For seventeen years I've been a residential solar contractor in Arkansas. Changing times has brought semi-retirement and more time to focus on my passion - Solar Powered Antique Golf Carts - or as I like to call them - JetStone mobiles.
It is my fervent belief that the only form of human transportation suitable for sunlight as the primary fuel source is... golf carts.
Here's why...
If it were possible to power a car with a solar panel don't you think someone who owns an electric car company and a solar company would have launched one by now? I do mean launched, like by his rocket company so everyone on Earth would know he has a solar powered car and want to buy one.
Until then, the lowly golf cart is the frontier of solar transportation. Here lies the opportunity. We must quit needlessly adding pollutants to the atmosphere while traversing through beautiful parks enjoying a noble quest.
Golf already has a bad rap from an ecological point of view. Golf haters say golf course require excessive pesticides, fertilizer and water just so a privileged few can drive toy cars around and play an elitist game.
I say shame on them. A golf course is a beautiful park with a purpose. The game itself is an ancient and noble guide to the meaning of life. The golf cart is a transcendental vehicle and the conveyance to the Zen of golf.
Golf courses have long since undergone major changes in their operations to limit fertilizers and pesticides and manage water resources. But not much has been done to reduce the emissions from gas golf carts. It is generally known that a riding lawnmower has 10 times the carbon footprint of a car. A gas golf cart must be even worse.
But that's not the worst thing about gas golf carts. The worst thing is the exhaust fumes and the noisy sputters and moans they make. They're constantly disturbing the peace and serenity of the park.
There is an alternative available that is clean, quiet and has roots in Arkansas that date back to the early 1950's and the first rental carts at a golf course, and they were electric. (Golf carts were first used at a course in Texarkana, Look it up)
Electric golf carts have not quite been up to the task in most parts of Arkansas however. Long distances, steep hills and heavy underpowered lead acid batteries were huge limiting factors.
No more. New battery technology has flattened the course for electric carts. More powerful AC motors can out climb, out pace and leave out all the smell and noise of the gas carts.
The time has come to phase out gas carts in favor of modern electric golf carts and restore tranquility and harmony on this ancient and noble quest.
The JetStone Solar Sedan is a 2003 Club Car IQ Pathway with its roof replaced with a high-power solar panel and its batteries upgraded to lithium iron phosphate.
The Club Car Pathway was already an exceptional golf cart before any mods were added. Special features included factory four seats all with seat belts attached to a rollbar with a third brake light at the top. Factory turn signals, rearview mirrors, 25 mph motor, heavy-duty controller, four-wheel brakes, and a windshield wiper were standard equipment. The oversized DOT rated wheels came on a heavy-duty suspension that is smooth on the road but unforgiving on the fairways. That’s because the Pathway was never intended to be driven on a golf course. The Pathway was built as a special-order street legal vehicle for General Motors in 2002. This is one of just 3,500 or so unique golf carts exclusively made for General Motors to very exacting specifications. They were designed and manufactured specifically to meet California’s newly minted Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) standards.
Back story: In the late nineties, progressive California lawmakers passed more stringent emission standards for automakers than the Federal government while also listing requirements for imagined future electric cars they labeled NEV. Looking for a solution, General Motors asked Club Car if they could make a road worthy golf cart to those new California NEV standards. After careful consideration Club Car said sure and produced the Pathway.
General Motors calculated how many zero-emission electric vehicles would be needed to offset their car and pickup sales and planned to lease the Pathways for $1 per year to corporate and college campuses across the State to satisfy California’s new regulations. California lawmakers cried foul, lawsuits ensued and California’s more stringent emission standards were struck down by the Supreme Court.
The majority of the Pathways sat in storage through the trial and were returned to Club Car when it was over. Club Car reprogramed the speed controller from 25 to 19.5 mph, added a golf bag rack and sold them as deluxe golf carts through their nationwide dealerships. Although the California NEV designation faded, the Pathway helped pioneer LSV’s (Low Speed Vehicles) sold by all golf cart makers today.
Footnote: See hilarious period news article.
GM'S PATHWAY NEIGHBORHOOD ELECTRIC VEHICLE EARNS DUBIOUS DISTINCTION
Auto week
Published: Sep 5, 2002
By HARRY STOFFER
Automotive News
WASHINGTON -- They resemble golf carts on steroids, but they are enough like cars to earn clean-air credits for automakers. Yet, government agencies struggle to find the right legal category for small, battery-powered neighborhood vehicles.
But one of them inadvertently has earned kinship with many of its car and truck brethren: It is being recalled.
The 2003 Pathway, a golf-cart-like runabout that General Motors is placing by the thousands in states poised to require zero-emissions from part of the vehicle fleet, has a safety defect.
