Golf Cart Anarchy:

[LionessRacing]

Starting to think about adding a 6 passenger golf Cart to the fleet, to avoid running a diesel or older ICE engine a half mile at a time.

We'd use it for running wet bodies between house and pool at clubhouse, and other local/neighborhood transportation. In SC they are legal on low speed roads if properly equipped and licensed within a few miles of the neighborhood.

Utility transport around the yard in lieu of a wheelbarrow is a bonus, for bags of mulch, or stacks of pavers.

Farther future might want to have small trailered (< 1000 lb)  dinghy behind it, if torque and traction would allow it to navigate a gentle boat ramp.

Key Questions:

• Battery vs Gasoline
  
  
  AC vs DC drive ?
  
• Lithium vs Flooded Lead Acid ?
  

[*]Lifted suspension & oversize tires for occasional trails?

[*]ClubCar vs EZGO vs Yamaha vs other?

[*]Particular features/accessories that should be built into it?

 

[Mrleft8]

My ancient (probably late 80s) Club car 48VDC was spectacular, until last year when the neighbor kids were helping me do a fall clean up, and decided that it was a dune buggy, and cracked two of the batteries.  I would suggest not getting a lift kit/trail tires. They are not dune buggies, or side by side ATVs.

The batteries are very expensive. That's why mine is still waiting for new ones.

 

[Willin']

I found it's wise to always have a sailing rig in case you run out of gas and carry an anchor to throw out when you get becalmed.

I liked the Yamaha because where we lived pretty much any mechanic could work on it, not so much the Club Cars and EZ Gos, both of which were also much more expensive.

 

[warbird]

My brother has bought 2 over the years.  Both gas powered 2 seaters.  He uses it as a utility vehicle on his small farm.  He has a 10-15 acre fiels with trees,  trails, a pistol range, all along a slow flowing river.  There are a couple of steep gravel driveways from house down to barns and barns down to river bend.  No steeper than what might be found on a golf course I imagine.  A local golf course lines up the older models along the road and that is where he got his first at an attractive price then traded in for the next.

 

[Poodle56]

This may or may not be of use to you, but I can highly recommend it as one option for a research!  :lol:

 

[Grande Mastere Dreade]

 

[Grande Mastere Dreade]

why not bite the bullet and get something real

 

[Marcjsmith]

6 pax cart,  would net you much in the hauling yard waste around since you are loosing some of the storage area to passenger seating.

a slight lift would accommodate street tires/wheels which would wear much better than golfcart turf tires.  gas all the way.  when a battery gets tired or half used  its slows down.  a gasser runs fast until it out of fuel.  and when you need you just dump more go juice in it.  adding electrons to a battery takes time, and easy to forget to plug in. 

pops lives in the villages in FL,  and he put about 6-8K miles on a cart each year.  loves the new yamahas that are not any nosier than a battery cart. 

also  if you want on a gasser.  you can tweak the governor  to get a few extra MPH

At work we use EZgo pretty much exclusively mix of gas and electric

 but club car is trying to get a foot in the door in..., we also have a  Few GEM electric vehicles set up a utility vehicles.  cabs flat bets ladder racks, etc.  some of the newer electric carts  have regen ...

new plan on spending upwards of 15K for a base model 6 pax

 

[Zonker]

new plan on spending upwards of 15K for a base model 6 pax

Well that's crazy. That's decent ICE car territory. Get a used hybrid and maybe you can keep it in electric mode because you go slowly.

OR....

https://jalopnik.com/heres-what-the-worlds-cheapest-electric-car-is-like-to-1843904305

Only 4 pax but much cheaper than a golf cart. And you don't get wet if it rains. ~$3000 delivered

 

[tommays]

The places I see people push the rules to drive golf carts in South Carolina is CRAZY crossing 6 lane 17 in Traffic 

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

I have a 21 year old 48 volt Club Car that I bought used 11 years ago. It had been a marina work vehicle, so had a pretty hard life. It's lifted, with the big tires.

It used to have a cowdog.

I've bought it a couple of sets of batteries over the years and replaced the tires, but that's about it. Runs every day, on the charger every night. I had a Kawasaki Mule previously and really like the quiet of the electric cart.

Sold the Mule to Florida Man, who hauled it away like this:

Getting the back tires to bounce over the pickup's wheel wells without continuing through the cab was quite a trick.

 

[robalex117]

Highly recomend it.  Have had one for a few years now.  Ditched the lead acid when they died and put in lithion ion.  Oringally I got two drop ins but they could not handle the peak load so I got one of this to add to the mix.  https://www.amazon.com/HAILONG-Battery-Electric-Bicycle-48V/dp/B093T2P2W7/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=48v+lithium+battery+20ah&qid=1625605983&sr=8-4

Not exact model but close.   I have never really clocked it but think I can go about 10 miles which is plenty for me.  But if you need more range  there is lots of space when you get rid of the lead acid.  

Only issue now is when I go to leave the club the auto gate no longer works since I removed so much weight from the cart.  

Great not to have to worry about keeping the batteries always charged.    Only issue is then you need a 48v to 12v power supply to run the lights. But again not a big deal.    I also put in a receiver and had extra heavy angle brackets installed to handle it.  Love towing around little trailers.



Kind of a rats nest.  But show the batteries.  One nice thing about the drop ins is they have a lcd screen that shows charge level.  But the blue battery back is about 1/2 the size of the dropins.  If I had to do it all over again I would go for batteries like the blue pack.  The charger is tiny and is there shown far right in the picture.  Not sure how many amps but not much  bigger then an old latop charger.  Easily charges overnight.

 

[Dorado]

I don't know about the need to have bigger tires and a lift. When I think of all the abuse and brutality inflicted on those poor little carts by myself and other beer-soaked golfers, I hang my head in shame.

But they always got us back to the bar !

 

[Ventucky Red]

They are the rage at the local beach communities.  Funny, saw a guy getting a field sobriety test with one of these over the weekend.... guess you can get a DUI with one.

 

[Willin']

Probably not helpful to your original inquiry but another recco that might add some usability to your ultimate purchase. If you have a local tentmaker, this type of removeable, zipable curtain makes the golfcart a 4 season utility tool.

Very toasty on those cold, damp winter night movie dates!

 

[Bump-n-Grind]

here's your gasser!

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

I don't know about the need to have bigger tires and a lift. When I think of all the abuse and brutality inflicted on those poor little carts by myself and other beer-soaked golfers, I hang my head in shame.

But they always got us back to the bar !

I've occasionally run out of ground clearance and wished for a higher lift kit and bigger tires.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

What?  "the golf cart of death" needs ground clearance?

It has enough to run over a single body but when they pile up, yes.

 

[robalex117]

What?  "the golf cart of death" needs ground clearance?

Glad to know.  I have a lift and bigger tires and wonder if it was necessary.  Wish I took a picture but just yesterday I used the cart to tie a corner of a sail when I was drying it out.  They are very handy.  Also have a wagon that I pull around from time to time when have passengers and want to bring a large cooler down.  As an added benefit some of our docks at our club have wide ramps so when doing any big gear loading on boats you can load up and drive right down to the side of the boat.