Golf Carts - Electric vs. Gas Revisited

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?

Don Ingraham has an electric cart with a small bed that he uses up in
Faribault, MN. It seems to work very well, maybe he'll chime in with
info on how often he has to charge etc. or you can contact him. The club
down here in Wichita has an old Cushman scooter which also works great.
There are a ton of them down here scooting around in the airplane
factories and picking them up surplus must not be too big of a deal. No
problem with speed control.



-Tony Condon
Cherokee II N373Y

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 use an electric golf cart at Avenal. It is an older EZ-Go, so it
has the old style speed control (pre 1986) which is far less efficient
and actually has a dead spot right were we need it, but it still works
basically just fine. That said, a single charge does last all day, of
much necessary tugging and much unnecessary tugging, some joy-riding
and a bunch of 'milk runs' back and forth from the clubhouse to the
flightline (about 1000'). At the end of the day when everyone goes
away and I have our private/empty airfield to myself, I even break out
the beer and drink and drive on our 400' wide dirt runway using my
feet to steer with the remaining charge before parking it in it's
charger. Ours needs a front end alignment and pulls a little to the
right (Hitler approved!), so if I do not steer at all it describes
about a 300' circle, but our field slightly slopes so each 'lap' my
circle drifts about 15' downhill

The newer, post 1986 EZ-Go's get even better 'electron mileage' with
their highly improved speed control, and have no such dead spot. There
is even a nifty aftermarket solar panel roof that is made for the
carts to extend charge, but I'm sure we will never get one (were too
cheap to buy a normal roof!) http://www.suncatchergolf.com/ We had a
4wd Yamaha(?) Mule there for a while, and man was that thing fun! (no
drinking and driving on that machine, it does like 30mph and you
actually could flip it if you were really retarded...) It too had
excellent speed control and was even strong enough to drag a 2-33
across miles of deeply plowed fields (although it took 4 of us
standing in the bed of it for traction and 2 in the cab...). If you
can get a good deal on either, either one would immensely help at the
operation, but the electric golf cart fits more in line with our green
sport and is nicer to be walking wings of planes behind it. For
electric golf carts, get one made after 86' though... and get one
with a damn roof, or get one of those solar dealies.

-Paul

We use electrics down here at the Greater Houston Soaring Association, but
not sure of what year they were manufactured. They work great if someone
takes care of making sure the batteries have plenty of water, especially
during the hot summers. We normally keep a charger at the ops shed and they
stay plugged in during the day. On gas models, I have used some while
working in RV parks and they work great if the clutch does not jerk when
first engaging. When using them at the parks I often say to myself, just
think no batteries to charge.

Come to Texas and fly this summer at the Region 10 South Contest in Brenham,
TX, August 9 - 15 - sponsored by our club and Soaring Club of Houston. Info
at http://www.houstonsoaring.org/2009R10/ .
"sisu1a" wrote in message
...
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 use an electric golf cart at Avenal. It is an older EZ-Go, so it
has the old style speed control (pre 1986) which is far less efficient
and actually has a dead spot right were we need it, but it still works
basically just fine. That said, a single charge does last all day, of
much necessary tugging and much unnecessary tugging, some joy-riding
and a bunch of 'milk runs' back and forth from the clubhouse to the
flightline (about 1000'). At the end of the day when everyone goes
away and I have our private/empty airfield to myself, I even break out
the beer and drink and drive on our 400' wide dirt runway using my
feet to steer with the remaining charge before parking it in it's
charger. Ours needs a front end alignment and pulls a little to the
right (Hitler approved!), so if I do not steer at all it describes
about a 300' circle, but our field slightly slopes so each 'lap' my
circle drifts about 15' downhill

The newer, post 1986 EZ-Go's get even better 'electron mileage' with
their highly improved speed control, and have no such dead spot. There
is even a nifty aftermarket solar panel roof that is made for the
carts to extend charge, but I'm sure we will never get one (were too
cheap to buy a normal roof!) http://www.suncatchergolf.com/ We had a
4wd Yamaha(?) Mule there for a while, and man was that thing fun! (no
drinking and driving on that machine, it does like 30mph and you
actually could flip it if you were really retarded...) It too had
excellent speed control and was even strong enough to drag a 2-33
across miles of deeply plowed fields (although it took 4 of us
standing in the bed of it for traction and 2 in the cab...). If you
can get a good deal on either, either one would immensely help at the
operation, but the electric golf cart fits more in line with our green
sport and is nicer to be walking wings of planes behind it. For
electric golf carts, get one made after 86' though... and get one
with a damn roof, or get one of those solar dealies.

-Paul

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

We have both gas and electric. We prefer electric even though their
maintenance is more expensive and time consumming.

Electrics have more low end torque, quieter and smoother. Gas is
faster when you want to zoom down the flight line, but not great for
towing at walking speeds.

With two electrics we can run all day without an issue and we can get
40-50 and more flights a day (lots of training).

My $0.02.

- John DeRosa

Electric carts are great.
Just make it a rule to turn off the key when drivers get out of the
electric golf cart.

Why? Get this.
Key switch left "on" so all you need to do is get in and step on the
"go" pedal.
This is a normal procedure.
Next, a small soft-sided cooler on the seat has some ice melt,
altering its Center Of Gravity.
Cooler shifts forward off the seat, falls onto the "go" pedal.
Driverless golf cart now speeds down the flight line . . .

I've also seen a car on a gliderport left at idle, shift into gear,
with no driver aboard.
Twice.

After 50 years in soaring, I've darn near seen it all.
The good, the bad and the ugly.
Guess that's why I get to conduct many of the SSF Site Surveys.

Burt Compton
Marfa, Texas
USA

Hi Guys, I guess what you really mean is Electric vs Petrol ... Gas is a
different fuel over this side of the pond, usually contained in a
pressurised container.

Our variable transmission petrol golf cart would not haul a glider that
had landed on the soft grass... It just span its rear wheels...
Admittidly the gliders were usually sitting in a 6 inch deep trench that
they had ploughed!

On Tarmac or concrete runways, hardly any tension was needed in the rope.
In fact on a down-slope the glider would often over-run the golf cart.

So it all depends upon what type of surface you fly and land on, for how
long the fuel will last.

Pete

At 02:53 13 May 2009, ContestID67 wrote:
We have both gas and electric. We prefer electric even though their
maintenance is more expensive and time consumming.