Our club has both gas carts and an electric cart. The electric is
used mainly to transfer disabled passengers and pilots into the
gliders. http://www.freedomswings.ca/images/i...s/ff-hoist.pdf

The advantage of electric is excellent speed and position control.
Would you back up a gas cart with a passenger in a hoist to your
gliders? The centrifugal or snowmobile V-pulley systems are abrupt on
our gas carts, and I don't know how fast you walk your wing when your
plane is being towed by a cart, but they seem to go either too fast or
slow, and taking up slack on the tow rope requires consumate skill.
With an electric, with a modern controller, such as a Curtis, it's
easy. The series-wound electric has maximum torque at zero RPM, so
pulling any of the gliders isn't a problem.

I believe that the battery "issues" are based on people's experience
using obsolete technology for chargers. We use a
http://batterytender.com/electrical-...8v-at-10a.html
It's bolted right to the cart so it can be plugged in anywhere. All
you have to do is plug it in and forget it. It won't overcharge and
takes care of everything. I'm guessing it quadruples battery life.
I'll leave it for other club members to correct me, but the batteries
in the cart were 1 years old when the hoist conversion took place, and
3 years later they are still ok. I check the water in the spring and
fall, and it hasn't been a problem. We leave it plugged in all
winter, and anyone can plug it in at the end of the day. There's a
"gas guage" on the dash.

Having said that, if my plane is on the flight line and I have
forgotten my small brim hat or GPS bluetooth mouse in my car, I grab a
gas cart because they are faster, but that's our carts specifically,
not because it's electric or not.

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