I am thinking of upgrading my motor with a D&D Motor. I know they don’t offer controller programming but I’m trying to figure out if it’s even required for a 2012. Are these just plug and play? What does the programming actually do?
What are your expectations, or are you replacing a bad motor?
Car won’t go above 15mph on flat road 90% of the time.
Possible motor issue, but much more likely a battery or voltage drop issue. A new motor won’t be a cure-all fix.
IMO any stock motor is capable 30mph on level road.
Wait for more opinions before buying a new motor.
ps.
Did it ever run properly?
Is it slower in turf mode or the same?
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Long story -
Took it to another dealer in the next town because I didn’t think the Dallas dealer knew what they were doing. They called me to tell me the controller was bad so they brought it back to me. Was going to pull it off and send back to R4F for the third time. Before I pulled it - I turned it on and gave it a go and it worked!
No idea what they did and they even said it didn’t work when they brought it back (pushed it into the garage).
However, I’m still having problems with it going over 15mph on flat roads. Sometimes it will kick up to 25mph but lost of the time it just hangs at 15.
Same speed In turf mode as well (15mph).
Should I be testing the voltage at rest and under power? What are the acceptable voltage rangeS for both.
Btw - still have the other accelerator but don’t want to give that up till I resolve my issues.
Also - when I first got the cart almost a year ago it worked fine. Only on occasion it would get stuck at the 15mph limit.
In my opinion if your car go’s 15 Mph now with a Stock GE 3hp motor (as a example) installing a D&D 7hp, your car will go the exact same speed. A motor is only 1 part of what makes your car go faster. Example you could have a 100hp Electric motor but if you have a set of week flooded lead acid battery’s your car ain’t going No where. To make your car perform you need.
#1 Good battery’s
#2 A Programmed controller OR a Magic Magnet
#3 a properly configured battery charger
Start with these 2 things and then upgrade from that point.
I’m thinking batteries might be my problem the more research I do. I assumed they were good because I’m getting 25+ miles range. Didn’t realize speed would be cut before range.
I sent the controller off for rebuild and I think they took the speed limit off because I can hit 30 downhill. I don’t care about going faster than 25. Just want to go 25.
It could be your forward reverse switch . If it is bad it could be holding you in turf mode .
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Is there a way to test it to make sure?
My display is accurate and will display high/low correctly.
If voltage at P6 is over 2.5v car will be in turf mode. It is not connected directly to a switch, but is routed through the psdm.
The psdm can put car in turf mode for a variety of reasons. Low battery turtle for example.
Measure voltage at each separate battery while driving or brake torqueing and let us know the results.
Thanks! Will do and will report the results.
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Sorry for the delay. It got really cold and didn’t want to work in the cold. I’m getting 75.5V at the controller and each battery (the front 3, couldn’t get to the back) is about 12.9v after about a 3 mile trip. I couldn’t test under load as my wife is 9 months pregnant and can’t really drive for me to test it out.
Do I need to test under load to determine if they are bad? I do notice that the car will get up to speed right after I take it off the charger. Once I put about a mile on it. It tops out at 15mph, sometimes slower with a little incline.
Time to replace?
Yes you need to test each battery under a load. You can test by brake torqueing which is holding your foot on the brake pedal and pushing on the accelerator pedal. This puts the batteries underload and will show a bad battery. If you do this instead of driving it do not do it for very long as it put a lot of stress on electrical components and wiring.
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Thanks! I’ll see if my wife is up for it tomorrow and the rain holds out and will report back. Thanks again!
Okay - finally got a break in the weather to test.
After doing a full charge - each battery is between 13.29 - 13.31V and they were all right at 12.2v under load.
Is this typical/normal?
Yes that’s typical for the voltage to drop that much under heavy load. Know test the voltage going into the controller from the batteries under heavy load. Should be just over 73 volts. Also check it when it’s lacking power.
Took the cart out today after it sat on a charger for a week and things have gotten significantly worse. It will only go about 8mph on a flat road. My batteries are still showing 13v at rest.
I’m so over this Gem.
Is there a way to test the motor?
Sounds more like a bad battery since the Zivan chargers only charges once and unless you have an upgraded charger, it doesn’t apply any voltage or power after that charge is complete. The 2012 could be different and that is easily verified by looking at the battery voltages > 2 hours after charging is complete.
If the charger shuts down after charging, >2 hours later your battery voltages should show ~12.8V-13.0V. If your charger does not shut down and keeps a float charge going then you should see ~13.8V on the batteries > 2 hours after the charger stopped.
Yes, contrary to what people think, owning a lead acid battery powered vehicle requires a little understanding of battery technology, charging systems and monthly maintenance(cleaning connectors and keeping fluid levels topped off).
Lithium batteries don’t give off gases so connections don’t corrode near as much and there’s no fluid levels to deal with. But like Lead Acid, you need to know how low to discharge before damaging the batteries but that’s about it.
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