Converting Bad Boy from 4WD to 2WD -selectable

[waveslider]

Hey Buggies Gone Wild,

I'm a long time lurker that finally felt the need to post my own thread question.

I have a BadBoy older model XTO. 2011 model year I believe. I bought it used and have been using it with relative success for a couple years.

For those unfamiliar with this model, I think its the EZGO xt based cart that is 48V with 2 of the batteries laying up front in between passengers kind of like a center console.

In truth, it works for us because all we really need is a glorified golf cart and 99% of the time it is used on flat ground going back and forth from our barn and house. The one exception is a short but steep hill that truly seems to require 4wd to navigate which I go up maybe once every couple months.

Based on our usage, the reality is that 4WD is not beneficial most of the time and likely just drains the battery faster and wears out our gravel driveway more.

As a result, I have been toying with the idea of putting some sort of switch or cut-out on the front motor of the buggy that I can turn on/off for the few times I actually need 4WD.

The thinking is that I will see much greater run times since I'm only drawing the batteries down with one motor (rear).

Today I finally started to experiment with this idea and I jacked up the buggy and did some testing to see how that might work. I confirmed that when the power is not on, the wheels connected to the front motor appear to spin freely as opposed to the electric motor staying "engaged" and offering resistance.

I also confirmed that when I removed the positive lead coming into the front motor, that motor didn't energize with the rest of the cart and seemed like I could roll around with it off and not damage anything.

So, the question......

Does anyone see issues or challenges or potential problems with this sort of setup? I would likely just put an interrupt switch on that positive lead and turn it on/off manually when I need 4WD.

Obviously, I'm not an expert so I'm looking for someone to poke holes in the idea. AM I possibly "overloading" the remaining motor? Also should I interrupt both the positive AND negative leads to the motor? Possibly another way to achieve a similar result might be to bring the on/off switch back to the solenoid? Am I possibly putting more stress on other parts of the system (controller, solenoids, cables, etc?)
Is it even reasonable to expect that my run times would increase?

Things like that.



Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have on the idea.

[kcc865]

By chance, How did this turn out?

[VIDEOMAN56]

Is there any update to this topic?

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[jamesrodneybookout]

please up date if you did the conversion

[kempie9901]

This would have been a great one to hear what the experts had to say...

[crash12888]

I know this one is old as dirt but it would cost more energy(battery power) for the rear to push the turned off front drive assembly than to let the front motor pull it own weight.