Some Pathways contain 12-volt relays instead of the 48-volt units they need, and brake lights fail after the relays burn out, according to a document posted last week on the Web site of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said he believes the Pathway is the first neighborhood electric vehicle, or NEV, to be recalled.
Dewey Holland, vice president of Club Car Inc. of Augusta, Ga., the Pathway's manufacturer, said the number of vehicles with the wrong relays is about 200, or one day's production, but the company is checking about 3,500 to be sure. Only a few of that total have been delivered to users.
This year, GM began providing free leases on Pathways to colleges, businesses and other organizations in California and states with California-style air quality rules, with the provision that users keep them on limited-access, low-speed roads, such as those on campuses.
GM intended for the free leases to be a way for it to comply with the initial phases of California's zero-emission mandate. Subsequently, GM and DaimlerChrysler won a court injunction against the mandate. But GM continues to supply the Pathways, while DaimlerChrysler and Ford Motor Co. are trying to sell neighborhood electric vehicles through subsidiaries.
For the record, neither Club Car nor GM favors having neighborhood electric vehicles mix with bigger vehicles. GM even petitioned NHTSA to restrict their use.
In July, NHTSA agreed to require labels warning of the risks of riding in "mixed traffic" and to mandate additional lights and reflective markers.
NHTSA said it might add more safety standards later. Generally, state and local governments are responsible for deciding which streets and roads neighborhood electric vehicles may use.
I’ve compared my ’03 Club Car to a General Motors Cadillac. I think it’s reasonable to compare my ’96 EZGO to a '65 Ford Mustang.
EZGO was the first golf cart brand to make it big like Henry Ford did some 50 years earlier. They pioneered placing fleets of carts in golf courses across the country like Ford did with dealerships. Both Ford and EZGO became the largest manufacturer in the world in their respective industries.
Side note: Number two Club Car was actually started by one of the founding brothers of EZGO several years after Textron bought the company in 1960. Both companies manufacture their carts in Augusta Georgia, the Detroit of golf carts.
I consider my ’96 EZGO TXT Freedom Series like finding a 1965 Mustang GT in a collapsing barn in nowhere Arkansas. Wipe off the dust and ‘Shelby’ is written on the glovebox. 1996 was the first year for the TXT, like '65 was for the Mustang. The TXT was the first EZGO to use a molded thermoplastic body that allowed for rounded forms and lighter weight like the new Ford unibody on the Mustang. The TXT original design became the blueprint for all golf carts to come like the Mustang became the model for the midsize sports car. Both are American icons today.
Like Ford, EZGO understood success in sales meant reaching more consumers by offering a variety of options and price points.Their standard package came with a 2 horse motor and a 275 watt programmable speed controller. One model, the TXT Freedom Series was special like the Mustang GT. It came equipped with a bigger 2.7 horsepower motor and a heavy duty Curtis 400 watt solid state speed controller that was not programmable or speed limiting.
The only failing of this beefed up model is it still required hauling heavy lead acid batteries around that had limited power, limited drive time and a short service life. Even with the Freedom’s souped-up drive train top speed was only 16 mph, about 4 mph faster than the fleets at the time. (Downhill is another story entirely!) When 48 volts became standard in golf carts so did the speed limiting control systems. Today the programmed top speed for golf carts is 19.5 mph, even downhill.
At long last, the future arrives and modern technology has made this old 36 volt golf cart a fully realized fun to drive perpetual golfing machine. Top speed on flat ground is up to 22 mph with the same stock drivetrain as before. The much lighter lithium batteries have higher steady voltage which means quick take offs, better tork and 10 times the lifespan of the best batteries previously available. The solar charger on the roof can replace all the power consumed by the golf cart.
I guess you could say the new tech I added to the Sun Buggy is like the muscle Shelby added to the 1965 Mustang GT; only difference is the name on the glove box.
I didn’t fully understand the seventh lesson for golfing, ‘Enjoy Making Work Tools’ as stated in my ancestral Scottish edition of The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife, until I listened to a neighbor go on and on about losing his favorite fishing lure.
Flicking his wrist he demonstrated how he pitched his $6 lure right into that nasty submerged pile of brush. I tried to goad him by asking why he bothered to keep a boat and tackle and never seemed to have any fish to show for it. I expected some lame ‘catch and release’ excuse but instead he told me a fish story I will always remember.
He leaned in close like he was going to tell a secret and softly said, “Jack, you know fish is every man’s fourth favorite meat. It stinks up the house and nobody likes gutting slimy critters.
Fishing is not about how many fish you catch… it’s about getting out and playing with your fishing toys”. Then he leaned back and started in again about the flex of his rod, the test of his line, the ratio of his reel, my eyes glazed over and I thought of course, that’s it, that’s the meaning for the seventh lesson of golfing!
