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Beginners Guide to Golf Cart Motors
On This Page:
1. Choose a Motor Tool
The "Choose a Motor Tool" is a simple web tool created by D&D Motor Systems to help customers choose the correct golf cart motor for their application. Using our 30+ years of experience in the motor industry, the "Choose a Motor Tool" can pick the right golf cart motor for any customer in less than 2 minutes. Click the button below to use the Choose a Motor Tool and find the best golf cart motor for your cart. Continue reading if you want to learn the basics about golf cart motors.
2. Voltage Explained
Most golf carts run on a 36 volt or 48 volt system (Is my golf cart 36V or 48V?). Voltage affects the total power your cart can provide. Power is converted to torque (towing capacity) and speed (max speed). If you are not looking for max performance, 36 volt systems can provide good performance at a more affordable price. If you are looking for max performance, we recommend 48V. As for motors, most D&D golf cart motors can run at 36 volts and 48 volts.
How do I determine the Voltage of a Golf Car
This is quite simple. Just lift up the seat on your golf cart and count the number of water-fill holes on the batteries. Mutiply that number by 2. That number is the voltage of the golf cart. You can also check the charger for a voltage listing. See Fig. 1.a & 1.b below for examples.
Fig. 1.a
3 water-fill holes = 6 Volt battery ex. Most EZ-GO Carts will have 6 (6 Volt batteries). 6 X 6 Volts = 36 Volts
Fig. 1.b
4 water-fill holes = 8 Volt Battery ex. Most Club Car carts will have 6 (8 Volt batteries) 6 X 8 Volts = 48 Volts
3. Torque vs Speed
Speed is the maximum mph a motor will get a cart to achieve with everything else on the vehicle being stock factory components. If you increase your tire diameter, increase your voltage from 36V to 48V, and/or reduce your gear ratio (Ex: 12:1 to 6:1) then speed will increase.
Torque is amount of pulling power the motor provides. You can easily test this by going up a steep hill and stopping at the steepest location on the hill and then restarting. If you have problems getting up the hill, you need more torque. You achieve this by buying a motor, controller, or changing your gear ratio. What you need depends on your cart design, application, and performance requirements. Click here to see your options
4. Controllers Explained
Golf Cart Controllers send current (amps) from your batteries to your motor. A controller can be thought of as a limiter. The controller determines/limits your golf cart performance. If you put the biggest and best motor in your golf cart, an undersized controller (most stock controllers are undersized) will bottleneck your cart and limit performance.
D&D Motors are rated to run up to 500 amps (at short duty cycle), and stock controllers typically have a limit of 250-300 amps. Without having at least a 400 amp controller, it will be hard to get the full performance a D&D motor offers. Also, you can easily burn up your stock controller because they do not have the thermal capacity to handle a more powerful motor. If your cart requires a Speed and Torque or High Torque motor, we always recommend a controller upgrade.
5. Batteries Explained
Batteries are the power source for your cart and are a very important component for your golf cart. When buying batteries, you need to consider three important things.
Voltage
Voltage is simple. If you have a 36 or 48 volt system, you need batteries that match your cart's voltage. D&D motors and controllers both support 36 and 48 volts, so it's up to the customer to consider performance and cost when choosing batteries.
Max Discharge
Max discharge is the max amps the battery pack can output at any given time. As mentioned above, D&D motors can handle up to 500 amps. This means you need to buy batteries that with a max discharge of 500 amps to match our motor.
Battery Type
Battery Type is the chemistry of your battery. For golf carts, the majority of carts use lead-acid or lithium batteries. We reccomend lead-acid batteries over lithium for a few reasons. Firstly, Lead-Acid is signifcantly cheaper than Lithium ($1500 vs $3000). Second, we have found that Lead-Acid performs just as well as Lithium batteries. Though Lithium batteries are half the weight of Lead-Acid and have a slightly longer lifespan than Lead-Acid batteries, we don't feel like these benefits outweight the benefits of Lead-Acid.
For the above reasons, we recommend customers use Trojan T-785 (8 volt batteries) and Trojan T-105 (6 volt batteries) golf cart batteries.
6. Increasing Voltage from 36V to 48V
By increasing the voltage of the batteries in your cart from 36V to 48V, you will normally increase your cart speed by 4mph. The negative if you have to cough out the dough for the batteries and new battery charger. Therefore, we recommend if your going to do this procedure, wait until you are going to have to buy new batteries anyways. There are a bunch of videos online that show you how to do that. A few of the videos can be found below. Lastly, if your cart is not properly maintained you will lose performance. Use this link to ensure you are staying up to date on key maintenance asks.
7. Specialty Motors
Above we outlined basic information about golf cart motors, but what about motors for specialty applications? If you want a D&D engineer to size a custom motor for you, fill out our Drive Motor Request For Quote form or our Pump Motor Request For Quote. To see some of many markets we serve, go to our Current Motor Range. For more information about DC motors, we have an "Advanced Guide to DC Motors" coming soon.
