[ajbrown]

I am creating this thread to share my experience fixing up a 2002 Club Car DS. Part of that effort was converting the cart from 6 - 8 volt batteries to 8 - 6 volt batteries. As I find long posts difficult to write and read, I will post a series of posts on the effort when I get some time. I have no ulterior motive for doing this, but to share the experience, I know some folks are interested as I get PMs on the subject. At a minimum I thought sharing the cost, effort and results could be interesting.

Hopefully there will be something of interest for others, or maybe someone had a different experience to share. I am not a professional cart mechanic or a professional writer, so bear with me.

In this thread I can also share my Dad’s project as he is currently converting a 1996 CC DS to hold 8 6 volt batteries. He is making space for the extra two batteries in a different place that I did.

It is fair to say that I knew NOTHING about electric carts when my wife and I bought our home in The Villages in 2007. When we bought our home, I rushed out all excited and got a golf cart. It was going to be electric, but that is all I knew. My Dad had a 2003 Club Car which he had bought new. I found a 2000 Par Car, which I paid $2700. I cut my teeth on this cart learning all kinds of stuff. The things I learned fixing that Par Car could be a thread in itself. Hopefully it is still rolling around in TV somewhere.

The thing that struck my Dad and I was the range difference between my Par Car and his Club Car. I could easily drive from Mallory to Lopez to play golf, come home and then go out to Spanish Springs and home again (35? miles). There seemed to be plenty of juice left in my pack. From Chatham my Dad could come down and play Havana, then return home (28? miles). As his pack aged, his yellow light would come on as he drove up the Chatham hill. To be clear, at that time I had NO idea about battery packs, i.e., amp hour ratings, state of charge, amount to safely discharge pack, etc. I had no idea there were web sites that all people did was talk about golf carts, who would have thought?

What my Dad and I learned from that Par Car was that having 8 6 volt batteries gives you better range than a cart with 6 8 volt batteries. We also learned that as a DIY it is harder to get parts for a Par Car if you wish to fix one up. Columbia has pretty tight control over replacement parts. We decided that “someday” we would love to try and stuff 8 6 volt batteries into a Club Car.

More to some as I get time….