Awesome video, when people realize EV’s are the same thing it’s gonna be game on! Love that you have your kid in working with you, kids need more dads in their lives, crazy the comments from random people.
Nice to see you two working on a project together, nice to see a kid eating a golf cart too, likely healthy than what most people are feeding their kids these days! I've been on the hunt for a cart to do this with, you can jump up from a 36V to a 48V without any issues?
The BMS and cells used are going to dictate whether or not this thing works well. The 200A (continuous?) BMS is a good sign but you should really crack that case open and see whats inside. Most cells have a QR code you can scan with a code with an app online to tell you what they are. Some 100Ah cells can support 2C continuous....not many can do 3C continuous and very few can do 5C. The hot shit on the market right now is the 74Ah LEV60F cells since they can support 400A easily and possibly 600A if you match up a good set of low IR cells.
10kW of power and 5kWh of storage. That is quite a lot of capability for a golf cart. A single battery is fine but you can also boost the power by putting two or more 48V batteries in parallel. Still, I think you made a good choice with the battery. There are no golf-cart-specific lithium batteries... its just marketing noise, but you already figured out that the only thing that really matters with respect to the golf cart is the BMS's surge capability. 2 AWG is a good choice for 48V @ 100A nominal and 200A surge. the losses will be very low. Of course, the resistor coil wastes an enormous amount of power (unfortunately), but there isn't a whole lot you can do about that without replacing a lot more motor-related parts. Note that if you have a voltage-based battery state-of-charge indicator, that won't work with LiFePO4. The discharge curve is very flat so you basically have to count amp-hours dispensed. Also, you said LIPO in your description but that's actually LiFePO4 (LFP). And in fact LiFePO4 is exactly what you want here. That battery will last forever.... 3000 cycles @ 80% depth-of-discharge will take it down to 80% of original capacity. You won't notice any degradation for years. Plus, LFP chemistry batteries basically don't fail... the capacity just goes down slowly over many years. The rest of the golf cart is gonna fall apart before the battery does. (The battery's BMS will fail before its cells do).
Replace those resistor coils with a PWM motor control... Those resistors just waste precious electrical power, and complicate the electrical system. The high power wires are minimized with a PWM controller, and no contractors/switches needed for the high power wires, other then the safety switch/cutoff contactor. The motor controller just takes a signal from the accelerator petal, using simple wiring. You will get much better motor control, and better battery utilization. Edit: you mentioned towards the end about adding a motor controller 👍👍
Nice upgrade! But add a fuse to that battery. Unless that battery is internally current limited, if something fails/wire chafes through, you could have a very bad day. Wires can become so hot, they glow orange, and incinerate stuff near by. Fiberglass when it gets burning is notoriously flammable. There are relatively low cost terminal fuses ment to put on batteries. These are very simple to install. Optionally, a type T fuse mounted close to the battery, where a damaged wire can't harm anything, and the wire is double insulated (eg wire loom sheathing added). Some industries recommend the fuse be within 7" of the terminal, but common sense engineering principles apply here.
Thank you. I just tried to find it and looks like I bought the last one the others are on back order so it won’t pop the link up. But I bought it on Amazon.
Hey, great video man! Thanks! My club car is a little newer so I don't have the springs and all, but I was wondering how you handled reducing 48v down to 12v for lights and such? I'm getting ready to instal mine this weekend.
Did you mount the charger onboard? Im looking at this setup for a DS. Just wondering if the charger works properly as an onboard. The manufacturer has little info on if it is weatherproof and if it is designed to be permanently connected to the battery, even during use.
@tdchotrods9889 that's great. Thanks for responding. I wasn't clear from the manufacturer if that charger is weather proof. Or if it would function properly while.being permanently connected. Thanks for the info.
Wouldn’t this overload the resister? They are designed for 36v this has me interested to see because I really want to upgrade but don’t want to go buy the navitas conversion kit. Trying to go a cheaper route to go faster
Technically yes but i have l been using it every day many times a day since i did the swap and it's been great. the coils don't seam to seem much hotter than on 36v i did upgrade the solenoid to a 400amp and the carts been great.
