How Can I Make My Golf Cart Faster?
Golf carts are excellent vehicles to travel across the golf course rather than walking. They speed up getting from each hole so that you can enjoy more of your day golfing rather than traveling across the courses.
However, while a golf cart seems beneficial in practice, a common misconception is that they travel faster than they actually do. In fact, golf carts are quite slow – and for good reason, too.
Plenty of golfers are walking on the course, so having a quick golf cart can increase the danger of accidents happening. You need to be careful on the course and wary that you’re not the only people traveling around it.
Today we’ll be looking at five ways that you can make your golf course faster and more powerful so that you can get to your next hole quicker.
The Typical Golf Cart
Most modern golf carts don’t push much higher than 15 miles an hour. While this is much faster than walking along the green, some people want to push the limits even further and increase this to 20 miles an hour, or even more.
But how can you do this, and how much does it cost? Will you need to employ the help of a professional or can you do it yourself? Let’s find out.
Method One: Adding More Torque
The torque of your golf cart is its pulling power from the motor, otherwise known as a function of current. The higher amount of current the motor uses, the more torque you’ll experience.
How do you add more torque to your golf cart? You’ll need to amp up the Rotations Per Minute (RPM). You can either do this by replacing the motor with one that boasts a higher rated RPM, which will offer more voltage and therefore speed.
Alternatively, you can add more voltage to your current motor. This is the cheaper alternative as you won’t have to purchase another motor altogether. Adding more voltage to your current motor provides it with a more impressive top-end speed.
To avoid the additional power deteriorating the rest of your golf cart mechanisms, you should upgrade every part to ensure that the power and torque of the cart are even throughout the entire vehicle.
If you’re not prepared to upgrade everything to make this happen, this method might not be the one for you.
Method Two: Use Better Tires
Upgrading your tires is one of the cheaper ways to make your golf cart run faster, and you can do this yourself within minutes. All you need to do is install tires with a larger diameter onto the cart, which will allow the top speed to be increased.
Most golf carts come with standardized 8-inch tires, but you can increase them to 20 to 24-inch tires! Without any other modifications, this can add an extra 2 to 4 miles an hour onto the top speed of your golf cart.
Remember to always have your tires properly inflated, as this can also reduce the speed of your golf cart. Don’t have them too empty, but don’t overfill either.
Method Three: Update the Motor
Some golf cart motors are simply outdated. Series Wound DC Torque Motors contain a large field coil within them which allows a larger magnetic field and therefore creates more torque. This is a good option if you’re wanting to increase the torque rather than the speed of your cart.
On the other hand, a Series Wound DC Speed Motor has a smaller field coil which will produce a weaker magnetic field. This doesn’t hold the armature as firmly and allows it to spin at a higher RPM, allowing a more impressive top speed.
Opting for the torque motor provides you with more power, but not necessarily speed. Therefore you should instead go for the sped motor as this will increase your top speed while sacrificing a bit of the motor’s torque.
Method Four: Ramp Up the Battery Power
It just makes sense that increasing the power of the cart’s battery would increase its power and therefore speed. This method takes almost no time to do and gives you instant results. Just make sure that the new battery contains more voltage than your current battery.
You can find this information on the current battery of your golf cart. There will be a label that informs you of this information. If you cannot find it here, check the motor or the cart’s manual for this information.
Most modern golf carts have been designed to work with the majority of new batteries, so you don’t need to choose one specific for the brand of the cart. The higher voltage will increase the golf cart’s output and therefore speed.
It’s important to also keep your battery clean and corrosion-free, ensuring that you’re preventing as much build-up as possible. Dirty batteries covered in corrosion will make the cart slow and struggle to keep moving.
Method Five: Unload the Weight
While this might seem simple, many people overlook this simple detail. Just like with most things, the more weight your golf cart is carrying, the slower it is going to run. This is because the motor and battery are having to strain under this extra pressure while the higher weight is forcing the cart to drag its feet.
So, if you’re carrying excess weight on your golf cart, consider removing it and seeing how much faster it can go – we bet that you’ll be surprised!
Summary
Overall, there are plenty of ways that you can make your golf cart faster. The cheapest and easiest method is to unload any unnecessary weight that the cart is carrying. Next, you can change the tires and add some speed there, before moving onto larger modifications.
A new battery or motor will surely help you gain some more speed in your golf cart, but these will cost more and might even require some help from a professional if you’re not a whiz with vehicles.
