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Old 01-03-2022, 01:34 PM   #1
cclocke
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Default Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

Hi All,

I am fortunate to receive a free 1997 48V Club Car DS from a friend's neighbor and am excited to make some modifications/repairs on it. The cart is going to be used pretty much exclusively for neighborhood and sidewalk driving in Vero Beach, FL, with a round trip distance not exceeding 10-15 miles.

First things first, are there any areas that I should focus on when doing an initial inspection? I did take the cart around my block briefly and the cart appears to drive fine, so at least I know that it somewhat works.

Since I am married with three kids, one of the first upgrades I'd like to make is adding a rear flip seat for extra seating. I have my eye on Steeleng, but if anyone has any recommendations please let me know.

There will also be a decent amount of nighttime driving, so I'd like to add some front and taillights, and possibly turn signals/horn. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Also, the batteries are trojan T-875. I believe the batteries were manufactured in December 2012, since the negative terminals show "2L", so a battery upgrade may also be in my near future. As you may be able to see in the pics, there is some corrosion around a couple of the terminals. I am also considering a new battery charger that'll stop charging once the battery is full, and also a battery meter that will show the current charge level.

Down the road, I'd like to add a lift kit as well as some tires. I was told that the current tires are only two years old, and they appear to be newer trac gard N788s in good shape, so while the cart won't look as cool right now, at least in my eyes this isn't as pressing as the other improvements.

This is the first golf cart I've ever owned, so this will be a new exciting project for me. If anyone can think of some must do steps/mods that I should add to the list, please let me know. Also, if there is any order that I should do the projects in, please let me know, I'm a newbie!

Thanks in advance for any advice, and I'm looking forward to being part of this forum!

Chris
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Old 01-03-2022, 04:20 PM   #2
CP241
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

Sweet score!

I’d start by doing some basic maintenance. Make sure the brakes are adjusted correctly, and check all your cables and connections. One bad connection is all it takes to make a huge degradation in performance.

If you need batteries anyway, I’d give serious consideration to lithium batteries. They’ll last longer and don’t take any maintenance like the lead acid batteries do. I love mine. No watering, no worrying about them. Just charge them when they’re low and otherwise don’t even think about them.

If you replace with lead acid batteries again, sounds like the previous wonder took great care of them if they’re still running at 10 years old. Make sure to check the water levels regularly (once a month or so, depending on how much you use the cart). More often in the summer months. And if you drive it 5 minutes or 5 miles make sure to charge them every night until the charger turns off. (Don’t have to worry about that if you go with lithium).

I’ve done a couple of the modz flip4 seats. They’re cheap, and never seem to have all the hardware with them, but work well and look nice once done. I’ve got a madjax on my DS and it’s reasonably decent as well. Had a sterling on an old cart. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll just pick whichever one I can get the best deal on. They all are basically the same thing. And I generally redo the seat covers anyway with custom ones so I can’t speak for the upholstery material…

When you’re ready for performance upgrades (controller, suspension, etc) give David hicks at revolution golf cars a call. He’s on here as well, great guy to do business with and he is a club car dealer as well.

Also if you do plan cable upgrades, paint, etc I’d recommend doing it before you put the back seat on. It’s much easier to do that stuff with the body off, and you’re 95% there to take the body off when you put on the rear seat anyway. Wouldn’t hurt to pull it and give it a good cleaning even if you don’t do anything back there (yet). But if you do switch to lithium you’ll want to bypass and remove the OBC and run a couple new wires back, much easier without the back seat in the way as well.
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Old 01-03-2022, 05:05 PM   #3
Nicko773
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

You have done well by starting free.! She looks in good shape. If your gonna do the headlights, go with a deluxe LED package. Comes with everything, lights, horn, turn signal etc., and a wiring harness that ties it all in. RHOX makes a good one. Think about a 48v to 12v converter. So you can hook the lights to it and won't drain an isolated battery, it will work off the pack. Warning.... You will get addicted to this hobby. And don't pay for any repairs. There is a big community out here that will help. Very smart people on this forum. I'm a DS guy. I built them from the bare frame up. I'm aluminium tig welder also, and live kind of close to you. Weld carts alot for people. Good luck and keep us updated.
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Old 01-03-2022, 08:46 PM   #4
simicrintz
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

Looks like a great start; congrats!!

