I’ve got an old 36v Club Car DS(I think), basic solenoid and resistor setup. Thing is FUBAR. I’ve been wanting to get it up and running again for basic stuff like fetching the mail, taking the garbage can up my driveway, and just general roaming around the property.
I have most of the wiring intact but I think a lot of things are fried. I know for a fact the motor works, I jumpered it with a 12v battery to test it.
@Dualfuel do you know of any way to either reconfigure the controls or add a solid state setup like a PWM to the stock motor? I’ve done some shallow browsing and haven’t found much. I’d like to avoid the old coil resistor because it’s rusted bad and we have a lot of tall grass that could catch fire. I’ll take a photo of the info plate for the motor it’s a brushed type.
I’d hate to junk the motor and differential to this thing just because I can’t control it. I know there’s conversion kits that come with new motors but I feel like that’s a waste.
Just make sure you are feeding it 0-5v from the throttle. It sounds like they may have a voltage divider or something in the original pedal already. I would measure to make sure.
Inverter Charger arrived. It’s sold by a company called Cosuper. It’s a hard wired unit and the documentation is actually really good, kind of hard to believe I paid so little for it even used. Got a 3 year Allstate protection plan for it so if it’s a dud I can get my money back.
For the AC Input I used an 8 foot long 12ga wired extension cord from a power strip that gave up the ghost at the switches.
For the AC Output I got some 12-2 Romex and a 4x4 drawn outlet box, as well as a 16 amp inline AC breaker. I wish we actually got around to using these standalone circuit breakers instead of the blade type breaker boxes here in the USA. They’re Code compliant so long as you buy UL listed ones.
I got a 25 foot roll of the Romex, I wonder if I should leave it that long or if I should cut it shorter. Would be nice to have this as a roll around unit and have it tucked away in a corner or by a door we don’t use, and just run the outlet over to the fridges when need be. I got the 12ga instead of 14ga because the surge capacity of this inverter is 6000 watts and it can apparently run over the nominal 2000 watt limit for up to 14 minutes. I may be able to run the well with this unit to fill up tanks, but I can always use the generator for that job.
Cody,
The romex is not going to like being rolled and unrolled more than a few times. The outer insulation is also not “Tough” and will split easy. Save up and obtain a heavy, rubber jacketed cord 12 Gauge or larger, even an old used cord needing two new ends is better than romex for portable applications. I’ve picked up some nice used cords needing ends, but the wire was still in good shape.
Dang! Oh well, I can save it for some inevitable circuit needing to be made or repaired. I’m sure I have a 12ga cable laying around from either an old appliance or an extension cord that suddenly quit working. I can technically just use 14ga but I figure with any length I’ll want to go thicker to keep from having heat loss.
Recently mom got a little generator for her camper and I discovered her old 30 amp cable was damaged, I could cut it at the nick and use whatever is longest. She already has a replacement now.
My main restriction is where the wires go into the inverter. I don’t think I’ll be able to get much bigger than 12ga, maybe 10ga if I twist it tight first.
Update: got the 30a cord in there, it’s 10awg wire and it just barely fit.
The inverter charger works! The charging system is kind of weird, I’ll occasionally see a voltage spike and I don’t know if that’s a fast charging thing or if it’s defective. Will charge at 14v and then spike up to 17v for maybe a second and the actual battery voltage of 13v will show. Claims to be in Fast Charging Mode. I guess I should get a battery monitor with a shunt to really know what’s going on.
Without the control panel you just have a simple LED diagnostic, but the control panel will tell you battery voltage and Inbound/Outbound voltage and watts etc. This thing is friggin heavy so I’m going to make a rolling shelf to mount this and the batteries to. Something as narrow as the batteries and leave room for one final battery to have a 400ah bank. On my other working inverter I was able to keep my fridge and freezer alive for over 15 hours with just 200ah, so I may be able to get over a day with 400ah.
I ended up not getting GFCI outlets, though I probably should have, but I did test to see if the grounds work and they show up fine on my Klein probe. Also I found out this inverter charger has its own resetable breakers for input and output AC voltage so I didn’t add the inline breaker.
Do you have the 10 awg cord going through a clamp, or is it tight in the hole? If there’s no clamp, keep an eye on the insulation at the hole. 10 gauge is great, but you probably have 12 gauge wire feeding your house outlets, and anything else on a 20 amp breaker. A few more feet of 12 gauge probably won’t make a difference. There will be a bit more loss and heat, but the breaker on the inverter should pop before there’s any damage done. You have 6 kilowatts to start your well pump, but the breaker will go long before 14 minutes at anything near 6 kw.
Let me add an “I think” to all that. I lack any official standing in the electric world .
The input and output both have those squeeze collars with rubber grommets right at their terminals, and for the outlet box I got a clamp fitting. Inside that box I have a little slack so the squeeze collars are just holding that spot and nothing gets tugged.
My input is 12ga cord, about 8 feet. (EDIT) I just measured the 10ga and it’s about 24-25 feet long.
You might have tried already but you might be able to stretch a piece of electrical tape over the wire insulation to keep it from folding back, then put some lubricant on it like i use baby powder, then get it to pull through. If you leave it as is, I would tape up around the wires so they don’t flex as much otherwise, they will more easily break in that spot…
I would tape it up so it is supported as well as possible to prevent flexing all in the same spot. it is going to flex where the wire is the weakest and that is where outer cover has been removed.
I wonder if you an find grommet with a single large hole? Or for real excitement, drill it. A short piece of tubing the right size, or an empty cartridge, and a vice might do it, without the thrill.
Well the outer jacket won’t fit in the collar, and the collet is a bit too big to compress down onto that. I can back the collar off and tape it up real stiff, then tighten it back down.
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