Golf Carts - gas or electric?

Reaching out to query about golf carts - we use them to tow gliders (not on a flat surface, plenty of inclines) and transport people. I know there are a lot of different opinions but generally I’m curious what is the prevalent type in use out there - gas or electric?

Both have their ups and downs - I’ve seen some electric ones have problems towing stuff but I’m told that poor battery maintenance was a major factor. We’ve always used gas but because the majority of carts are electric the supply and demand issue causes the gas ones to be more expensive. This is causing me to consider electric.

The prices on these things seem outrageous to me either way (I’m famously frugal or as my friends say “cheap�). But, we use them every day and they are critical to the operation so i don’t want to be dealing with constant problems with old crappy ones.

Thanks for your input.

Regards, Tom

On Friday, December 13, 2019 at 10:36:54 AM UTC-6, Tom wrote:
Reaching out to query about golf carts - we use them to tow gliders (not on a flat surface, plenty of inclines) and transport people. I know there are a lot of different opinions but generally I’m curious what is the prevalent type in use out there - gas or electric?

Both have their ups and downs - I’ve seen some electric ones have problems towing stuff but I’m told that poor battery maintenance was a major factor. We’ve always used gas but because the majority of carts are electric the supply and demand issue causes the gas ones to be more expensive. This is causing me to consider electric.

The prices on these things seem outrageous to me either way (I’m famously frugal or as my friends say “cheap�). But, we use them every day and they are critical to the operation so i don’t want to be dealing with constant problems with old crappy ones.

Thanks for your input.

Regards, Tom

Hey Tom,
Our club in Western Oklahoma uses a gas club car. IMHO a gas cart is better than an electric in our situation. yours may differ.
Gasoline can be stored and added as easily as a lawnmower. Oil changes can occur during other equipment maintenance (IE, glider annual time) electric carts require commercial power and the electric bill, with charging station dedicated location. If your electric cart is 'out of juice' there is almost no chance of using it until an overnight charge cycle. a set of batteries will cost upwards of $1200, and usually last for only a few years (like 4 years I think). the batteries also require a consistent evaluation of water level and the addition of water distilled of course.
I think scale has a major effect on gas vs electric economics. if you are operating a fleet of 20+ carts, and have a dedicated employee to maintain them, electrics may be a better choice. But using just a couple or even one, gas may be the a better choice.
Good Luck, and Merry Christmas.
Scott

On Friday, December 13, 2019 at 11:36:54 AM UTC-5, Tom wrote:
Reaching out to query about golf carts - we use them to tow gliders (not on a flat surface, plenty of inclines) and transport people. I know there are a lot of different opinions but generally I’m curious what is the prevalent type in use out there - gas or electric?

Both have their ups and downs - I’ve seen some electric ones have problems towing stuff but I’m told that poor battery maintenance was a major factor. We’ve always used gas but because the majority of carts are electric the supply and demand issue causes the gas ones to be more expensive. This is causing me to consider electric.

The prices on these things seem outrageous to me either way (I’m famously frugal or as my friends say “cheap�). But, we use them every day and they are critical to the operation so i don’t want to be dealing with constant problems with old crappy ones.

Thanks for your input.

Regards, Tom

Our club has several gas carts, all very old (to save money), and they often break down. Just the cost of needed engine parts cost more per year than the depreciation of the batteries in an electric cart. (Luckily we have club members with the skills and willingness to do the repairs.) On occasion we had days with 3 carts sitting broken, and nothing to tow the gliders with.

Then we got an electric cart and used it over the last season. It is "only" 11 years old, and in much better shape than our gas carts. It always worked, and never had problems "starting". Everybody loved it. But sometimes it ran out of charge later in the day. That was not surprising since the batteries are 6 years old (and the cart's purchase price was correspondingly low). It was good to have at least one working gas cart in addition to the electric one. On busy days in our club we need 2 carts anyway, to avoid operational delays.

The electric cart (a model with modern electronic motor control) turned out to be easier to control than the gas cart when it comes to gradual application of high torque at zero or low speed. E.g., to start moving a glider when its wheel is in a dip in the ground.

One unexpected advantage of the electric cart was that it is very quiet, so it is easy for the person at the wingtip to communicate by voice with the cart driver.

Battery maintenance needs to be done carefully of course. Our club designated one person to be responsible for it. It is still a challenge since at the end of some days the people putting the equipment away, or starting the day's operations, are not knowledgeable about the battery subtleties or lack information about what happened to the cart after the previous day. Also winter storage is an issue. We're trying out a trickle charger along with an installed battery desulfator.

Awesome information for us - thanks much for those that took the time to provide such a thoughtful reply.

Regards, Tom

On Friday, December 13, 2019 at 9:36:54 AM UTC-7, Tom wrote:
Reaching out to query about golf carts - we use them to tow gliders (not on a flat surface, plenty of inclines) and transport people. I know there are a lot of different opinions but generally I’m curious what is the prevalent type in use out there - gas or electric?

Both have their ups and downs - I’ve seen some electric ones have problems towing stuff but I’m told that poor battery maintenance was a major factor. We’ve always used gas but because the majority of carts are electric the supply and demand issue causes the gas ones to be more expensive. This is causing me to consider electric.

The prices on these things seem outrageous to me either way (I’m famously frugal or as my friends say “cheap�). But, we use them every day and they are critical to the operation so i don’t want to be dealing with constant problems with old crappy ones.

Thanks for your input.

