Golf Car Options Magazine March 2020 GCOptions Mar20 MAGZTER | Page 27

Yamaha’s new fully independent rear suspension for the Drive2 vehicles. Yamaha’s rear suspension design, in fact, goes beyond what is found in most on-road automobiles, and replaces solid axles and leaf springs. Both sides of the dual axles are anchored in, and pivot from, the differential housing— and this essentially means that bumps and jars on one side of the vehicle have less, or no effect on the other. In turn, this means far better roadability and control. A second advantage to Yamaha’s new suspension is that it compen- sates for the loss of ballast pro- vided by much heavier lead acid batteries, as compared to lithium batteries. Oddly enough, Yama- ha, as compared to its major com- petitors, Club Car and E-Z-GO, does not yet have a lithium-pow- ered model on the market. Given our conversations at the Yamaha booth, however, a lithium model is clearly on the radar screen STAR EV and Tomberlin, for their part, may not yet have the market share of the Big Three, but their under-the-hood features put them out in front to some extent. Both have four-wheel hydraulic brake systems, with front wheel disc brakes, and both have made a strategic decision to go for the low-speed vehicle market and feature models that are fully DOT compliant for this category. If, for example, you are interested in a PTV or LSV with between 10 to 19 horsepower, seating four, the brands will be Club Car, Columbia Par Car, and Tomberlin. Drop the horsepower down to less than 10 and 41 models will pop up. You can do all the com- parisons-- spec-by-spec, fea- ture-by-feature—that you have time for. A good way to spend your afternoon before venturing on to the showroom floor. Are you ready for full-enclosure? Tomberlin Emerge E4 LE Plus, featuring four-wheel hydraulic brakes (front disc) and DOT compliant. Make the comparisons you need to get what you need If you are in the market for a new PTV (new or used), make the side-by-side comparisons for all the above vehicles on the Small Vehicle Resource website: www. smallvehicleresource.com . Using this website, especially designed to make vehicle comparisons, you can do searches by brand, model name, or by type of use or feature that is a priority for you, using the PowerSearch platform. The 2020 PGA Show did not lack for variety when it came to wheeled vehicles, from what you might expect—golf cars and PTVs—to motorized caddies (of all sorts and sizes), to a fully-en- closed LSV. The latter was repre- sented by the Cheeta company. Product evolution has yet to produce an enclosure solution The Cheeta Runner, fully-enclosed low-speed vehicle (classified as a mo- bility scooter.) Contact Steve at [email protected]. Or check out our website at www.smallvehicleresource. com, where you will find an extensive database of vehi- cle models and can make side-by-side comparisons of vehicles based on a full set of specifications. MARCH 2020 27