Howdy folks, newbie here! My wife and I are looking to replace a go cart for cruising around our property and the neighbors, and found a 2015 6 seater for sale relatively close by for what seems like a good price. I had started looking for a typical golf cart but now I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of these Gems and I’m so intrigued.
Only issue with this one for sale - they don’t have batteries to test anything, and haven’t ever had batteries as they bought it as a project but are now selling it because they don’t have the time or space or it.
This feels like a “too good to be true” type of deal, but it also feels like it could be a great bargain. Is there anything I could look at or test in person to try to figure out if it’s a lemon? Maybe take a 12v power supply to test out the dash and accessory side of the system? I’d plan to convert it to LiFEPO4 myself anyway instead of putting money into old school lead acid. Any tips or gut feelings from people that have shopped used before? I’ve attached a photo of it from the seller’s listing. Thanks!
First, does it appear to be missing anything?
Obvious high dollar components would be motor, controller, charger, fuse panel(aka PSDM). Is windshield intact? Body panels all present and in good shape?
Otherwise it looks like a nice base for a build.
Odd that there are no batteries and the pic shows it plugged in?
without any 72v battery pack in there it’s a crap shoot since you can’t even tell if the controller is working, can’t tell if the motor works, can’t tell if the 72V->12V dc/dc converter works. They could all be bad and that’s not even testing the transmission.
It would be a waste of money to purchase 6 leadacid batteries just to test it.
Maybe, just maybe you could take 6 12V/12Ah SLA batteries used in UPSs and wire them in series and connect up to the battery bay terminals. With never touching the throttle pedal, you could test if the controller thinks it’s ok, if the 12V dc/dc converter works. If the front were lifted, you might get the motor to turn in each direction with the slightest of throttle. Too much and the charge would deplete instantly and the controller would error out with a low-voltage warning.
Since they never got it going, they can’t tell you if anything works so it should all be considered INOP and $1200 - $1500 needed just to replace motor, converter, controller. Or, it could all work and a lithium setup from one of the guys here woujld get you cruising real good.
I think that @LithiumGods has a contact in Texas who may be near enough to test.
Unless someone has messed with it, not much danger of a serious problem.
Always buy concidering worst case.
Guess I had LiFePO4 batteries on the mind because they’re so strongly regarded in the solar/power wall community. I won’t limit myself to that!
It is odd that the photo has it plugged in and they say it doesn’t have batteries. From the photos it seems to be in pretty good condition, but I’ll just have to give it a good review all over.
Think it’s worth $2500 if it passes a thorough visual inspection? Always a crapshoot for sure, but this is how good deals are acquired: with a bit of risk.
One more thing,
Does it have papers/plated for the street? If not, Get a pic of the VIN and have your DMV page bookmarked in your phone to see how much back fees might be owed. If used on private property/park/camp it may not be important now, but better for resale later.
everything else can be fixed or replaced,but if it has Bill of dale, COD CD Certificate of destruction destruction it’s probably a flooded car and it’s a NONO for me
Open the hood and check for main components (motor, speed controller, charger)
Study a bit more and recognize what it is you are looking at.
There are some guys out there that like to puzzle/piece these cars together. They can be quite a mystery.
I saw one posted the other day that claimed to be a 04 car but clearly looked like a 2013 from the front end, Part 04/and 05 from the back end. Not sure what he was trying to hide.
Also, there are a few guys getting a hold of the insurance salvage/ hurricane cars and flipping them back out on the market. If done right they might be a good deal, but look real close.
