This cute little 48v electric golfcart just fell into my lap for free:
It's a Club Car Precident, I dont' know the year, it's 48v, currently with 4 impressively large 12v lead acid batteries which are of course inert. I'm looking at this 48v 100ah LFP battery from Lossigy:
$760 for the battery, 18 amp charger and battery monitor, and the BMS has bluetooth so can be monitored from a phone. They claim their BMS can do 200 amps continuous with a 3 to 5 second peak up to 1000 amps. Sounds optimistic but if it's anywhere close it should be plenty. I'm planning to use it to putter around the flat neighborhood, maybe a little mini golf at best.
I'd like to put a 300 to 400ish watt solar panel on the roof for trickle charging, and I need to use it so infrequently that I'm hoping I'll hardly need to plug it in to charge. I have grid power to plug in if I need it, but it would be fun to figure out how to power this entirely from inexpensive solar. I found this solar charger by Genasun that's marketed for golf carts:
The main advantage is that it boosts the voltage so even a 60 cell panel (30 to 40 volts) can charge a 48v battery via MPPT. And they're waterproof, which isn't super crucial for me since I plan to put the charger under the seat which should be dry. It's a slick charger though, says it can handle a 350 watt solar panel. I'm guessing it can be overpaneled a little to 400 watts, especially since I'm flat mounting the panel (20% loss?) at lattitude 38? Let me know if anyone disagrees.
The golfcart's roof dimensions are 48" wide by 54" long. I'm thinking it's fine for a solar panel to overhang a bit, especially in the rear. I'll soften the edges and corners so they're not dangerous. Anyone know of a compact 400-ish watt solar panel? I know energy densities have been improving, I wonder if there's a small one, especially smaller in the length that I should consider? Most of the panels I'm seeing like this one are in the 78" x 42" range, which would overhang about 2 feet length-wise, or about 1 foot on both the front and back.
Also planning to get a 48v inverter to make the thing a mobile power station. I don't think I need anything particularly fancy, just something in the 3000 watt range, probably pure sine. Any recommendations there by chance?
And anything you'd do differently?
It's a Club Car Precident, I dont' know the year, it's 48v, currently with 4 impressively large 12v lead acid batteries which are of course inert. I'm looking at this 48v 100ah LFP battery from Lossigy:
$760 for the battery, 18 amp charger and battery monitor, and the BMS has bluetooth so can be monitored from a phone. They claim their BMS can do 200 amps continuous with a 3 to 5 second peak up to 1000 amps. Sounds optimistic but if it's anywhere close it should be plenty. I'm planning to use it to putter around the flat neighborhood, maybe a little mini golf at best.
I'd like to put a 300 to 400ish watt solar panel on the roof for trickle charging, and I need to use it so infrequently that I'm hoping I'll hardly need to plug it in to charge. I have grid power to plug in if I need it, but it would be fun to figure out how to power this entirely from inexpensive solar. I found this solar charger by Genasun that's marketed for golf carts:
The main advantage is that it boosts the voltage so even a 60 cell panel (30 to 40 volts) can charge a 48v battery via MPPT. And they're waterproof, which isn't super crucial for me since I plan to put the charger under the seat which should be dry. It's a slick charger though, says it can handle a 350 watt solar panel. I'm guessing it can be overpaneled a little to 400 watts, especially since I'm flat mounting the panel (20% loss?) at lattitude 38? Let me know if anyone disagrees.
The golfcart's roof dimensions are 48" wide by 54" long. I'm thinking it's fine for a solar panel to overhang a bit, especially in the rear. I'll soften the edges and corners so they're not dangerous. Anyone know of a compact 400-ish watt solar panel? I know energy densities have been improving, I wonder if there's a small one, especially smaller in the length that I should consider? Most of the panels I'm seeing like this one are in the 78" x 42" range, which would overhang about 2 feet length-wise, or about 1 foot on both the front and back.
Also planning to get a 48v inverter to make the thing a mobile power station. I don't think I need anything particularly fancy, just something in the 3000 watt range, probably pure sine. Any recommendations there by chance?
And anything you'd do differently?
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