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Bag Boy Volt Electric Cart

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Waldo0007 said:
Hit the 130 plus mark on my cart.

I put a 5 pound ankle weight in the front pocket of my bag and it seems to have made a big difference. Going uphill it doesn't tip back as severely as it used to. I tried a 3 pound ankle weight but it didn't seem to make any noticeable difference. Drawback: 5 pound weight increase.

When I lock the front wheel, the gyro keeps it significantly straighter on sideways slopes and uphill. Point to point it seems to be easier to steer as long as you are going in a relatively straight line and going at a relatively hi-speed (5-6 bars on the speed scale). When pressing the directional button, the cart doesn't jerk left or right causing me to have to make a correction. If I "pulse" the directional button rather than press and hold, It seems to work better.

If you have to make a sharp/quick turn, forget it.

Drawback is that it seems to drain the battery faster.


Funny you should post this. My second cart was a Gri-1500Li. Still have it. I went and measured the wheel and it's 12" in diameter and 3" wide. Too big for the Volt but if you could find the right size it would be easier than the other route. But the large cup holder fits perfectly into the Volts cup holder. Makes it easier to insert and remove water bottle.
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I locked the front wheel my first round and found the Volt really hard to turn especially on pavement. Have not tried it since plus now the front wheel lock does not seem to work anymore. I am falling behind your mileage. Just hit 105. :)
 
Since I was waiting a day to let the glue dry I used my bat caddy today. Kinda like going back in time. 20 yards off the first tee box I tipped it over on the side slope. Lol. By the way, my playing partner with his MGI Navigator tipped his over later in the round as well! There were things I found I wished the Volt had such as quick take off at start and a quicker response to remote commands but that was about all. I missed the bag under the console as that's where I keep my range finder on the Volt. My phone fell out of the phone holder when i hit a bump on the path where it's very secure in the Volt.
My first test on tires will be Tuesday. Can't wait to see how they work. I'm thinking that they will change the turning and slipping uphill. I did notice while I put the tread around the wheels that there is a slight bit of wobble in the rear hubs. Not sure if they are supposed to have that or not. Nothing to be concerned with but I will keep my eyes on that going forward.
Rod
 
tucsondivots said:
I locked the front wheel my first round and found the Volt really hard to turn especially on pavement. Have not tried it since plus now the front wheel lock does not seem to work anymore. I am falling behind your mileage. Just hit 105. :)
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I assume you've tried the universal cure-all,WD-40 ? :)
 
A little disappointed with the Volt yesterday. Now in all fairness I was going to wait until Tuesday to use it as the bond was only on for 36 hours but that should have been plenty long enough.
I also didnt play a normal round as it was the clubs opening day so we did a scramble and i started on hole 16 which is about .4 miles from the club house. Then when i finish i have to walk back to the club house which is only 100 yard or so shorter then the walk out.
First disappointment was my fault as the E6000 glue failed almost immediately on the bike tire tread. Only 4 holes into my round I could see the tire was starting to move off the rim. 2 holes later I pulled it off the original tire as it was loose 3/4 of the way around. I didn't like the glue when I did it and thought I would have an issue. However the tire on the other side did stay on all round.
But my biggest disappointment was that my battery died on the last hole. I didn't turn the cart on to start the round until is was at the tee box of my first hole. Now because it was a scramble this round went longer but the battery died at the 4 hr 50 minute mark. There was no extra cart travel compared to a normal round but it was at least 1 hour longer. It's still disappointing that it died that quick as I did push the cart more then I normally do.
But tonight I will use my new can of contact cement to redo the tread and I'll be giving it another shot on Tuesday.
I just wonder if the aggressive tread uses more battery power? I do think it pushed slight harder then before but could just be my imagination.
I'll report back later this week.
Rod
 
rod7515 said:
A little disappointed with the Volt yesterday. Now in all fairness I was going to wait until Tuesday to use it as the bond was only on for 36 hours but that should have been plenty long enough.
I also didnt play a normal round as it was the clubs opening day so we did a scramble and i started on hole 16 which is about .4 miles from the club house. Then when i finish i have to walk back to the club house which is only 100 yard or so shorter then the walk out.
First disappointment was my fault as the E6000 glue failed almost immediately on the bike tire tread. Only 4 holes into my round I could see the tire was starting to move off the rim. 2 holes later I pulled it off the original tire as it was loose 3/4 of the way around. I didn't like the glue when I did it and thought I would have an issue. However the tire on the other side did stay on all round.
But my biggest disappointment was that my battery died on the last hole. I didn't turn the cart on to start the round until is was at the tee box of my first hole. Now because it was a scramble this round went longer but the battery died at the 4 hr 50 minute mark. There was no extra cart travel compared to a normal round but it was at least 1 hour longer. It's still disappointing that it died that quick as I did push the cart more then I normally do.
But tonight I will use my new can of contact cement to redo the tread and I'll be giving it another shot on Tuesday.
I just wonder if the aggressive tread uses more battery power? I do think it pushed slight harder then before but could just be my imagination.
I'll report back later this week.
Rod
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When I finish a round (usually 3 - 3.5 hours, 5 plus miles), I usually have 1 bar remaining. When I'm charging the battery I see the first bar flashing which means I had less than 1 full bar remaining at the end of the round. I'm pretty sure the battery would die within the next few holes if I had continued playing.

