Golf carts. Whatcha got?

I've never had a golf cart and we've lived in a golf course community/neighborhood/town for several years now. The 2 older kiddos are taking golf lessons and it only makes sense to hop in a cart to take them instead of jump in the Sequoia to go a mile or two up the road.

Found this 1993 EZGO Marathon for a good price and jumped on it. The batteries are pretty new and it has some nice AT rubber with a small lift. I just don't see the sense in plopping down $10k on a golf cart so I liked the idea of getting a fixer upper.



Been slowly doing stuff to it - brakes, cover, battery gauge, etc. Checked the u-bolts and was sure glad I caught 3 of the 4 were broken...



I think I'll send the motor off to get upgraded/rebuilt. Saw a snail pass me by going up a steep hill the other day

 

These puppies are 22x11 on 8" wheels

 

A few months ago I had this dude give me a quote on getting limbs cut off of my neighbors gigantic pecan tree that were touching our roof. He said he could do it for "9". I was thinking in the thousands and said "Yeah, we can't do that." He comes back I can't do it for much less than that and says "What can you afford?" I say "$1500" and he replies "I said I could do it for $900."

I quickly said "$900 is great!"

Anyways, he shows up the next day and says he needed $300 up front. Gives me a ride to the local ATM and I get him the money. On the ride back he says a bunch of people give him golf carts in exchange for works that he does for them. He asks if I'd be interested in one. I ask him how much and he says "I was told they are worth $1500 but I'll do $325."

I told him that I'm definitely interested in a golf cart or two and I'd be ready to buy one after he does the tree work.

It rains and postpones it. We go to Michigan and come back, he still was unable to do it. He finally was able to cut the tree limbs and did a great job. I told him I was still interested in the golf carts and I had some others that were interested too are you still thinking $325. He says "yeah, I have different ones but definitely between $325 & $800." Then he says "If you can help me sell some, I'll give you one for free." So then I get really excited.

He was supposed to get back to me with pics of them and I haven't heard from him since.

I'm kinda wondering if he's serving time for attempting to steal a bunch of golf carts.

 

Just saw this. Not sure about where you are, but in my neck of the woods (I live on a 28 hole golf course neighborhood/town), golf carts are in high demand. There's no way to buy a decent one that's in running condition for less than $1500. Afaik, they don't have titles so I guess it wouldn't be too hard to rip one off then resell it.

 

A lot of people have them around here - the city made them street legal.

He said that he’d do some work for people around the San Marcos river that had Air Bnb’s and they’d give them to him. They were probably stolen but I figured I’d be good as long as I could get a bill of sale. I think where I went wrong is I asked him if he could locate an 8-seater for my buddy @Fotnot . His eyes kind of lit up and he said he’d try. That’s the last I heard from him…

8 seaters are probably a little bit harder to shoplift. This isn’t the first time Andy has gotten me in trouble with his requests, by the way.

 

Moral of the story, @Fotnot gets ppl in trouble/arrested

 

@TaquitoBandito did @Fotnot say who the 8th seat is for?..

is there another kiddo coming or just the weekly concubine?

 

There was a time in the past year 18 months were local dealers in my neck of the woods, were getting ripped off and their lot got stolen.

 

We just picked up a 2010 EZ GO RXV 48V. I think it's been chipped and has some nice aluminum SS wheels on it, but some of the body mods are questionable. Good winter project to figure some of it out. This might be me by the end of it though.

 

Just bought one last month for the new house we are building and almost finished with.... Everyone has them in that neighborhood and cruises around to each others house.

Around here $1,500 will get you a 1998 model with no batteries, haha.

The crazy thing is all carts almost regardless of age is $3,500 to $6,000 for used. A good condition 2006 sells for basically came as a 2020 used. The floor is $3,500 for any cart of working condition. I am only talking electric by the way.....

Gas commands a premium. I was looking at good clean used Yamaha carts and they are $5,000 minimum for a gas version cart. Again you can get a 1992 model that barely runs for $1,000.

