On May 12, 10:39*am, wrote:
To start with, I have searched the R.A.S. archives for information
regarding the gas vs. electric question. I've also done a fair amount
of research outside of R.A.S. regarding towing with golf carts.
There's not much info to be found in this "towing" subject area.

I was hoping to get some additional info from the folks who use
electric carts for glider operations. Can anyone quantify how much
towing can be done with an electric cart on one charge (given good
batteries)? If I could gauge how far they'll go on a charge, I'd have
a better chance at making the right purchase decision based on the
amount of activity at our club on a busy day.

I've been told the big advantage of electrics is the speed control
while towing. I did a little testing with a gas unit and I feel it's
perfectly suited for glider operations. Quiet, powerful, good speed
control and they run forever on a tank of gas. I'm just curious as to
how much better the electrics are at towing compared to gas. When you
consider the hassle of electrics (charging, battery degradation over
time, expensive battery replacement every 3-5 years, giving out before
days end, etc.), is it worth it? I'm getting a lot of advice from
people (a lot of them don't own golf carts by the way) to go with
electric. Are the electrics that much better?

We used electrics at a couple of the airports I fly at, and they've
always been plenty adequate for a typical day of towing. The trick,
of course, is good discipline in charging. Unlike gas, where you can
always run to the gas can if someone forgets to "fill 'er up" at the
end of the day, if you forget to charge the battery, you're out of
luck for at least a few hours.

Random side note. I spent my high-school summers working in
"maintenance" at a swim and tennis club. We used surplus golf course
maintenance carts (golf carts with a rear bed) for general utility
work - hauling bags of gravel, trash, lawnmowers, etc. Since a lot of
this stuff happened between 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. (i.e without any
real adult supervision), we had plenty of time to experiment. Figured
out how to get rid of the speed governors pretty quickly. You'd be
amazed at a) how fast an electric cart can get going and b) how far
into the pool it will fly if you lose control while running timed laps
around said pool.

P3