Eather me my wife or my son drive it every single day and we love it. we love the power the speed and low long the battery lasts. we drive it all around town not just in are yard. everything is still stock except the Relay i put a heavy duty 400amp relay in it.
@@tdchotrods9889 Its a bit tough given the small roof area and the higher battery voltage. I recommend going with a "boost" charge controller in this situation. So: * "PowMR Boost Solar Charge Controller" ($35). * Either 2 x 75W solar panels OR 1 x 200W solar panel. Whichever fits the roof best. 2 x 75W in series ($81ea x 2 = $162). Newpoa mono 75W panel (x2). OR 1 x 200W ... Newpoa 9BB 200W 24V panel ($221). (NOTE: A single 200W panel has to have a VOC and Voperating voltage above 24V to work). -- I think the best bang for the buck will be if you use 2 x 75W panels, but check the dimensions to make sure that you can fit that on the roof. The total cost would be around $200 ($81 ea x 2 for the panels, and $35 for the PowMr boost controller). Plus misc 12 AWG wiring. The PowMR has a fairly tight voltage range to support your battery... the input voltage must be 25V to 48V. 2 x 75W panels fits the bill just about perfectly. Quite a few solar panel combinations won't work here. You have to make sure that the total solar voltage is 25V to 48V (both the open-circuit total voltage, and the operating total voltage must be in that range). There are other options... such as going with 4 x 50W panels to develop a SolarVoltage > BatteryVoltage+5V, and using a standard Buck charge controller like a Victron 100/20. But I think they wind up being more expensive and won't fit the roof well. -Matt
Somebody doesn't understand how electricity and wire size works, The higher the voltage the smaller the cabling you need, The only reason you would need to upgrade the wire to a larger gauge, would be if you were dropping the voltage. Lower voltage is generate more heat for the same workload, higher voltage is run cooler.
Since he didn't change the motor, it is still designed for 36 volts. Give it 48 volts (and that lithium "48" is actually 52 volts or more) and it will draw more current than it ever did from the 36 volt lead acid battery bank. Give or take 1.33 times the current. So yes, the existing wires and speed regulating resistors are going to get hotter, and it's not a bad idea to put in some heavier wires.
Sorry that you have to deal with the negative comments about your kid. He is just being a kid! Love your vids keep it up!🎉
Kids need parenting and direction. Its not that hard.
@@Getitstraightyo ITS A KID, LET HIM BE
thank you
@@Getitstraightyo OH he definitely has parenting and direction. that's why he is an amazing kid
Awesome video, when people realize EV’s are the same thing it’s gonna be game on! Love that you have your kid in working with you, kids need more dads in their lives, crazy the comments from random people.
Thank you
Great video, I’ve wanted to upgrade my 91 club car to a lithium battery for a while now, but had many concerns. You covered all my questions. Thanks!
awesome I'm glad I could help
Nice to see you two working on a project together, nice to see a kid eating a golf cart too, likely healthy than what most people are feeding their kids these days! I've been on the hunt for a cart to do this with, you can jump up from a 36V to a 48V without any issues?
Thank you
I was able to on mine it is a resistor style cart.
and some of the controller style cart are 36 -48 volts it should say on the controller
The BMS and cells used are going to dictate whether or not this thing works well. The 200A (continuous?) BMS is a good sign but you should really crack that case open and see whats inside. Most cells have a QR code you can scan with a code with an app online to tell you what they are. Some 100Ah cells can support 2C continuous....not many can do 3C continuous and very few can do 5C.
The hot shit on the market right now is the 74Ah LEV60F cells since they can support 400A easily and possibly 600A if you match up a good set of low IR cells.
10kW of power and 5kWh of storage. That is quite a lot of capability for a golf cart. A single battery is fine but you can also boost the power by putting two or more 48V batteries in parallel. Still, I think you made a good choice with the battery. There are no golf-cart-specific lithium batteries... its just marketing noise, but you already figured out that the only thing that really matters with respect to the golf cart is the BMS's surge capability.