I realized his tackle are like my golf clubs, his bass boat is my golf cart, his $6 lure are two $3 golf balls which coincidentally are often left in a body of water too. The loft angle of the club, the force applied to the ball, the delight in the flight path intended are the sweet moments to be savored in golf. I finally got the meaning of the Seventh Lesson from the Golfing Guide and for that I have an angler to thank. Happiness cannot be written on a scorecard or counted on a stringer. Happiness comes from physically working with your golfing tools.
The Seventh Lesson: (gabh tiachd obair deideagan)
The 15th century Gaelic manuscript, Treoir Gailf ar Neamh or The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife, is part of my ancestral legacy. The family story goes that an early relative of ours was a golf instructor in old Scotland. He brought the guide with him when he migrated to the New World. The ancient book has been handed down in our family ever since.
The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife opens with an epic prologue by an unknown Scottish author chronicling the mythological origins of golf. The knowledge of the golfing ritual was first discovered by Templar Knights some seventy years after arriving in Scotland in 1129. Templers burrowed under every ancient sites they could find in Scotland unearthing among other things a copper book they could not read.
The story takes the Templars on a perilous journey to a monastery on the Isle of Man where they hoped to get it translated. A Monk raised as a scribe in a pagan temple in Mesopotamia who could read forgotten languages was cloistered there. He became a Christian and hitched a ride to Britannica after English Crusaders freed him and burnt his temple to the ground.
The majority of the book is a guide to a specific set of rules and rituals to complete a golfing discovery quest that can be traced to antiquity. The original purpose of the golfing quest was to learn and adopt the life lessons necessary to enter into the afterlife.
There are several historical markers that make the Scottish tale seem plausible. It is well documented that the first mention of golf in recorded history was in 1457 when King James II of Scotland banned golf in his kingdom declaring archery the national pastime. It was also well known that King James played golf twice a week and had a driving range installed at his summer castle. So why would he publicly declare a ban but not enforce it?
The rumor at the time was Pope Callixtus III in Rome actually ordered King James to declare the ban. As long as King James gave the Bishop of Scotland and his priests free memberships at the golf club the infraction never get back to Rome.
The question is why would Pope Callixtus III ban golf in the first place? Ancient letters recently unearthed by the 4th Marshal of Aberdeen may reveal the answer. They suggest secret knowledge existed in the Vatican archives that linked the act of golfing to a pagan ritual first practiced by the giants in the time before the flood.*
I. Strike True (stailc fior)
The script opens with a poetic description of the various actions needed to complete the golfing quest. The Gaelic word for golf ball used in The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife, is ‘saol’. That same word continues in our vernacular today as ‘soul’.
The text equates the energy surging through the body to strike the golf ball as the energy that sends our souls through the rigors of daily life. That same connection of a golf ball to the human soul is still expressed in golfing lingo today with iconic phrases like, ‘be the ball’, or 'get in the hole'.
The ancient script states that If your energy is centered the straight path of your soul will find the just (fair) way and satisfaction achieved. If not the traps along the way will snarl your saol and impede your progress.
The text contain a beautiful tale of using different golf shots to exemplify simple life lessons like, 'taking a small slice is more generous than a big one'. It also describes various circumstances requiring different types of ‘iarann ding’ or iron tools to complete the task of advancing your saol. For example one iron ding is used to ‘feather the saol’ when soft landings are required.
The second lesson survives today in golf as handicapping. The same concept is expressed in The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife as ‘who among us is not born naked and buried with two borrowed pennies upon their eyes'. Equity is established at the staking ceremony before the golfing ritual begins so that ‘all men start equal'.
This and other important principles in The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife were most certainly incorporated into the Declaration of Independence. The golfing traditions of Scotland were likely passed to the golf clubs in the colonies sometime in the early 1700's. It is well know the influence Adam Smith and the Scottish Rite had on the American founders.
There are no umpires following us around the golf course, nor do they following us around the course of life. The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife stresses that a foot wedge here, a forgotten stroke there can easily be concealed, at least for a while.
The text states, ‘Integrity is currency earned when no one is looking and the only coin of value in paradise.’ The penalty most often comes by the negative energy those acts generate to bring balance back to your saol. Be certain your ball will find trouble on the next hole.
In life, as in golf, nobody wants to play with a cheater... so don’t be one. Honor is an ancient life lesson still taught by golf today.
The description of hazards along the golfing ‘just-ways’ (direach-doigh) or fairways as they are known today, are some of the most interesting parts of The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife. Many ancient Gaelic words like ‘buncair’, ‘peanas’ and ‘stroc’ are similar to words still used today for golfing hazards and the penalties they cause.