My advice is to use the Site Sponsors (David Hicks has already been suggested); welcome to the page!
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Old 01-04-2022, 02:45 PM   #5
cclocke
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

Quote:
Originally Posted by CP241 View Post
Sweet score!

I’d start by doing some basic maintenance. Make sure the brakes are adjusted correctly, and check all your cables and connections. One bad connection is all it takes to make a huge degradation in performance.

If you need batteries anyway, I’d give serious consideration to lithium batteries. They’ll last longer and don’t take any maintenance like the lead acid batteries do. I love mine. No watering, no worrying about them. Just charge them when they’re low and otherwise don’t even think about them.

If you replace with lead acid batteries again, sounds like the previous wonder took great care of them if they’re still running at 10 years old. Make sure to check the water levels regularly (once a month or so, depending on how much you use the cart). More often in the summer months. And if you drive it 5 minutes or 5 miles make sure to charge them every night until the charger turns off. (Don’t have to worry about that if you go with lithium).

I’ve done a couple of the modz flip4 seats. They’re cheap, and never seem to have all the hardware with them, but work well and look nice once done. I’ve got a madjax on my DS and it’s reasonably decent as well. Had a sterling on an old cart. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll just pick whichever one I can get the best deal on. They all are basically the same thing. And I generally redo the seat covers anyway with custom ones so I can’t speak for the upholstery material…

When you’re ready for performance upgrades (controller, suspension, etc) give David hicks at revolution golf cars a call. He’s on here as well, great guy to do business with and he is a club car dealer as well.

Also if you do plan cable upgrades, paint, etc I’d recommend doing it before you put the back seat on. It’s much easier to do that stuff with the body off, and you’re 95% there to take the body off when you put on the rear seat anyway. Wouldn’t hurt to pull it and give it a good cleaning even if you don’t do anything back there (yet). But if you do switch to lithium you’ll want to bypass and remove the OBC and run a couple new wires back, much easier without the back seat in the way as well.
Thanks for all of the advice!

FYI I found some videos on how to adjust the brake nuts and they look to be in good shape, not too loose not too tight.

I also fooled around with the powerdrive charger and I'm a little concerned that there may be some issues with either the batteries, OBC or the charger itself. When I plug the charger into the golf cart, the charger does start and begins at around 15 amps. However, it did not go through a self diagnosis, never stopping and starting like I read it was supposed to. After ten minutes or so the amps trickle down to around 5, and the charger stopped completely after around 2 hours.

One other small item, I've noticed that the battery warning light on the dash has not turned on at all. I didn't see it turn on even when I purposely took the AC plug out of the wall while charging.

My plan is to drive the cart right around my house later to drain the battery to 1) check if the light does go on and 2) see if the battery just needed to be drained more for the charger to do the self-diagnosis test. The battery may have been near full to begin with, which would answer some of the questions. I'm also going to grab a multimeter at Harbor Freight and test each of the batteries.

I like the idea of switching to lithium if it isn't going to be that much more expensive, and isn't too overly difficult to install. I read on another thread that the ecobattery is pretty popular, would that be a good, relatively easy option?
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Old 01-04-2022, 03:28 PM   #6
Bama Brad
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

I am really surprised that those batteries are still going. I take care of mine and can only get about 7 years (tops) out of them. If your charger is going bad, you should go ahead and get lithium for about the same money. It comes with charger, BMS & digital voltmeter, lasts for 10-15 years, no watering or acid, 400#'s lighter. If this is your first electric cart, read over the "Stickies" (Home button in upper left, then "Electric Club CAr"). It will help you with diagnostics, maintainance, etc.-- Good Luck and feel free to ask any questions as you go, There are no "Dumb" questions on this forum, we all are glad to help each other out.
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Old 01-04-2022, 04:53 PM   #7
CP241
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?



I wouldn’t put much thought into the charger or OBC with 10 year old batteries. They need to be replaced, period. There may still be need for OBC depending on what happens when it’s got new batteries but they need to be replaced first to determine what else may be wrong.

Ecobattery seems to get good reviews. I haven’t experienced them personally but many folks have had great luck with them.