2 AWG is a good choice for 48V @ 100A nominal and 200A surge. the losses will be very low. Of course, the resistor coil wastes an enormous amount of power (unfortunately), but there isn't a whole lot you can do about that without replacing a lot more motor-related parts.
Note that if you have a voltage-based battery state-of-charge indicator, that won't work with LiFePO4. The discharge curve is very flat so you basically have to count amp-hours dispensed.
Also, you said LIPO in your description but that's actually LiFePO4 (LFP). And in fact LiFePO4 is exactly what you want here. That battery will last forever.... 3000 cycles @ 80% depth-of-discharge will take it down to 80% of original capacity. You won't notice any degradation for years. Plus, LFP chemistry batteries basically don't fail... the capacity just goes down slowly over many years. The rest of the golf cart is gonna fall apart before the battery does. (The battery's BMS will fail before its cells do).
thanks for the comment that was some very awesome info! I appreciate it
Replace those resistor coils with a PWM motor control...
Those resistors just waste precious electrical power, and complicate the electrical system.
The high power wires are minimized with a PWM controller, and no contractors/switches needed for the high power wires, other then the safety switch/cutoff contactor.
The motor controller just takes a signal from the accelerator petal, using simple wiring.
You will get much better motor control, and better battery utilization.
Edit: you mentioned towards the end about adding a motor controller 👍👍
Yup that will be a project for a later date. Thank you.
Nice upgrade!
But add a fuse to that battery.
Unless that battery is internally current limited, if something fails/wire chafes through, you could have a very bad day.
Wires can become so hot, they glow orange, and incinerate stuff near by. Fiberglass when it gets burning is notoriously flammable.
There are relatively low cost terminal fuses ment to put on batteries. These are very simple to install.
Optionally, a type T fuse mounted close to the battery, where a damaged wire can't harm anything, and the wire is double insulated (eg wire loom sheathing added). Some industries recommend the fuse be within 7" of the terminal, but common sense engineering principles apply here.
Will two batteries in parallel give you 400 amps surge? That would be nice
I love this and may use one in an old homade electric four wheeler
Heck yea
How is the battery working? Thinking about ordering that battery, what do you think?
Personally i love it it's been an awesome upgrade
Good video trev
This looks great. Can you share a link to the battery and charger setup that you used?
Thank you. I just tried to find it and looks like I bought the last one the others are on back order so it won’t pop the link up. But I bought it on Amazon.
Hey, great video man! Thanks! My club car is a little newer so I don't have the springs and all, but I was wondering how you handled reducing 48v down to 12v for lights and such? I'm getting ready to instal mine this weekend.
Just need an 48v to 12 reducer, I picked one from Ebay for $16 dollars.
@@kurtschubler5972 Thanks, that worked for me!
amazon sells a reducer just for doing that. i believe you can just search golf car 12v power converter
The original 36v motor? It handled the 48v no problem?
Yep i drive it every day and its still going strong
Did you mount the charger onboard? Im looking at this setup for a DS. Just wondering if the charger works properly as an onboard. The manufacturer has little info on if it is weatherproof and if it is designed to be permanently connected to the battery, even during use.
yep i did mount it on board and works great. make for a clean set up and easy for my wife and sone to charge
@tdchotrods9889 that's great. Thanks for responding. I wasn't clear from the manufacturer if that charger is weather proof. Or if it would function properly while.being permanently connected. Thanks for the info.
@@customerservice2478 no problem
How has the cart held up with the 48v battery on the 36v system? Wanting to do something similar my '98 Club Car
The cart has held up great. we dive it every day and love the battery upgrade
I'm planning to do the same to mine as well can do you a video of a review for the time frame you've had yours installed
You put the battery brand backwards in the description.
oops yep I did I will fix that thank you
Wouldn’t this overload the resister?
They are designed for 36v this has me interested to see because I really want to upgrade but don’t want to go buy the navitas conversion kit. Trying to go a cheaper route to go faster
Technically yes but i have l been using it every day many times a day since i did the swap and it's been great. the coils don't seam to seem much hotter than on 36v i did upgrade the solenoid to a 400amp and the carts been great.
