More on cold winter use of EZGO Marathon 36V Lead-Acids....

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RedRiverRambler

New Member
I posted this on another forum, but was hoping for more specific opinions and experiences with cold-weather, flat terrain farm use.....and will try to keep this short. We live rural in northern Minnesota....winter temps in deep winter topping out many days around 10 degrees F and bottoming at night around -10 to -30 F or lower. So for a few months, often quite ugly. Wife in her 70s feeds a lot of animals with short distances (only few hundred feet at best) between stops and has been using a Deere Gator (gas) to haul hay bales, feed and water buckets, etc. Total distance with use per day is less than one mile with only a few mild inclines and only 10 ft height differential for incline. Problem?: The Gator sucks in cold weather....just plain bad engineering causing no-start or rough running and this is common if you do internet search. Possible solution?: Golf cart with rear bed and lead acid batteries. Although 4X4 would be nice, very rarely would it be needed as the golf cart would only be used on roadways plowed of snow. My own 36V Marathon is something I store for winter in an unheated building with regular charging to keep lead acids topped up. So was considering purchase of a second used EZ-GO/other for wife to use. She does not need cab/heat....just a powered cart to move some bales and feed here and there. It's clear in the temperatures described that the power and range would be heavily reduced, but perhaps still fine for 3 hrs of intermittent use before being put back on charger...? Feeding is typically from 5 pm to 9 pm daily, so almost always in the dark....I would install low-drain LEDs for what little light she needs. This vehicle too would be kept in unheated building between uses and charged daily during these rough cold days. For that reason, I'm inclined to stay with lead acids vs. lithium at this time. Thoughts? Not enough juice in below 0F temperatures to be worthwhile? Any other modifications to consider for such a specialized use?
The higher-end 4X4 UTVs, both gas and electric, are just too spendy at over $15,000.00 when a $3,000 used cart might do the trick. Thanks for your input and insights!
 
Learning all of these new idiosyncrasies.... My cart is a 1990 Marathon. Will it have resistor or series by default based to the year of manufacture? Motor specs are shown. I do not believe it's a regen, but wouldn't know for sure.
 

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RedRiverRambler said:
Learning all of these new idiosyncrasies.... My cart is a 1990 Marathon. Will it have resistor or series by default based to the year of manufacture? Motor specs are shown. I do not believe it's a regen, but wouldn't know for sure.
Click to expand...
Series and resistor are apples and hand grenades, all resistor carts are series carts. Series refers to the motor windings, you then regulate that motor’s speed either with resistor coils or a solid state motor controller. Regen carts all have controllers because that motor type (sepex) needs to be precisely controlled. Resistor carts waste the extra energy as heat when you want to go slow vs. controller which regulates the current, so you will run down the battery way quicker because you are wasting all the extra power in the resistor coils, and the high system amperage can cause failures with prolonged low speed/stop-start operation. When you are already seeing reduced battery capacity from low temperatures getting a golf cart that is wasting up to 90% of that power probably isn’t the best option. As another member said on here recently the way to drive a resistor cart is with your foot flat to the floor, it sounds like that isn’t how you are going to use the golf cart.
 
Got it!....So the choice is between solid-state and resistor coil regulation of speed, yes? Great info, GCW, on amount of energy wasted through the resistor coils as well. And yes, we don't use the cart for speed or for neighborhood cruising. All is slow, rambling, flat-terrain farmyard--summers are 70s - 90s Fahrenheit and winters -20 to +20 range. The cart will definitely have a hauling bed and we've used my own for light duty towing of wagons and sleds. Thanks!
 
RedRiverRambler said:
Learning all of these new idiosyncrasies.... My cart is a 1990 Marathon. Will it have resistor or series by default based to the year of manufacture? Motor specs are shown. I do not believe it's a regen, but wouldn't know for sure.
Click to expand...
right there on the motor tag it says WOUND SERIES
which means the motor was built as a Series motor

1990-1/2 is when EZGO started using series controllers instead of resistor coils in the Marathon
so you might have either one
start at the motor and follow the leads/wires back to the battery compartment
if it has resistors then one of the motor leads will go to large coils of bare stiff wire inside a box or some other vented enclosure as well as several solenoids out side of that box to control them
if it has an electronic controller the motor leads will go to a sealed metal box that is obviously an electronic device and will have only one solenoid

there are 2 basic DC motors for golf carts
Series
or
Sepex/regen/shunt

these terms refer to the way the motor was built
series means the same single supply of voltage and current run through both A1&A2 and then S1&S2 before returning to the source
sepex (separately excited) means there are two separate supplies of voltage and current for A1&A2 and then the second source for F1&F2

google some pics and drawings of the two motor types
it is not critical to know about it but a general understanding will help you understand the conversations you may have here
 
Growing up in Michigan we had block warmers on all of our water cooled tractors and trucks. When the weather was really cold we would stuff a giant dog food bag in front of the radiator so we could have heat in the truck. I can't say i miss those way below freezing mornings.
 
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