A lot of my disappointment with the battery comes from my initial expectation of playing 36 holes on a single charge. In my opinion, under normal,everyday playing conditions, you "might" get 27 holes but I wouldn't go 36 holes without a charge. * note: this does not apply to Tucsondivots who has a super battery. :)
 
rod7515 said:
A little disappointed with the Volt yesterday. Now in all fairness I was going to wait until Tuesday to use it as the bond was only on for 36 hours but that should have been plenty long enough.
I also didnt play a normal round as it was the clubs opening day so we did a scramble and i started on hole 16 which is about .4 miles from the club house. Then when i finish i have to walk back to the club house which is only 100 yard or so shorter then the walk out.
First disappointment was my fault as the E6000 glue failed almost immediately on the bike tire tread. Only 4 holes into my round I could see the tire was starting to move off the rim. 2 holes later I pulled it off the original tire as it was loose 3/4 of the way around. I didn't like the glue when I did it and thought I would have an issue. However the tire on the other side did stay on all round.
But my biggest disappointment was that my battery died on the last hole. I didn't turn the cart on to start the round until is was at the tee box of my first hole. Now because it was a scramble this round went longer but the battery died at the 4 hr 50 minute mark. There was no extra cart travel compared to a normal round but it was at least 1 hour longer. It's still disappointing that it died that quick as I did push the cart more then I normally do.
But tonight I will use my new can of contact cement to redo the tread and I'll be giving it another shot on Tuesday.
I just wonder if the aggressive tread uses more battery power? I do think it pushed slight harder then before but could just be my imagination.
I'll report back later this week.
Rod
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That may be the trade off with the lightweight Volt battery. Anything extra drains it pretty quick. I am going to hold off on the bicycle tire hack for awhile and see how it works long term for you and Lambeau. My Volt froze up again in remote mode today. Third time in 5 rounds. When it happens the remote does not work but you can go to Manual or use it under power by adjusting knob on console. Each time after some length of time the remote works again.
 
Waldo0007 said:
When I finish a round (usually 3 - 3.5 hours, 5 plus miles), I usually have 1 bar remaining. When I'm charging the battery I see the first bar flashing which means I had less than 1 full bar remaining at the end of the round. I'm pretty sure the battery would die within the next few holes if I had continued playing.

A lot of my disappointment with the battery comes from my initial expectation of playing 36 holes on a single charge. In my opinion, under normal,everyday playing conditions, you "might" get 27 holes but I wouldn't go 36 holes without a charge. * note: this does not apply to Tucsondivots who has a super battery. :)
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Yeah, I seem to be doing better on the battery than most. No idea why. I have never had less than 2 green bars on the battery and the console meter always shows full charge.
 
tucsondivots said:
That may be the trade off with the lightweight Volt battery. Anything extra drains it pretty quick. I am going to hold off on the bicycle tire hack for awhile and see how it works long term for you and Lambeau. My Volt froze up again in remote mode today. Third time in 5 rounds. When it happens the remote does not work but you can go to Manual or use it under power by adjusting knob on console. Each time after some length of time the remote works again.
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Have you tried re-syncing the remote to see if that makes a difference ?
 
My first two rounds are in the books. First round was a learning experience on operation, so today went much better.

It did tip over yesterday, but that's on user error.

Purposefully didn't charge the battery after the round yesterday (showed two bars left) as I wanted to see if I could get two full rounds out of it on a single charge at my course. Made it to hole 14 on the second day before the battery died. Had to push the last 4 holes, but due to the overall lightness of both the Volt and the ZTF bag on it, pushing it wasn't any more difficult than a normal push cart. I don't want to get in the habit of doing that, so I plan on charging after each round. I bought it to save the effort of pushing a cart, especially in the hot summer months.

Like others have said, it's light in the front, so the wheelie bar does get used a bit on my course and there are two times I need to have my hand on it to guide it (a steep incline between holes and the #1 one reason I wanted an e-cart and a bridge incline where the wheels spin). I don't want to make the assembly any heavier than it needs to be, but I might try a small weight on the front wheel to see if it helps.

