April 2019 April 2019 | Page 46

PRODUCT GOLF CART BATTERY CABLES A golf carts drive system is just a big electrical circuit. You have a bank of batteries, a motor, a controller, solenoid and the cables that connect it all together. (This is a simplified explanation as there are some more minor switches and components that aren’t pertinent to this explana- tion) Basically, you push a switch to forward and press the accelerator and off you go. In order to convert all that potential power in the batteries into motion, the voltage has to travel through the cables ultimately to the motor. If you install a brand new battery pack but leave the crumby old cables in there, it’s like driving a supercar down a pothole-riddled dirt road. Sure it’ll do it, but it won’t be fun and you’ll probably damage something leading to costly repairs. The cables are the foundation of your carts system.... the highway that all that potential power must travel down to get you moving. You can have all the power in the world but if it can’t get trans- ferred to where you need it to be, it’s worthless. Upgrading your cables to a larger size is like adding a lane to an interstate. It frees up more space for more traffic to flow faster...and in your cart, it allows more power to travel to your mo- tor with less friction and thus less heat. Heat is your enemy number one. Excessive heat caus- es battery post to expand and contract, which loosens connections which in turn lead to arcing contacts which lead to battery post meltdowns. This means you just threw away $100+ on a bat- tery. When you have a 4awg or 2awg cable set, the amount of heat generated is greatly reduced and the chance of a meltdown is reduced with it. Now, there is still a need for basic mainte- nance which includes checking battery water, checking cables are tight and making sure there isn’t any corrosion building up. We have carts out there that are running our 2awg kits that can run 40+mph that don’t overheat, so you can rest assured your cart will operate at its maxi- mum efficiency with our kit. And another benefit to our kits that was found after a couple years in the business is that the 2awg kits are so strong, if you should happen to roll your cart and the factory battery holds downs fail (which happens a lot, they aren’t de- signed for rollovers but instead for simply keep- ing them from rattling) the battery cables have been shown to hold a pack together and keep them from flying out. This saves the batteries from potential damage, the area of the accident from environmental issues from acid leaks, and the driver and passenger from potential injury due to flying debris. CADDYSHACK GOLF CARS OF GEORGIA 5905 Steeplechase Suite 500 | Cumming, Georgia (678) 456-8457 | www.golfcartcable.com 46 WWW.GOLFCAROPTIONS.COM