New to Gem: Bought 2002 E825 for hilly area

It flashes the code when first energized. If you search the forum on how to change algorithms there are a number of posts detailing the process to read and change if needed

@LithiumGods @Inwo do either of you have lithium packs available that would be good for my setup? Having trouble getting back up the hill after a 1-2 mile downhill then flat road. Coming back up the car starts at 15mph and quickly drops to 1-2.

A good battery is the place to start. I don’t know if it’s a total solution to speed up hill. Do you suspect poor batteries?
Our best battery, imo, is 22s Samsung sdi. I’m 4ah 82v nominal.
$2500 complete.

No clue what’s causing the uphill slowness. Hoping for ideas from the community.

Also anyone know what “U” codes are on the display?

Can you share installation instructions? Want to see if it’s something I can do myself

The last part of this thread shows typical installation.
Only two cables to connect. Positive and negative.

@AssyRequired will share his experience installing one.

The hardest part is deciding where to put it in your car. Let me see if I can find some line drawings of the frames on those cars.
What model is your 825? 2 seat, 4? Flatbed?
It can be tricky to find the unobstructed room without cutting away plastic somewhere.

Also, (I almost hate to say it) but you might be starting off with the wrong car if you are building a hill car. The early cars had a small motor, (not much option/room for bigger), and 10.41 gears in the trans.
How big are your hills?

In post 4 someone said my transmission is 12.44

4 seat - pics at the top of this thread

I think you might be able to get the SDI pack in where the 4 batteries were if you put it in on it’s side and tilt back. You’ll have to measure though.

The crappy part is that you’re going to need to keep about 100-120 lbs of ballast up front over the motor and wheels or the cart won’t be driveable.

Took a video of what’s happening. On the flats I can get 25-30mph. On the hills about 15. Would lithium help me get to 25+ on the hills and longer overall range?

Honestly, you’re about to build a money pit with shitty steering and crappy brakes.

Nothing you can ever do to fix the steering on the 01-04. Very little you can do about the suspension. Brake upgrades are like $700.

Get rid of this one, and get something 08 or later.

You’ll be much happier

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Appreciate it but the $ is already in. So going to make the best of it even if it’s another couple k

someone said my transmission is 12.44

Hmmm. My notes say 12.44 doesn’t show until maybe 2005. I could be wrong.
Sorry, I just joined up with the thread. I only had a few minutes to throw in my opinions and feel important. I’ll go back and review. :

Edit: OK, NOW I remember this thread. Yes, I agree with JrJ, it looks like a 12.44 trans. I don’t have that code in my files, but the 2011 date hints that someone did a gearbox swap.

You probably don’t need to do this, but since I took the time to rattle it out, I’ll just leave this here for future readers.

Alternate method.
Pick a spot somewhere flat where you can roll the car back or forward a few feet.

  1. Pop the black thing off the end of your motor with 3 wires going to it. That is your speed sensor. Depending on what motor you have, it may have screws holding it on, or it is held in with a couple of tabs.

  2. Put a line/dot/arrow on the motor shaft with a sharpie. Maybe a piece of tape over half of it and draw on that. You will be observing this mark and count how many times it goes around. Point it up/down and call that home. (maybe put a mark on the motor also?)

  3. Place a piece of tape on your tire closest to the ground. (see where I’m going with this?)

  4. Count how many times the mark on the motor shaft goes round-round past home as you roll the car one full revolution ref the tire mark.

Note those results.
10 and almost 1/2?
12 and 3/4?

If it were my 2002 first thing I would do is pull over at the top of the hill and feel the temperature on each battery terminal post. NONE of them should be hot. Next, I would take the dash off and connect a volt meter to the battery terminals at the controller and watch what happens. You will likely see a big drop in voltage as you start climbing the hill. Next I would clean all of the battery cable ends on the batteries with a wire brush and clean the battery terminals also. I would put the battery cables on and leave off all those lighting wiring connectors and do another test. BTW, connecting anything to just one battery is going to give your problems since it will discharge one battery and unbalance the pack and effect charging and overall capacity.

If it still dips in overall voltage and speed after these things then I would try to monitor the battery voltage of each battery under load. If even one battery is weak, has high internal resistance under load and drops lots of voltage it effects the whole system.

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It’s a shame we cant use the big empty box under the front seats. I’ll see if I can find a local one here and crawl under it with a tape measure for a look.

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… get out, put in neutral, release the parking brake, give it a nudge to get it rolling down the hill on it’s own, scrape up your elbows on the pavement and make a total loss insurance claim.

FITY.

LOL, please DON’T rub it in. My 2002 rides like a tank, can hardly do a U-turn on an empty street. If I had a crystal ball in 2017 I would not have paid $3,000 for it, not installed $700 disc brakes, not put new Pb batteries in it, not upgraded the headlights, not put Leaf Gen4 lithium batteries in it, etc etc and I would have purchased a used 2013 Nissan Leaf with worn batteries and only 50 mile range for $5,000.

But I didn’t and now there’s no way I’ll get my $$ out of the GEM and can’t get an old Leaf for $5,000 as easily as we used to either. But I learned a heck of a lot, some even useful and I met lots of you jokers. So there’s some good which came with the ‘bad’.

I still have the pair of Honda Goldwing airshocks I’ve not installed on the 2002 GEM. I might still give it a go to try and help with the rear end bounce/rattle/banging when there’s a 1/2" or more shifted seam in the concrete streets around here.

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Yeah, sounds familiar. Paid $600? For mine. Then, new batteries, new motor, half the steering gear, disc brakes, shocks, a new charger, another new set of batteries, new tires twice, led light upgrades, a crazy booster pack idea from Dave… Still rode like crap, and one thing after another. The goddamn steering column fell out while I was driving. Apparently it was someone’s idea to have the entire thing supported by a single 1" weld on sheet metal.
And then, snapped a drive shaft. Fucking done with the thing…

At least $5k, maybe more wasted on that piece of crap.

My 2010… I’ve put air in the tires. Oh. Yeah, and adjust BMS programming… And a new wiper blade

Same story here. I bought a 2000 for probably 1500 with shot batteries. Want to see if I liked having a GEM. Probably 8k later with different motors, suspension, controllers, lithium, gearboxs, upholstery, etc. Finally threw in the towel and bought a 2016.

I learned a lot and don’t regret it. As long as you’re going into it knowing you’re going to be wrenching on it every other weekend, go for it. If you’re trying to get a stable, reliable hill climbing platform… Sell it and get a 2005+ at the very least. 2012-2015 even better. 2016+ best.

Everyone told me the same and I did it anyway like you. Best bang for the buck is lithium. That will get you up the hills.