All in all, I'm happy with the purchase. Sending the cart in front of me to my ball and casually walking behind it really makes for a relaxing round.
 
tucsondivots said:
That may be the trade off with the lightweight Volt battery. Anything extra drains it pretty quick. I am going to hold off on the bicycle tire hack for awhile and see how it works long term for you and Lambeau. My Volt froze up again in remote mode today. Third time in 5 rounds. When it happens the remote does not work but you can go to Manual or use it under power by adjusting knob on console. Each time after some length of time the remote works again.
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Just a wild guess, but I had a cart a few years ago before my zip navigator that if the remote in the battery was getting low, it would lose contact with the cart similar to what you experiencing. I would suggest charting the battery on your remote before you go out next time to see if that helps alleviate the losing contact with the cart.
 
Jimmy3864 said:
Just a wild guess, but I had a cart a few years ago before my zip navigator that if the remote in the battery was getting low, it would lose contact with the cart similar to what you experiencing. I would suggest charting the battery on your remote before you go out next time to see if that helps alleviate the losing contact with the cart.
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I have considered that and will try. But one round the remote “froze” on #9, started back up on #10 fairway (after using manual mode) then worked fine the rest of the round.
 
Waldo0007 said:
Have you tried re-syncing the remote to see if that makes a difference ?
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Good thought. I will try that. It occurs so randomly and infrequently that I do not see a pattern. At least it re-engages after a few minutes so is manageable.
 
tucsondivots said:
Well, broke the 100 mile threshold and maybe broke my Volt today. My back has been hurting me so I decided to walk the front and ride on the back. I struggled trying to find the best way to put the Volt on the cart with me. I put the wheels on the passenger floorboard and front wheel on the passenger seat, turned so it braced against the hand rail on the cart. But about 30 yards in the Volt fell out of the cart and took a solid dump on the cart path. At that point my brain engaged and I took the front wheel off (super easy) and then it braced perfectly on the seat next to me. After the round I surveyed the damage. Major road rash on the area next to the controller knob. Worse the controller knob got dinged up and does not turn easily. Pushing the knob is now hit or miss for engaging the Manual Mode. Tomorrow I am going to see if that cover piece can be easily taken off so I can see if I can straighten the controller knob out. Maybe that whole plastic piece and knob are available as spare parts. Lesson learned, too late.:(
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Sorry to hear this. I did the same thing when I first got my Volt - took a quick turn and it fell out of the cart. A little banged up but luckily no major damage. It does seem well built though - sturdier than the Stewart. I now just put the back wheels on the floor and hold the top wheel with my hand when I have it in the cart.

Also, just a few more updates with about a dozen rounds on the cart. Stability still seems to be problematic as it's tipped over several times - almost once per round is typical, so I need to watch it a bit more carefully. I added a 2.5 lb weight to the bag and it seems to help a little on the slopes, but the front wheel still comes up and makes it a lot less stable. May try a 5 lb weight.

My favorite feature is definitely how easy it is to enter manual mode - when I take it over curbs I put it in manual mode quickly and push it over. When going down steep/bumpy slopes, I also put it in manual mode to hold onto it better. And sometimes when crossing small bridges. It's a great idea and very well executed by Bag Boy.

Also, the turn and forward mode is something I've gotten used to and while not ideal, it's not really causing any problems. Battery still seems to be fine with 2 bars left after 18. Sucks that some people here are not getting as good battery life. Might be a bad battery unfortunately. I did get a Bag Boy Chiller cart bag (no stand) and the Top Lok system works really well - bag is really locked in, even when I tip it over it stays locked in. Lots of good pockets, and I like putting my lunch in the cooler. I do love the bottle holder - superior placement/design. And for me, I used to hang one of the small tubes of divot mix off my bag, but the cart has a holder built into the right side of the handle which it snaps into. It could be a little more tight as the divot tube falls off when the cart goes over anything bumpy. I'm also seeing why people are adding the rubber bumps to the remote - the buttons can be a little hard to find without looking and I have missed the buttons because they're so flush with the remote and have no separation between them.
 
Crunch said:
My favorite feature is definitely how easy it is to enter manual mode - when I take it over curbs I put it in manual mode quickly and push it over. When going down steep/bumpy slopes, I also put it in manual mode to hold onto it better. And sometimes when crossing small bridges. It's a great idea and very well executed by Bag Boy.
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Well said. Tomorrow I'm going to try playing in manual mode as much as possible to see if it makes difference in battery life. Should as the gyro will be turned off.
 
Waldo0007 said:
Well said. Tomorrow I'm going to try playing in manual mode as much as possible to see if it makes difference in battery life. Should as the gyro will be turned off.
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Should be an interesting test. The day I forgot my remote control I switched back and forth between manual and powered mode. I had a terrible time trying to adjust speed in powered mode which resulted fiddling with the speed knob almost constantly. It was a desert course with lots of bumps and ruts so I had to hold on to the handle as the Volt bounced every which way. Also, the constant speed changing affected the battery life as it was the only round I only had 2 green lights at the end.
 
Volt locked up on remote control again today. Freshly charged remote battery but have not tried to unpair/re-pair yet. Each time the remote starts working again within minutes. Always occurs after a regular stop. Not a big issue, just irritating.
 
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