October 2019 October 2019 | Page 24

THINKING ABOUT LIFTING YOUR GOLF CART Lifting Golf Carts has never been more popular, and with all the ad- vancements made in this area it has never been easier! You now have a wide variety of choices when consid- ering a golf cart lift kit. This article is designed to give you a basic introduc- tion to golf cart modification, and to help you decide if lifting is right for you. Lift Kits are great and tons of fun, nothing looks quite as good as a cart lifted with big tires and a awesome paint job! Lifts will also give you the clearance needed to navigate tougher terrains. However you have to con- sider several performance elements before lifting a cart. Speed, torque, and gear ratio will all be affected by a lift. There are many performance golf cart parts that can drastically improve any drawbacks but please understand lifting a golf cart can be an expensive and time consuming undertaking. The quality of the products you choose will play a huge part in the performance you can expect after a lift. Lift Kits are one area that you should never cut corners on or buying lesser quality equipment. Here are some of the basic areas you 24 WWW.GOLFCAROPTIONS.COM should consider before lifting your cart, if you find the benefits of a lift outweigh the cons then you will most likely love your new lift. Along with most lifts come bigger tires. Since all carts were designed with a specified tire size to work efficiently with the gear ratio in the differential, increasing tire size will affect your carts performance in sev- eral ways: • • • • When you increase the overall height of your tires you may gain a little top-end speed when on flat ground, due to larger tires rolling further with each revolution. More strain is put on your motor or engine to move the larger tires the same amount of rotations it was moving the smaller tires. When climbing inclines or carrying loads your engine or motor has to work harder even with standard size tires. The larger the tire the more work for the cart. More work combined with the strain to rotate the larger tires will greatly reduce your climbing speed and load carrying torque. Safety is probably the biggest area to consider with any cart modification no matter how small. A lift will not