I've got some fairly steep hills and I am wondering if an electric cart can make it up them.
I like the quite part of driving an electric.

Mine will go up steeper hills than I'm comfortable with (lifted cart/top heavy). Never had issues there.

Electric motors have significantly more torque than combustion engines and I would think the limiting factor is traction of tires and suspension capabilities.

This. With a high torque motor upgrade you can do wheelies off the starting line.

Electric has a lot more torque the gas or diesel

As long as mud isn’t clogging up between tires and wheel wells. Found that out one night back to camp. It was a long walk back in the cold rain.

So are you saying it will not go through mud holes like a gas one will?

Electric carts are one wheel drive, due to the open rear diff. I've had my electric in the soup, and it's gotten me through just fine, but I'm not taking it through a washout that's 18 inch deep mud. You can get different motors for them, higher amp controllers, bigger battery cables... it all adds up. There is a tradeoff however. You can, as a general rule, have only HP or Torque when you upgrade. Higher HP motors have less torque, and vice versa. An upgraded motor will give you more of both compared to the stock motor, but when choosing the upgrade, it's one or the other as far as what you're trying to accomplish. A higher torque motor will take you and 600 pounds of cargo up a hill, a higher HP motor will run you down the road faster.

You definitely want a 48 volt cart, so make sure you figure that into the equation.

My cart is 48 volt, upgraded everything, controller, cables, motor, etc. I've got a steep hill that's a 10% slope for about 350 feet. It's all that cart wants. It'll get up the hill, but it's crawling once it gets to the top. Otherwise it'll do 24 miles an hour down a blacktop road per the Eastland County Sheriff, which is more than enough for me in a golf cart.

I've had both EZGOs and Club Cars, both are fine and equally capable in my opinion. I've never had any experience with any others.

I would recommend checking out the Hisun Sector E1....they are located in McKinney and I would think they have a unit you could test drive.

This machine is 50% less than the Polaris and appears to offer many loaded options vs. Polaris add-ons.

I've got a 48v Club Car that I turned into a nice hunting buggy, never had any real issues running through mud until I started stalking pigs at night with it in the black clay corn crop country. It went through those sticky fields fine, the problem was creeping slow like that (stalking) stopping and then barely moving, the tires got way too heavy with mud for that stock regen motor to handle. Add to that, dragging big hogs out of the field to the roads. It would overheat and shut down on me, leaving me sitting out in the middle of a field for extended periods of time before it would cool off. So, I ordered the torquiest power train upgrade possible (don't need speed), I just need to put it in and replace the batteries and she'll be back in service. You're supposed to be able to pop wheelies with this upgrade, if you want to. It's been a great hunting buggy, just have to keep it out of high water (obviously).

Yeah, the electric motors don't much care for crawling against a load. If you haven't replaced the battery cables lately, an upgrade to a 2 gauge cable really makes a difference. I buy 2 gauge welding wire (thinner strands, more of them, very flexible) from my local welding supply house, and 2 gauge, 5/16" cable lugs from Amazon. But you can buy the cable kits premade at Buggies Unlimited, Carts Gone Wild, etc.

If you change the cables out, take a wire brush to the battery terminals and make sure they are very clean. That's how terminals get melted, if there's a less than optimal connection.

Yeh I learned that the stock regenerative braking motors do not like slow starts & stops, too much friction especially under a load........but the series motor I'm upgrading to is supposed to be a work horse with no risk of overheating. I bought a complete power train upgrade kit from either Buggies Unlimited or Carts Gone Wild (can't remember). It comes with motor, bigger cables, controller etc.....the only thing I forgot to buy was a heavier F/R switch. I was looking hard at lithium batteries, but that's a rich man's game there. Plus, they are over 300lbs lighter which sounds cool.....but with this super torque upgrade plus super lite batteries on a lifted top heavy cart with kids, I'm just asking for a roll over/flip over. So, ain't going the lithium route on the drive batteries. Thinking I need that weight. The accessory battery that runs all the lights/tail gate feeder etc will be a lithium.

I'll have to post some pics when I'm done. I dropped the coin on top of the line Rigid LED Lights (2 drive lights, one red creep light on the grill, 6" light bars overhead for forward/aft/port/starboard, cargo light, and dome light). Installing marine switches in the console with a Dremel Tool, all lights switched differently (these lights are for taking kids rabbit hunting, one of our favorite things to do). Can switch whatever lights on or off depending on fence line or sendero. Gonna look like a spaceship coming down the road with all the lights on.

Same here. The factory headlights sucked, so I took them out and made plates to hold a couple LED trailer brake lights. Then I had a 40 inch light bar for another project I didn't end up using, so on that went. It's a bit... much. But there is no longer a concern about outdriving the headlights.



The best kind of kill is overkill.

Not a mud hole, but a steep hill and gumbo mud.