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1967 taylor Dunn Tee Bird golf cart just purchased...Battery advice

TheeBigGuy

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Oct 1, 2019
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Just bought a 36 volt golf cart... Does anyone know how to estimate the battery needs..Big Battery has a 36volt package for $500.. But without buying a battery first how do I equate what I would need for 1 or 2 hrs of drive time.. Ive looked online for specs havent found anything except one guy who says he runs his at 60 volts no modifications and it does 25mph
 
Tough one. That varies by many factors. Starts, hills, etc.

A 48V cart has 150Ah of capacity with T-1275 batteries in it.

48V * 150Ah = 7200Wh - that gets you a typical range of a 48V cart.

I expect the lower weight will enable you to get more for less, but without knowing the hp of the motor and the cruise consumption, it's just a guess.
 
Tough one. That varies by many factors. Starts, hills, etc.

A 48V cart has 150Ah of capacity with T-1275 batteries in it.

48V * 150Ah = 7200Wh - that gets you a typical range of a 48V cart.

I expect the lower weight will enable you to get more for less, but without knowing the hp of the motor and the cruise consumption, it's just a guess.
thanks... being its from 1967 Ive had no luck finding out the motor size....
 
Easiest direct method?
Get a battery monitor with a shunt. I love the victron gear but even a cheap one of amazon would work.
Then drive it and measure the load.

Nerd method:
Break out a physics book and calculate the work done by the thing going up a 25 degree incline. That'll give you a rough estimate of how much power it takes. Account for inefficiency in the system - The old controller probably wastes quite a bit of power.

Rebuilding:
Depending how cool it is, I'd take a look at moving it to a brushless motor. Given the age, does it have a belt drive? Then it'd be very easy to swap out.
 
I googled for 5 seconds and found this:

Seems to be 2.2Hp if that's the same drive unit.
 
I'm going to give this a shot, but I've been known to screw up these numbers as far as power over time ratings.

Being super lazy I used a calculator to get to:
2.2hp for 2 hours == 3.275Kwh. (This is purely Hp to Kwh, so theoretical.)

But I'd start by looking at the standard battery pack...
A typical 36v golf cart is what? a bank of 6, 6volt 240Ah flooded lead acids.
50% depth of discharge makes those effectively 120Ah.
Call that 6v*120ah*6 = 13,824wh or nearly 14Kwh of usable power.

That said, most people don't drive these carts until the battery is dead, this is just the total capacity of a typical cart.

Let's add in some more data eh? I found this when looking up discharge rates on carts and it seems pretty reasonable.

"Another study done by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority evaluated the energy use of electric golf carts per hour. The report indicated a 3.3 kWH for its daily energy consumption, while gas carts consumed much more at 1.13 L or 10 kWh of energy."

So yeah, now factor in that you'll drop weight off this thing by not using lead acid.
If you don't want to build your own pack, sure a 36v, 3kwh pack would be the minimum I'd start with. I think it may run up a bit short, but it depends on your driving habits.

For a diy build? I'd get a dozen lifepo4 cells (and don't forget a 36V lifepo4 BMS)
3.2v*12*100ah = 3.8Kwh
3.2v*12*120ah = 4.6Kwh
3.2v*12*200ah = 7.6Kwh

If you don't mind upping the voltage, I'd consider a 48v pack made up of 16 of whatever size you get.

Those cards appear to be belt drive, I'd look into installing a brushless motor and controller to really have something.
 
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