Ling story short, I decided on electric over gas. The neighborhood is pretty hilly so knew I wanted an AC drive, 48v, Lithium powered cart.

Found this 2019 EZ-GO Rxv Elite that was pretty clean and paid $5,100 all in for it for the family and that took quite a while to find. They sell crazy fast around here with all the lake, camping, etc.....

Then put on an EcoXGear SBE26 battery powered speaker and it is awesome!!!!

 

I don't do anything illegal.



Btw....its only illegal if you get caught

 

Gotta have room for the Fotnot 5, the misses and myself, and the ice chest with drinks

 

I'd love to get one of those Cushman's that they use to haul luggage and people at the airports. Put a mild lift and some AT's on it. Some of those can pull a trailer

 

I just picked up a Yamaha drive 2 that came off lease from a local golf course. $3500 for the cart, and planning about $3k to convert to a people hauler. Should be a fun little project. They seem really easy to work on, and parts are plentiful.

 

Guess I wasn't ready to fork out thousands for a damn golf cart and everyone around here has one. Just seems ridiculous to me.

I bought mine for $1600 with almost new batteries. 36V but I've converted it and waiting on the new Eco Battery to get here. Electric > gas imo. It seems they don't have near as much trouble as the gas powered carts.

 

Electric is easy, but expensive every few years to replace batteries. If I find a decent used one with new(er) batteries I'll pick it up. Also seat about 8. I'll customize after that

 

Lithium will set you back $1300-2300ish but last 8-10 years.

 

I picked up a 1997 Club Car DS about six years ago. We love it! It started out kinda boring but we made it fun

This one is gas. Little 9.5hp Kawasaki that will push it down the road at just under 20mph.

 

Thats when you swap a Hayabusa engine in it.

 

Your setting looks more rural. For that situation, I'd prefer gas too.

 

The trendy Predator engine swaps look fun!

 

Yes, we do live "in the country" The electric carts are great as long as you understand the battery situation. You will likely need to replace every 5 years at about $1,000 a pop. They are also a lot heavier.

 

This thing is hardly safe at 20mph. If I was going down that road I would step up my game to something with brakes on all 4 wheels, seatbelts and a roll cage.

 

I'll have to look into that one. I'm running a 48V that I think I'll swap to LiI when they crap out.

 

Yeah I'm waiting for heavier regulation/enforcement on golf carts what with the beefier motors and higher expectations for performance. The mods ppl can do to a cart that was made in the 80s-90s don't typically include safety. One of my students fell out of her dad's cart while he was going full tilt. She spent a week in the hospital and suffered a TBI. She has not been the same since regarding her learning capacity.

 

Yeah mine started out 36V but with the lift and beefier tires it's like I needed to hoist a sail up with a stiff wind to get up these hills in our neighborhood.

 

I went all in on a Drive 2 AC. Thankfully was pre-Covid before things went bananas and every other house picked one up.

Long bed is nice.


As she sat when purchased. It was a golf course retiree.


In-process.


Wrapped, seats, lift, wheels, new batteries, and street legal with PTV unlock.

 

I used to ride Glamis sand dunes quite a bit, and up until the UTV's (Rhinos, Rzr's, etc.) came out the trendy thing with the "in crowd" in addition to your sand rail was to have a golf cart for cruising around to your buddies camps...
Of course, as people do, mods are cool, bigger is better, and so on. People were building, lifting, motor swapping some pretty ridiculous and scary carts.



I used to cringe every time I'd see people running around being stupid in these things, racing, some of 'em put street bike motors and would pull wheelies.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for racing and being a little stupid, (I mean, I was riding a 3-wheeler for God's sake) but at least put on a helmet, these carts had no roll cage and they didn't have to wear helmets.

 

I'm with you on the modding stuff out, I mean look at our Tundras, but I think reason/logic should play a role via keeping things safe. Now that's the older, "wiser" me talkin - the early 20s me was a different beast. Now that I have kids and carry them around in the cart, I'm more interested in torque (hilly terrain) and milder speeds.