Golf carts rule on the farm

[LazyJ_Arabians]

The kids wanted a gocart. The wife wanted a 4-wheeler. I wanted a Gator. We bought an electric golf cart. Quiet, maintenance free, turf friendly, has a canopy, packs a payload. Can't imagine how I ever did without it. We've had a blast customizing it. CD player, lights, drink & water coolers, gun & rod racks, toolboxes, trailer hitch, and a tilting bed in back. It rolls with a purpose every day. Goes to the mailbox, open and close distant gates, haul feed & hay to different pastures, roundup livestock. Have a big project.. just load it up with tools and materials and go. Tows my little flatbottom no problem. I've even been hauling half ricks of firewood on a small trailer out of the woodlot with it. It hasn't been tested yet in muddy conditions and I know I'm going to want to lift it and put big knobbies on it the first time I get stuck this winter. Anybody else have experience with offroad customizations of these vehicles? I don't really want it to go much faster and do NOT want to loose any torque with larger tires. Is my only option knobby tires of the same circumference? A hi-lo range would be SWEET but I can't find anything available of the sort.

[Hank]

I've been looking at Mules and Rangers, but this raises a whole new avenue of consideration.

What brand did you get? How much did it cost? What type of electrical hookup for recharging? What is the top speed? How much service can you get out a full charge?

[dariusr]

A guy around here does modifications to add 3" of lift and knobbies. Says it makes a world of difference in offroad abilities. He uses them on his Christmas Tree farm.

EZGO makes a utility cart (gas) that looks like something between a gator and a golf cart. I saw one at our county fair. I don't need a gator - have a tractor, but this looks pretty handy. I don't know about the prices.
Here's the website...
EZGO ST models

[LazyJ_Arabians]

There are 3 major brands of carts, Club Car, EZ-GO, and Yamaha. Among golf people the Club is the luxury Caddy, the EZ-GO is the dependable Ford, and the Yamaha is the finicky Ferrari. I have a large local dealer for the Club Car made by Ingersoll-Rand. I was leaning towards electric and this dealer confirmed my idea of them being less maintenance, more power, and almost silent. He had a wide variety of late model fleet lease returns that were well maintained and stressed the engineering changes made in recent years to the electrical systems. In '98 most of the carts went from 6 - 6 volt batteries to 6 - 8's resulting in not much more power but much more charge longevity. In '99 they phased in a regenerative system where the motor charges and provides some braking on downhill runs. In '00 the chargers became smarter therefore enhancing battery life. He had about 3 dozen identical '99 green Club Cars and after spending all of one afternoon picking the creampuff I talked him down from $2200 to $1700 including 110v charger.

About the only maintenance is checking electrolyte level once a month or so and never letting it sit long with discharged batteries to maintain battery life of 6 or 7 years. The suspension is high quality with zerks on all joints. It goes 15 mph but you should only go maximum output for no more that 30 minutes without thermal damage to the motor. We drive it often on the 6 mile roundtrip to my sister's house and could probably do two of these trips on one charge but haven't tried. I normally charge it Friday night and Sunday night, charger kicks off after about 4 hours. I'd estimate 2 hours charge for every hour of running with about a 4 hour max of high output runtime per charge. The most pleasant surprise has been the power and payload capacity.

[rocky2]

I got the lady a 4 x 4 MULE a few months ago, and that lil sucker is one of the most useful tools I ever bought. It also serves well as a gocart for playing.

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue">A guy around here does modifications to add 3" of lift and knobbies. </font color>

Where is here? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[dariusr]

Kansas City. I'll be there are others who do this as well.

[wingnut]

I've got a Club Car electric that I've used for golf a total of two times. The wife uses it for running to the barn everyday. Haven't gotten around to doing any mods to it at all ... the sole concession to seasons is to put chains on the rear wheels for snow (I do keep the trail to the barn plowed.
The batteries are now at least 8 years old and I try to remember to clean all the terminals every year .... missed a couple and had to replace a few cables as the ends corroded off.
No maintenance (other than distilled water for the batteries and the occasional greasing and checking the tires periodically) and quiet enough to sneak up on the jhorses with no problems at all.
Had planned to trade it and the ATV off on a mule but the wife threatened to geld me .... [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

pete

[Alan_L_Texas]

I would like a golf cart or mule type vehicle for my 24 acres. It would be driven in pasture-like conditions, with the main rough obstacle the creek. I have some big granite rocks down in the creekbed swale that I drive my tractor over right now and wonder if such a vehicle can negotiate such terrain. I really don't want to spend more than $2K.