'98 CC Villager slows to a stop on hills

[jaymz]

I picked up a '98 Villager (T9815) last week for darn near free. It's been sitting for years, but appears to be bone stock and 99% unmolested. Before I get too far involved with this thing, I wanted to make sure that there aren't any major issues. So here's my question: Why the heck won't this make it up a hill? I'd guess elevation climbs maybe 40'-50' in about 100 yds. Batteries are new and fully charged, BUT - they are 12v batteries wired up for the 48v that this cart is. I have a total of 6 batteries installed, 2 on the left, two in the middle, and two on the right. The left & right side pairs are connected in parallell, then in series to the remaining two in the center. I'm by no means an electrical genius, but this setup (I think), should work as well as a 6-8v setup for the short term testing that I'm doing. It seems fine on fairly flat ground (about 12mph). I don't think it's a battery issue, but correct me if I'm wrong. If not the batteries, what's the next most likely culprit? I'm suspecting F/R contacts worn/dirty, but I'm not sure if that would do it. I've seen a few threads here with the same issue I'm having, but nobody seems to fix the problem, or post about it if they do.

Second question is not a big deal for now, but what the heck, I'll toss it out there. The voltage reducer doesn't seem to be working correctly. It only seems to be reducing by about 2v. If I'm understanding correctly, fuse block gets connected to the full 48v, and the reducer drops it to 12v (or so) on the ground side. Is mine just bad, or I'm I wiring something wrong? Sorry for the long post, just trying to get the details in.