Solar panel for a 48v golf cart

[2050z]

Anybody out there have one on their cart?

Seems like a great idea. Several videos out there about it. Would be nice to have when you are really using your cart all day.

[Ironman]

I'm no solar expert, but I have several solar panels for different applications. I would think you would need quiet a big panel to keep a 48v golf cart charged up.

[2050z]

About the size of the cart roof. No cheap either, but lot of people have them.

[Ironman]

About the size of the cart roof. No cheap either, but lot of people have them.

Lol! I was going to say about the size of the roof. No lie!

[Brazos Hunter]

You could wire 4 12V panels together and save some $. Just a thought.

[Pushbutton2]

Watching

[tbgascorer]

Never found it to be a real plausible idea. Say you wire 4 each, 20 watts (20"x17" each) for 48vdc. You'd only be putting back around 2.25 amps back into the battery bank per peak sun hour. Are you ever in the rough? Well, you cannot charge under the trees. Better try the links
Couple that with poor angle to the sun, clouds, early morning/late evening and it sounds better than it really is. It would be a really slow trickle charge. Best to plug that sucker in every night at the clubhouse.

[Snakelover]

I think it would depend a lot on how you use the cart as to whether this would make good sense or not. The way we use our Polaris Ranger EV is mostly for working around our property. So a full day of use is probably only 1-3 hours of actual drive time. In our case, leaving it on a BatteryMinder 48v, 2amp maintainter/desulfator/trickle charger overnight is all we need. We don't even use the main Polaris charger because slower is better for the batteries when it comes to charging. But if you're needing to extend the run time between charges, the solar panel might be the ticket. I doubt it would keep up, but it might at least make the cart discharge the batteries more slowly.

[bigbad243]

I think it would depend a lot on how you use the cart as to whether this would make good sense or not. The way we use our Polaris Ranger EV is mostly for working around our property. So a full day of use is probably only 1-3 hours of actual drive time. In our case, leaving it on a BatteryMinder 48v, 2amp maintainter/desulfator/trickle charger overnight is all we need. We don't even use the main Polaris charger because slower is better for the batteries when it comes to charging. But if you're needing to extend the run time between charges, the solar panel might be the ticket. I doubt it would keep up, but it might at least make the cart discharge the batteries more slowly.

This will decrease the life of your batteries. They need to go through stages in order to reach their potential.

[91cavgt]

Another option would be to get two 24 volt panels and wire them in series to get 48 volts. I have a Sharp 245 watt panel that in the real world puts out 8 amps in good sunlight. 2 of these panels would be slightly larger than the roof but 8 amps of current would help better than just 2 amps in the example above.

[Drycreek3189]

This will decrease the life of your batteries. They need to go through stages in order to reach their potential.

According to my cart guru, your batts need to be "broken in" by discharging almost down for the first 4/5 times you charge. After that, charging your batts when they are just down somewhat, say half or a quarter, is nothing to worry about.

[Snakelover]

This will decrease the life of your batteries. They need to go through stages in order to reach their potential.

With all respect, I've learned the hard way that using the Polaris's Delta-Q charger (as it is set by the factory on algorithm #73) will decrease the life of batteries. It simply charges them way too fast. Anyone using the Delta-Q on a Ranger EV really needs to change the charger's algorithm to either #71 or #11 (slower charging) to keep from shortening the battery life. This has been proven time and again by Ranger EV users on the Ranger EV forums.

Since replacing the batteries, bulk charging them a few times and then switching to the BatteryMinder, I haven't had one bit of trouble. Perhaps if I ever discharged them more deeply, I would need to use the onboard Delta-Q charger for bulk stage charging. (I have switched the algorithm to one of the settings recommended on the forums.) But since my batteries normally stay at a relatively high charge, that's never been an issue and the BatteryMinder works as both a float stage charger and pulse desulfator.

This approach was recommended to me based on my particular way of using the Ranger EV by someone who specifically works on golf carts and other similar battery systems. Your results may vary and that's why I said I think a lot of it depends on how you use your cart.

According to my cart guru, your batts need to be "broken in" by discharging almost down for the first 4/5 times you charge. After that, charging your batts when they are just down somewhat, say half or a quarter, is nothing to worry about.

That is exactly what I was told as well.

[imyomama]

not sure how well a panel would do .. but if you have power , i have a suggestion i used on my cart ... i kept showing up to the ranch and the cart would be dead ... after a while , the batteries took a hit and they became very unbalanced and running out quickly ... so i did 2 things ... 1 i got a battery desulfator additive ... 2 i added a battery maintainer.

now , when i get to the ranch , the cart is always ready to go and the batteries have recovered quite a bit of range ...

here are the 2 things i used

https://www.amazon.com/Charge-CH-77QHD-Heavy-Duty-Concentrated-Additive/dp/B01GUUNMGM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488837416&sr=8-1&keywords=charge-it

https://www.amazon.com/Save-Battery-2365-48-48-Volt-Maintainer/dp/B002HGFRNU

[Pushbutton2]

Noob question
What's a battery desulfator?

[Pushbutton2]

Noob question
What's a battery desulfator?