Motor Size and Gearing for Drift Kart

[wesleyb82]

Heynow! I need advice/guidance. I want to convert a gas go kart to electric that can smoke the tires. Final speed would be 20-25mph, but I want to be able to stomp on the pedal and smoke the tires on asphalt.

I like to hear from people that know which voltage/wattage I should be shopping for as well as tire size and type.

36v motor on a 48v controller? 48 for both? 700w.... 1000w? Tiny slicks? A tough controller, I assume....

I'm 190 lbs. Final speed is not as important as instant torque!!

I have 12v 12ah batteries already, and my budget is ~$400 for live axle, motor and controller.

 

[dcastillo]

based on my very recent experience:
Im 190 plus a 100lbs or so of cart, using a very old 2000w 36V golfcart motor, overvolted to 48V. My controller maxes out at 200A which means at take off Im hitting the motor with about 10KW. with my current gearing I can just barely spin the tire (single wheel drive) on pavement with a top speed of about 25mph...
a 1000W motor could do it, but youll be geared so low your topspeed might hit 10-12 max i would think.
your gonna need a larger motor to do what you want, and a controller capable of at least 300A to be on the safe side.... spinning two tires will be much harder then just one.

also plan on at least a #40 chain, as I snapped my #35 already....

(someone with more experience feel free to correct me if Im wrong)
-Danny

 

[wesleyb82]

Ok, cool thanks for the input. What type of tires are you running though? Size and tread?

 

[dcastillo]

14" x 6" turf tires
-Danny

 

[wesleyb82]

Right ok. If it had smaller slicks maybe you could smoke them, right?

 

[dcastillo]

yes, but smaller tires means lower topspeed...
without a powerful motor, you have to compromise, either lowend torque or top speed.
-D

 

[wesleyb82]

Maybe I'll get two sets of tires, one for horsing around and one for speed

I'm just curious if someone out there has a small tire high torque setup that can actaully spin them when you stomp on the pedal

 

[dcastillo]

like this
http://www.razor.com/products/electric-ride-ons/ground-force-drifter/

 

[wesleyb82]

I'm been searching around and have found some karts on youtube that do what I need. Seems like a lot of them are running 72v, 450a, D&D motors and Alltrax controllers. The motor alone seems to exceed my budget so I don't think I can make this happen for this little. Maybe if I added a grand to my budget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLpggF5eiBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6E7ASqmPoo

 

[dcastillo]

you just need time...
watch craigslist everyday...
I picked up my golfcart motor which can easily do what you want for free...
I also just found a guy selling a 300A curtis controller for $100 (which I may pick up to replace my kelly 200A controller)
for a small cart, 300A is more then enough
-Danny