Regards, Tom

We used a gas golf cart for several years. Annual maintenance cost was around $600 for drive train repairs. At our location, the grass and dust was really hard on the air-cooled engine. A larger, richer club started using John Deere Gators, which at the time were around $6000 new. They did point out that after a few years of use of three of them, they weren't putting $600/year into maintenance. So the capital cost was a bit of a show stopper for us. We did buy a Suzuki Samurai for $1500 which had a lot of towed miles, but not so many running miles. It's been serving us pretty well for at least 15 years now, with occasional maintenance issues, perhaps even longer. We use it for towing gliders, retrieving winch ropes, and general transport between the launch point and hangar. We should have bought a second one once we figured we had a winner. Now they go for $4500-$14000, with project examples for about $2000-$3000.

Frank Whiteley

On Friday, December 13, 2019 at 12:57:36 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Friday, December 13, 2019 at 11:36:54 AM UTC-5, Tom wrote:
Reaching out to query about golf carts - we use them to tow gliders (not on a flat surface, plenty of inclines) and transport people. I know there are a lot of different opinions but generally I’m curious what is the prevalent type in use out there - gas or electric?

Both have their ups and downs - I’ve seen some electric ones have problems towing stuff but I’m told that poor battery maintenance was a major factor. We’ve always used gas but because the majority of carts are electric the supply and demand issue causes the gas ones to be more expensive. This is causing me to consider electric.

The prices on these things seem outrageous to me either way (I’m famously frugal or as my friends say “cheap�). But, we use them every day and they are critical to the operation so i don’t want to be dealing with constant problems with old crappy ones.

Thanks for your input.

Regards, Tom

Our club has several gas carts, all very old (to save money), and they often break down. Just the cost of needed engine parts cost more per year than the depreciation of the batteries in an electric cart. (Luckily we have club members with the skills and willingness to do the repairs.) On occasion we had days with 3 carts sitting broken, and nothing to tow the gliders with.

Then we got an electric cart and used it over the last season. It is "only" 11 years old, and in much better shape than our gas carts. It always worked, and never had problems "starting". Everybody loved it. But sometimes it ran out of charge later in the day. That was not surprising since the batteries are 6 years old (and the cart's purchase price was correspondingly low). It was good to have at least one working gas cart in addition to the electric one. On busy days in our club we need 2 carts anyway, to avoid operational delays.

The electric cart (a model with modern electronic motor control) turned out to be easier to control than the gas cart when it comes to gradual application of high torque at zero or low speed. E.g., to start moving a glider when its wheel is in a dip in the ground.

One unexpected advantage of the electric cart was that it is very quiet, so it is easy for the person at the wingtip to communicate by voice with the cart driver.

Battery maintenance needs to be done carefully of course. Our club designated one person to be responsible for it. It is still a challenge since at the end of some days the people putting the equipment away, or starting the day's operations, are not knowledgeable about the battery subtleties or lack information about what happened to the cart after the previous day. Also winter storage is an issue. We're trying out a trickle charger along with an installed battery desulfator.

Potentially useful to know: my guess is that e-cart "fuel consumption" is 0.5 - 0.8 kwh per mile of two seat glider towing on grass. Someone may have real data on this, which would be interesting to review.

Our cart is 36V, 6-7 year old 200 AH batteries test about 75% capacity. So it does a good solid "half day's work". A 48V cart with fresh 200 AH batteries would likely give a better result.

The e-cart is much nicer to use than the gas jobs, it's less maintenance than the gas jobs, but you can expect the batteries to be very unforgiving of neglect.

T8

Electric is the only way to go. I am the golf cart manager for SCOH. We have five EZGO 36 volt and a number privately owned by club members. The old style Series motor are the best for towing things. Batteries should last five years if properly cared for. Set of batteries (I reccomend 235 amp hour) costs $700 to $800. We have gotten all of our carts in the $1,500 range. They are all 15 to 20 years old and run fine as long as you have someone with knowledge to keep them going.

BV

On Friday, December 13, 2019 at 11:36:54 AM UTC-5, Tom wrote:
Reaching out to query about golf carts - we use them to tow gliders (not on a flat surface, plenty of inclines) and transport people. I know there are a lot of different opinions but generally I’m curious what is the prevalent type in use out there - gas or electric?

Both have their ups and downs - I’ve seen some electric ones have problems towing stuff but I’m told that poor battery maintenance was a major factor. We’ve always used gas but because the majority of carts are electric the supply and demand issue causes the gas ones to be more expensive. This is causing me to consider electric.

The prices on these things seem outrageous to me either way (I’m famously frugal or as my friends say “cheap�). But, we use them every day and they are critical to the operation so i don’t want to be dealing with constant problems with old crappy ones.

Thanks for your input.

Regards, Tom

Tom, there are a couple of ways that you can go. We have used both electric and gas tugs, the electric units have been both 36 and 48 volt. The gas unit was my Kawasaki Mule 4010. There are advantages to both, the electric 48 volt is the only way to go if you choose electric. I just bought a new 48 volt unit that is superb. It will run for two days and still show 80% charge. The new computer controlled units are truly superb, quite and speed control is fantastic.
The gas unit is nice, but not as quite and when you are pulling gliders it is a big safety issue being able to hear the wing walker. The gas unit is more costly to operate as well. We found the 36 volt electric not nearly as strong and reliable as the 48 volt unit.
So if I were to rate the three the 48 volt electric would be number 1, followed by the gas tug and then the 36 volt electric. Hope this helps. Bob