upgrading battery cables

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rwsasha

New Member
When upgrading the battery cables from stock, is it ok to use #2 cable instead of the #4?? Is there any downside to doing this?? Thanks for the help...
 
Just for clarification. When you say battery cables are you only talking about the jumper cables from battery to battery or including + and - cables to the carts electrical system or others? What cart do you have? Serial # of cart? There could be one "gotcha".
 
Yes, you can use 2ga. There is no real advantage going to 2ga over 4ga unless you are planning some real aggressive power upgrades. The 2ga can be a little difficult to work with as opposed to the 4ga. Be sure to do all the cables including batteries, FNR switch and motor. Should be about 11 to 13 cables in all.
 
If your cart has the OBC, the negative lead from battery #6 to the carts electrical system passes through a hole (current sensing device) in the OBC. I know that if you use #4 cables you must run the wire through the hole prior to installing one connector. If you try to use #2 cable, I don't believe it will pass through the hole. For proper cart operation it must pass through the hole. Others with more experience may want to comment.
 
Hey guys, Sorry i havent been back to check on this topic. I was just outside changing out the wiring and came in to ask another question and i see someone commented on it. The negative wire that goes through the obc, I am pretty sure the #2 wire wont go through that hole. Can i run just #4 on that one and will it hurt or hamper anything?? All of the jumper wires are changed and the positive is changed but thats as far as i have gotten so far. I will wait on more replies. Thanks for the help....
 
I agree with "DOUGMCP" and his statement "There is no real advantage going to 2ga over 4ga unless you are planning some real aggressive power upgrades." However, for "aggressive power upgrades", you will would want all to be 2ga. For the power upgrades that would be that "aggressive" you probably would be bypassing/removing that controller anyway.
By using 4ga for that one cable, it would be a little more "resistive" than the others but you would still benefit with less total resistance of the circuit, than using all 4ga and for sure than keeping all 6ga.


Just as an example:

Assume current draw is 100AMPs continuous.
Assume total battery voltage is 50.0 volts.
Assume the one cable feeding through the OBC is 3' long.
Assume the total cable length, including the 3' cable through the OBC, battery jumpers and others is 15'.

The voltage loss in 3' 2ga cable would be approx. 0.0468 volt
The voltage loss in 3' 4ga cable would be approx. 0.0591 volt

The voltage loss through 15' of 2ga would be approx. 0.234 volt
The voltage loss through 12' of 2ga + 3' of 4ga would be approx. 0.281 volt

The total voltage to the motor with all 2ga would be approx. 49.77 volts
The total voltage to the motor with 12' of 2ga and 3' of 4ga would be approx. would be approx. 49.72 volts.

The delta of 0.05 volts would be NEGLIGABLE.


Please keep us posted on how it goes. We love to see pics of these type upgrades!
 
I have by passed the OBC and left the 6 guage cable through it and used a larger cable end with the 6 guage wire AND THE HEAVIER GUAGE CABLE COMBINED that is ( crimped and soldered ) on one end. That way I have found that trying to connect 2 lugs ( CABLE ENDS ) is not good as it causes too many loose connections later on?
I have seen people try and enlarge the hole through OBC and destroy them? its way too expensive to replace even though some dealers and cable upgrade suppliers are recommending that procedure?
 
Hey, Thanks for that detailed info.The reason for the 2ga over the 4ga is none other than i already had plenty of the 2ga left over from another project. The cart right now is stock with the exception of the program from the dealer.I do plan on upgrading the controller and maybe a motor. I mainly want this for use of a pit vehicle at the track(towing the car,etc) so i want it to be able to do that well but of course i want it to have good speed
wink.gif
Someone also said to run another cable around that current sensor and leave the #6 through it. I also did change the cables to the motor but not the FNR switch. Do i need to do that switch and if so what size wire should i use for that? Any other recommendations would greatly appreciated. Thanks for all of the help.....Willie
 
Hello,

Just a FYI.....

That will work for sure. However, the sensor will not see the total currents flowing through it. If your car in an IQ the information it stores will be inacurrate and some functions of the IQ will be not be based on real data (such as how long since FULL charge, average discharge rates, may cause it to equalize more than necessary [or possibly less], etc.) I am not familiar with the OBC that is not IQ. If you are not using the CC charger designed to work with a CC OBC you don't have some of the cart controlled charging funtions anyway.

L&S
 
Ive used the double cable method on the cable that runs through the OBC many times with no problem at all. The Club Car OBC isnt all that accurate to begin with and as long as a cable is running through the OBC it will work just fine. Some #2 cable will fit through the OBC and #4 fits with no problem.
 
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