Electric vs Gas Golf Carts

Could you imagine being at the last hole, putting that last shot when all of a sudden a gas powered golf cart wizzes by, backfires, and leaves a stinky cloud of unburnt fuel? Let's just hope you hadn't swung yet, but even if you did after, the silence has been broken and the focus tainted.

So let's suppose the above scenario contained electric powered golf carts. They're quiet, do not have internal explosions, and leave no stench of pollution. The only surprise may be a cussing at forgetting to charge it the night before the game.

Here are some Gas golf carts: Harley Davidson Cushman E-Z-GO Marketeer Westinghouse Yamaha As well, some of the above stated Gas Golf Cart manufacturers also made Electric models: Cushman Yamaha (Still expanding list).

By design, a gas golf cart requires hundreds of parts to operate, not to mention the transmission and all of its pieces. An electric gold cart has a minimal amount of pieces to drive the wheels. The most that wears out on an electric golf cart is the electric motor brushes, which by design, wear out in DC motors. However in brushless motors, you might get so many miles out of it, that when it finally wears out, you'd just replace the whole motor with a more efficient one.

A transmission is not usually needed in an electric golf cart as at 1 RPM (revolutions per minute) the motor is generting 100% of its torque.

Update: I didn't have time for the cart and sold it. However, I've put the batteries up for sale

Just a few personal notes: I have been messing around with a Cushman electric golf cart, trying to redesign a poorly designed motor mount block rear suspension with independent suspension. There is some work involved with a Cushman suspension as it will fool you in having a triangle like suspension system where the rear framework hooks to the front haf by way of a ball joint. Added stability is required to keep the rear matched to the front. Also, this Cushman is a 36 volt system with resistive coil output that I am eager to beef up to 48 volts using 4 Lifeline comparable to 8D marine batteries yielding 12 volt cell at 255 Ah.