Help with Cushman titan 3000 and curtis sepex 1204 controller

[patamygage]

Hello everyone, hoping someone could help me. I picked up a used cushman titan 3000 for a toy around the farm. I got new batteries for it. checked all the cables, etc....when I went to move, it would be barely crawl in forward but would go faster (still slow to me) in reverse. I swapped the FNR wires and no change on speed. I then swapped the field cables on the motor and now I am going much faster in forward but slow in reverse. I have a curtis programmer I rented that I hooked up to the controller. Everything is in order. But....when I drive the amp drawn on the programmer monitor screen only reads about 100 amps. This is a 400 amp controller so only seeing 100 amps leads me to believe I have something wrong with the electric motor. The reverse amp draw is much lower in amp draw. Also, after about 1/2 mile of driving, the motor gets very hot and so do the cables....and a slight smell. I am guessing I need an electric motor rebuild. I have came to this conclusion because the controller limits the amount of current the motor wants so if it is only drawing 100 amps then the motor is struggling. Thoughts on next steps?

[ThreeCW]

Welcome to the forum !

Not a lot of Cushman's on this forum but perhaps someone will chime in that has some experience with this type of heavy duty cart.

A few more details would help to trouble shoot your problems ... year, model, voltage, battery pack voltage when fully charged (stabilized voltage 12 to 24 hrs after charging), gauge of battery cables.

It is pretty typical with an electric cart that the reverse speed is set to about half of the forward speed.

Getting hot after 1/2 a mile is a concern ... what type of road (paved, gravel, pasture, plowed field) ... what type of terrain (flat, hilly, extreme hills) will all affect the amount of heat generated and speed. Perhaps a few more details here too. Is this 1/2 throttle driving or 100% throttle when it gets hot?

You mention sepex drive in your title. Looking up current specs on sepex drive Titans, their maximum speed is 6 - 8 mph with their 23:1 - 28:1 gear ratios. Typical specs on the newer Titan's with Series or Shunt motors is 13 mph maximum speed with a 14.8:1 gear ration.

What maximum speed are you seeing with your cart?

Were you able to determine the controller settings for the maximum amps that the controller will supply to the motor during drive operation? I have attached an example Titan manual (not sure what motor type this is for ... Series, Shunt or Sepex) ... on pages 10 - 14 the maximum amperage to the motor setting ... range is 100 - 400 amps ... desired is 350 amps (as an example). If you could find a similar manual for your cart, perhaps you could determine what your controller should be set for. You mentioned a 100 amp limit ... perhaps your cart has be limited to 100 amps from the previous owner (possibly used in a factory setting where speed was not a requirement).

I hope this gives you a few ideas with your troubleshooting ... and perhaps other BGW members with experience with this type of cart could offer some guidance.

[ThreeCW]

Is the Curtis 1204 not a Series motor controller?

[mjroman20]

This may be of some help.
http://fsip.biz/Documents/1204M%201205M.pdf

100A is pretty normal for just moving around on flat ground unloaded, but were there any fault present?