Do you have an update? I just started tonight on tear down for the conversion from 36v lead to 48v lithium.
Eather me my wife or my son drive it every single day and we love it. we love the power the speed and low long the battery lasts. we drive it all around town not just in are yard.
everything is still stock except the Relay i put a heavy duty 400amp relay in it.
Any plan to put a solar panel on the roof to keep it charged up?
Yep I sure do.
@@tdchotrods9889 Its a bit tough given the small roof area and the higher battery voltage. I recommend going with a "boost" charge controller in this situation. So:
* "PowMR Boost Solar Charge Controller" ($35).
* Either 2 x 75W solar panels OR 1 x 200W solar panel. Whichever fits the roof best.
2 x 75W in series ($81ea x 2 = $162). Newpoa mono 75W panel (x2).
OR 1 x 200W ... Newpoa 9BB 200W 24V panel ($221). (NOTE: A single 200W panel has to have a VOC and Voperating voltage above 24V to work).
--
I think the best bang for the buck will be if you use 2 x 75W panels, but check the dimensions to make sure that you can fit that on the roof. The total cost would be around $200 ($81 ea x 2 for the panels, and $35 for the PowMr boost controller). Plus misc 12 AWG wiring.
The PowMR has a fairly tight voltage range to support your battery... the input voltage must be 25V to 48V. 2 x 75W panels fits the bill just about perfectly.
Quite a few solar panel combinations won't work here. You have to make sure that the total solar voltage is 25V to 48V (both the open-circuit total voltage, and the operating total voltage must be in that range).
There are other options... such as going with 4 x 50W panels to develop a SolarVoltage > BatteryVoltage+5V, and using a standard Buck charge controller like a Victron 100/20. But I think they wind up being more expensive and won't fit the roof well.
-Matt
@@junkerzn7312 awesome info thank you!
Shhh the adults are talking…
You are going to damage the controller as it is 36-volts. Saving a hundred dollars now is going to cost a lot of money in the future.
Nice upgrade. I would love to see an update sometime down the road. I don't like the idea of kids around when working with voltages over 50v.
will do
Need to get a solar panel up on the roof and charge all day long during the day.
yep, that's the plan
Cheap ? How much ?
1200 with charger
1200 might be cheap to you ,but not to me.Thank you for the reply
@@randolphsnyder1505 i was saying its cheap for a lithium battery of its size.
. Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste
🙏🏻 😊 ✌ ☮ ❤ 🕊
Somebody doesn't understand how electricity and wire size works, The higher the voltage the smaller the cabling you need, The only reason you would need to upgrade the wire to a larger gauge, would be if you were dropping the voltage.
Lower voltage is generate more heat for the same workload, higher voltage is run cooler.
Thank you
Since he didn't change the motor, it is still designed for 36 volts. Give it 48 volts (and that lithium "48" is actually 52 volts or more) and it will draw more current than it ever did from the 36 volt lead acid battery bank. Give or take 1.33 times the current. So yes, the existing wires and speed regulating resistors are going to get hotter, and it's not a bad idea to put in some heavier wires.
Leave the kid with mommy…
🤣🤣🤣
Kid is very poorly behaved. Distracts from the video. Parent him brother, boundaries are a good thing.
🤣🤣🤣 he is the opposite of poorly behaved. he is just Being a kid that's trying to act funny Infront of a camera.
@@tdchotrods9889 You'll remember this when his teachers are saying the same thing.
Why you think it's ok to give someone parenting advice on a video you chose to watch. Don't think he asked for your opinion. @@Getitstraightyo
@@tdchotrods9889great video keep doing your thing, kids are only kids for a bit! Enjoy them thanks for the video
@@dreamintree41 He is the one who posted a public video. Being a good parent isnt that hard.
If you want people to take you seriously, film without the kid.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 thats not going to happen
Love to see a real father taking time with their kid
@@nwokenkefner9613 thanks