrong about all of this.

[Golf cart guy]

It will work with no issues, but like you said- it will be slow.

[Lochlin]

I did this very thing with my '04 CC DS a couple of years ago while I waited for some new 48v batts to arrive at my supplier as they were out. The cart was fine. Two disclaimers:

1) I only did this for a couple of weeks.

2) I have a 36v charger and used it rather than a 48v charger.

Yeah, it was sluggish compared to 48v but, to be honest, I was a bit surprised by how much oomph it had. I didn't GPS it but I bet it was going 10-12 mph.