Self Propelled Golf Pull Cart

[Tommy G]

Self Propelled Golf "Pull" Cart

Hello everyone. I am quite the novice when it comes to stuff like this but I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me with a project I would like to undertake. My idea is to build a golf “pull” cart with some sort of DC motor that might run off a battery powerful enough to last a full 18 holes. I know that they are out there and are for sale but I don’t really want to shell out the big bucks. I thought it would be cool to make one for a project. The size of the battery is not an issue. I would even use a car battery if I could figure out the right DC motor to hook up to it to drive the pully. I’m even considering rigging the front wheel to be able to turn right and left off of a servo like a remote control car. So, I guess my question is, would it be possible to do this fairly easily. What type, if any, battery would be sufficient to drive a motor that would engage a clutch to drive the two back wheels and could be recharged on a regular basis? Any ideas on a battery and or a motor would be very helpful….

Thanks in advance.

Tommy G. ( A golfer that loves to walk the course but doesn’t like to pull his bag!)

 

[Unrest]

They usually use sealed lead acid batteries. Sealed helps when it falls over! Lead acid is cheap and easy to recharge, just keep it on trickle charge whenever you get the opportunity. It also needs to be rated for deeper discharges than a car battery if you expect it to be drained flat often.

To work out the power requirements see what the people making robots do. Work out the steepnesses of the hills, rolling resistance, required acceleration. That gives you the power, speed and torque required. Battery life is fairly easy to calculate from that. Can you indicate how much you already know?

A cheap source for a motor might be from an electric bicycle or bike conversion kit. They're flooding the markets in Asia and cost next to nothing. They also don't require clutches or gears because the motors have low RPM and drive the wheel directly with hardly any resistance to turning when unpowered.

Certainly a realistic project. I hope you can make it radio controlled or automatically follow you like a dog!

 

[Mech_Engineer]

You'd probably be better off just buying one from a company that makes them. For example, the RoboKaddy: http://www.innovagolf.com/golfbags.html

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/innovagolf_2156_29410398.gif