I went with the allied batteries in my cart. I think I paid $1800 for allied drop in batteries with charger from one of our site sponsors. I primarily went this route because he is 15 minutes from me . He has them on his website, the 48v batteries are 750 each and the charger is 300. I got 2 of the 48v 30aH drop in batteries. I went with this option just because it’s easy… they drop into the factory locations and bolt down with the factory tie-downs. Hook up the wires and go. I bypassed and removed the OBC while I was in there, whole install took me about an hour. Most of that hour was spent removing the old OBC and trying to work around my back seat… I ended up partially disassembling it. Lessons learned

If the back seat wasn’t in my way, the whole install would have been done in about 15 minutes. I was also able to sell my old batteries, charger, and OBC to recoup some cost. Nothing was wrong with what I removed and the batteries were only a couple years old. I just wanted to switch to lithium and glad I did.
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Old 01-04-2022, 09:25 PM   #8
cclocke
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

Quote:
Originally Posted by CP241 View Post


I wouldn’t put much thought into the charger or OBC with 10 year old batteries. They need to be replaced, period. There may still be need for OBC depending on what happens when it’s got new batteries but they need to be replaced first to determine what else may be wrong.

Ecobattery seems to get good reviews. I haven’t experienced them personally but many folks have had great luck with them.

I went with the allied batteries in my cart. I think I paid $1800 for allied drop in batteries with charger from one of our site sponsors. I primarily went this route because he is 15 minutes from me . He has them on his website, the 48v batteries are 750 each and the charger is 300. I got 2 of the 48v 30aH drop in batteries. I went with this option just because it’s easy… they drop into the factory locations and bolt down with the factory tie-downs. Hook up the wires and go. I bypassed and removed the OBC while I was in there, whole install took me about an hour. Most of that hour was spent removing the old OBC and trying to work around my back seat… I ended up partially disassembling it. Lessons learned

If the back seat wasn’t in my way, the whole install would have been done in about 15 minutes. I was also able to sell my old batteries, charger, and OBC to recoup some cost. Nothing was wrong with what I removed and the batteries were only a couple years old. I just wanted to switch to lithium and glad I did.
Thanks for the advice. I went for a ride this afternoon and on a full charge the red warning light turned on after about 30 minutes.

The good news is is that the red light does work and the charger seems to have self diagnosed correctly this time, so everything is pointing to just old batteries. Replacing them is my first course of action.

I'm still 50/50 on lithium because of dealing with the OBC and just my general concern about working with batteries, but I'll do some due diligence.
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Old 01-04-2022, 10:15 PM   #9
CP241
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

Quote:
Originally Posted by cclocke View Post
Thanks for the advice. I went for a ride this afternoon and on a full charge the red warning light turned on after about 30 minutes.

The good news is is that the red light does work and the charger seems to have self diagnosed correctly this time, so everything is pointing to just old batteries. Replacing them is my first course of action.

I'm still 50/50 on lithium because of dealing with the OBC and just my general concern about working with batteries, but I'll do some due diligence.
There’s enough helpful guys on here that whatever route you choose, you’ll be able to make it happen

Just my .02 from my experiences, I’ve never been a fan of electric carts. I’ve had a lot of carts and 98% of them were gas. Hated the charging and the hassles, but having owned the lithium in my DS for almost a year now, I don’t know that I’d want to go back to a gas cart. If I did it would just be because gas is better in cold and snow, and like to pull the kids on sleds. But for general use and cruising, I have very much come to prefer the lithium electric cart.
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Old 01-05-2022, 09:57 AM   #10
cclocke
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Default Re: Recipient of 1997 48V Club Car DS - Where to begin?

Quote:
Originally Posted by CP241 View Post
There’s enough helpful guys on here that whatever route you choose, you’ll be able to make it happen

Just my .02 from my experiences, I’ve never been a fan of electric carts. I’ve had a lot of carts and 98% of them were gas. Hated the charging and the hassles, but having owned the lithium in my DS for almost a year now, I don’t know that I’d want to go back to a gas cart. If I did it would just be because gas is better in cold and snow, and like to pull the kids on sleds. But for general use and cruising, I have very much come to prefer the lithium electric cart.
Thank you. I looked at the OBC sticky and a couple videos, and maybe I'm missing something but it doesn't look that bad at all. I believe I have a Series cart (RNF under seat), so all I'd need to do is:

1. Remove the black wire running from the charging receptacle to the OBC at the OBC connection and reconnect it to the main battery negative terminal
2. The gray wire running out of the charging receptacle should be cut off and capped.
3. The yellow wire running from the solenoid to the OBC needs to be removed from the OBC and reconnected at the controller B- terminal

I'm going to do some additional research on batteries. I'd like to stay within 2K, so my top options appear to be the Allied and Eco. Now the hard part, running the extra cost by my wife.
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