How necessary is a controller upgrade?

[moorend23]

Currently have a 2015 EZGO RXV with backseat upgrade, Jake's Long Travel Lift Kit, 14" Vampire wheels with 23x10x14 All Terrain Tire, head/taillight kit. Stock batteries now showing decent sign of failure (lights dim at full charge with any acceleration, poor acceleration upany grade). Considering upgrading to Lossigy 12v100Ah 48v pack with new charger ($1491). Have stock controller in it and had considered upgrading but wondered if I upgrade the pack to Li is this necessary. 90% of the use is on road, very rare mild off asphalt use to bring feed out to animals. Was hoping to avoid upgrading both but dont want to shred the system if I'm just being cheap. Or is it a better idea to upgrade controlled and stick with (4) 12v lead batteries ($980 without controller). Thanks, pardon my ignorance.

[SouthCo]

U don’t have to upgrade the controller when going lithium. I converted my 2001 club car about 7 years ago to lithium and it’s still running around on the stock controller…


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[SBIRD!]

This is information that I've gleaned from this forum.
The max tire size recommended for the stock RXV Curtis controller is 20" even if it's been reprogrammed. I see a new controller your future.
Navits is cheaper than the Curtis 350amp that would have to be reprogrammed for 23" tires.

[moorend23]

I guess I’m more curious what the downside of sticking with the stock controller until it craps out is? I assume I won’t get full power output but this thing cooked with the tires and lead batteries until recently. I do assume at some point I’ll want to upgrade the controller but is there a negative to just running the stock until it dies and then get a Navitas?

[SBIRD!]

I say run it into the ground. The only downside is not being able to sell the stock controller when you're done with it.

[augiedoggy]

Your more likely to have bms and balance issues with the 12v lithium rv batteries and the likely measly 100amp total continuous output from them than you would a 350amp controller which should be fine unless your pushing it hard loaded down up steep terrain. Even if you bought a new controller I doubt you could turn it up enough with the power restrictions from the batteries to make a difference. and you will constantly have to charge those 12v batteries with a 12v lithium charger individually or one will charge faster than the rest and stop the from fully charging over time. I know its not what you want to hear but its a very likely scenario. you are far better to get a small 48v pack and add a second 48v pack down the road for more capacity.

[moorend23]

Definitely no electrician but just trying to clarify. So Im talking about getting a 4 pack of the 12v100amp 1280Wh with 100A BMS wired in series for a 48v total pack similarly to how my current lead stock batteries are wired. Why would this perform more poorly than my current setup? Im clearly missing something. My understanding is upgrading to lithium would improve performance beyond simply increasing battery lifespan.

[augiedoggy]

Originally Posted by moorend23

Definitely no electrician but just trying to clarify. So Im talking about getting a 4 pack of the 12v100amp 1280Wh with 100A BMS wired in series for a 48v total pack similarly to how my current lead stock batteries are wired. Why would this perform more poorly than my current setup? Im clearly missing something. My understanding is upgrading to lithium would improve performance beyond simply increasing battery lifespan.

So those batteries can only output 100amps... many golf cart packs output more. Your stock batteries did. Your stick controller likely will be looking for more than 100amp and you very likely might be tripping the bms.

Better packs output 175amps continous or more. My cart pack outputs 270 amps continuously. If you have 23inch tires you will want more power not less than stock.
You can only do so much with a bigger controller.. They need more input power to output more power not less.

[TheCartBoy]

The factory ezgo lithium pack can output around 250 amp continuous, so reducing that to 100 amps might be fine on flat ground and mild acceleration, but hill climbs could become tragically slow if not impossible.

[augiedoggy]

Let me put it this way...not sure if your into engines or hot rods but. Performance wise the controller is the closest component to a carburetor on an ICE engine as it regulates the power band and the batteries are like the engine block itself...

What your considering is equal to pulling a 350cu v8 and swapping in say a 165cu 4 cylinder but then asking about going from the 650cfm sized carb the v8 had to an 850cfm sized carb for the smaller engine... see how thats backwards?

the larger 23" tires already are costing you a considerable amount of power to the ground vs the stock sized wheels. they look cool but do absolutely nothing for performance unless its an offroad rig thats had other upgrades like bigger batteries and more reserve to compensate along with a bigger controller, wiring and solenoid.

when you go to a bigger wheel it changes the gear ratio of the rear end and puts more load on the motor which increases the amp draw and reduces your range.