1976 Citicar, my new project.

[Stan]

Originally Posted by Ryland

Motor 3.5hp 36volt
battery pack 8 6 volt T105 lead acid (currently missing)

I have a quick question because I have an old Taylor-Dunn 36v golf cart that appears very similar in layout to the Citicar. Anyway, is your car 36v or 48v? I ask because you say it needs eight 6-volt batteries. Something doesn't add up...

[MetroMPG]

Ryland can confirm, but I think 3.5hp is the correct rating for the motor - it's not uncommon to run electric motors above their rating if additional cooling is added, or if they're not run continuously at max load.

And I'm fairly certain the CitiCars all came with 48v packs.

The pump motor that drives the ForkenSwift was rated for 36/48v use, however an expert motor rebuilder told us we could run it up to 120v if we adjust the brush timing.

[Ryland]

yes,it is a 36v motor running on 48v, some people say you can run as much as 64v or 72v thru them, I would be warry to do that for any kind of range without a good tempature sensor on the motor, and maybe a cooling fan, but I think I wouldn't go higher then 48v.
have you looked at your motor lable to see what it's rated at?

[Stan]

Originally Posted by Ryland

have you looked at your motor lable to see what it's rated at?

There is no label or data plate on the motor, nor anywhere else in the electrics that I can see.

That said, my cart is a 1983 GT371 "Tee Bird", and appears to have this 3-4 hp motor installed.


Vintage Golf Carts says this motor was a common upgrade. The description kind of implies it could be boosted a bit, eh?

[trebuchet03]

Ryland, if you don't mind the question... Where did you find it? And, for how much?

Just out of curiosity - and pardon my ignorance.... Would D8 form factor batteries fit? And would they have less capacity? Last summer I installed 3 (of 7) 12V D8 batteries in a sailboat... They weigh 141 pounds each and the three batteries (Deka floodies) cost a few dollars more than $500 out the door. IIRC, the ones we bought were ~230Ahr - but the size is something like 20x8x11 :/

[TomEV]

My Citicar has a 3.5hp, 36 volt motor according to the data plate. 3.5 HP is the continuous rating, but even after a 25 mile run at about twice the rated HP (drawing 100 amps, about 30 MPH), it didn't get particularly hot. The Citicar has two flavors - 3.5 HP and 6 HP. (they had 2.5 in a very few early production 36v models)

My Alltrax controller is a 4844, rated at 400 amps. Since flooded battery terminals get rather hot over 400 amps (IMHO), it seems like a reasonable limit. In reality, the 4844 will go to 600+ amps for a few seconds (according to the internal logs) during hard acceleration from a dead stop, kind of like contacts (but without the whiplash...) Unless you have lots of hills, or a great number of stop signs you probably won't see 400 amps for longer than a few seconds in a Citicar-size vehicle anyways.

I added two extra 6-volt batteries (60v total) to test out what would happen, and found that the top speed and acceleration were the same with 48v when I had the stock contactor setup. Probably limited by the motor. On the other end, I took out a 'bad' battery (down to 42v) and the top speed went from 32 MPH to 26 MPH. At least for this motor, 48v seems to be the right number.

I am still at stock voltage of 48 volts - It came with eight 6-volt batteries (US 2200), but to reduce weight (and battery cost) I installed six 8-volt batteries (US 8VCG). They have about 100 amps (1 hour rate) compared to 117 amps for the 6-volt batteries that they replaced. They weigh 67 pounds each.

They -could- be replaced by four 8D batteries (12v) but the 8D's are about three inches wider than a pair of 2200's/8VGC's, so they probably won't fit in the space under the seat. In newer C-cars the batteries are in the bumper, and it would be difficult to shoehorn them in there as well.

My 8VGC batteries were about $90 each six months ago, but the price has gone up.

My daily drive to-from work is a round trip of 10 miles, which is well within the 25 mile (actual - went that far once) range with six 8-volt batteries.

[Ryland]

I ended up getting it from a friend who had it sitting in his renewable energy buisness's shop, he had bought it from a friend of his brother for $100 then paid $85 to rent a trailer to move it, he only wanted to be paid what he had invested in to it under the condition that I get it working and give him a ride.
I'm hoping to keep all the batteries in the origonal location, under the seat, and everything I've read, and people I've talked to all agree that Trojans are pretty good for the money, so I found a battery dealer that rebuilds gulf carts and will sell me T-105 Trojans for $105+$6 core charge and will take any full size battery in exchange, the Trojan head office help desk also told me about a distrubuter that they say is in town, but we can't find in the phone book... so tomarow during buissness hours I'll make more phone calls.
I'm also thinking that if the price is low enough I might go with T-145, they are about 40amp hours more (260AH...) each and 3/4" taller, leaving me 1/2" of space between the bottem of my seat (fiber glass milk house board) and the top of the battery post, so unless those higher capasity batteries are out of my price range I think I'll go with them, Trojan claims 3 year life with extream use, and 5 years with normal use.

I also tested my motor with a car battery, useing a plywood box with a notch for the axle to rest in holding up the rear end, voltage droped to 10.9v and 51amps, the motor spins nice and quite, no weird differntal noise, but my brakes need work as they don't work and one side rubs a little, I checked the brushes and they are looking a little short, so I'll also make a phone call to find out how much an overhaul is going to cost me.

[bennelson]

Wow! I think you just Paid the Least Amount Ever for an electric car.

Hmm - your car AND shipping cost less than the shipping on my forklift... at least I will have some scrap left to sell.

[Stan]

Ryland or TomEV, can you post a photo of your Citicar's motor-to-diff interface? Thx! Stan

[MetroMPG]

Ryland - that takes the cake.

Even if it needs a pile of work, that's a steal. I'm sure you know what these things sell for in good working condition.

Glad to hear the motor spun up with no problems.