The message in The Golfing Guide is to pass perils by but also states getting into trouble cannot always be avoided. If life’s hazards are encountered The Golfing Guide inspires us to exert sufficient energy on our ‘saol’ to get back on the just-way. The life lesson to be learned by landing in a ‘buncair’ is to simply grab your 'club' and 'stroc’ your way out of it.
This ritual is repeatedly performed throughout the golfing quest by mending divots and repairing ball marks along the golfing way. It is respectful to the Earth for providing such a beautiful world in which to golf.
The act of mending divots is repeated because it is the easiest lesson to forget. We all fail to repair our divots and ball marks as we should. We seem to behave as if the earth will heal itself.
The ancients believed not repairing damage inflicted on the Earth would anger the goddess causing catastrophic disasters. Perhaps it was not mending their own divots that caused the biblical flood and Atlantis sinking.
‘Expectations are forever hungry and consume those who feed them.’ Gaelic poetry is often themed on accepting one’s fate. There are several rituals performed while golfing to teach acceptance of providence. The most frequently performed are playing the ball where it lies and taking a drop and a stroke when you can’t.
The real world lessons are just as relevant today. Golf is clearly a guide to living a worthy life which most religions agree is the requirement to enter the afterlife. Many say true golfing Zen is fully attained when acceptance of one’s skills and talents are tempered by the random bounce of the ball. Sometimes you just got to accepted fate, take a double and move on to the next hole.
Almost lost in The Golfing Guide to the Afterlife is a cryptic message that needs to be unraveled. The poetry discloses the act of golfing compels practitioners to look at life from a 'heavenly perspective'. We might say today from 30,000 feet.
The text states that, ‘this hole is not the whole’. This perplexing golf lesson is believed to be the understanding that life is a series of beginnings and ends. The text teaches not to obsess on the current failings but to look forward to the opportunity available on the next hole. The prose compels us to stay ever 'mindful of the task at hand and eye'. Fortunes turn with a single good stroc.
South of the Ozarks stand a lesser known but far more interesting mountain range called the Ouachita (pronounced Washita) Mountains. More than a few natural wonders make the Ouachita Mountains quite unique:
The most interesting features of the Ouachita Mountains may be the mysterious ways these unique characteristics interact with each other. For centuries people have attributed healing powers to the area’s thermal waters as Bathhouse Row in downtown Hot Springs Arkansas attest. The relaxing effect of a nice hot bath cannot be denied but the magic may not be in the water. Closer examination of a relevant theory may suggest otherwise.
Quartz crystals are well known to contain energy properties although not fully understood beyond keeping perfect time in watches. The mountains contain rich vanes of pure quartz crystals that are in close proximity to natural hot springs that are heated to incredible temperatures and pressure. As the boiling water percolates through miles of bedrock to gurgle out on the surface, the pressurized water sends faint vibrations through the mountains’ granite core exciting deposits of nearby quartz crystals.
The energized crystals create a weak electromagnetic field enveloping the Ouachita Mountains. The Ouachita alignment with the north-south magnetic poles intersecting the east-west mountain range combined with the natural electromagnetic field acts as an antenna or a pathway of least resistance drawing some of the earth’s electromagnetic current traveling between the poles back into the earth through the Ouachita Mountains. Some believe the natural occurring energy flowing through the Ouachita is the same energy the ancients harnessed and amplified within the pyramids.
Relevant theory suggests the magic thought to be in the hot water is actually the result of high concentration of earth’s electromagnetic energy flowing through the area. The electromagnetic energy interacting with the bio-electric field in the human brain is what causes the feeling of calm and bliss. The magic is actually a geo-machine activated by the surging underground hot water energizing quartz crystal deposits precisely positioned on the globe to redirect some of the earth’s polar electro-magnetic current back to the molten core through the Ouachita Mountains.
The positive vibes felt by the local inhabitants are just a byproduct of the rare geographical combinations found in the Ouachita. The most significant event is caused when flowing electromagnetic current is slowed and deflected by the denser earth’s crust while also being bent around the energized deposits of quartz crystals. The turbulence in the electromagnetic current causes very tiny swirls and eddies to form. It was precisely these eddies the pyramids were designed to magnify and control.
The energized miniature eddies naturally occurring in certain places on earth somehow generate intermittent micro-portals into another dimension. Tiny creatures no more than ½” tall live and traverses between these two dimensions like frogs live and pass through the surface of a pond. Miniscule humanoid beings have long lived on the edge of these eddies occasionally appearing and vanishing right before people’s eyes. Tales of woodland fairies and subterranean elves documented in multiple cultures' literature around the world are rooted in these trans-dimensional sightings.
The modern pace of life prevents the patients necessary to catch a glimpse of these trans-dimensional beings although they surely still exist. Ovi Bello’s observation of such portals deep in the mountains is perhaps the best account of the phenomenon occurring in the Ouachita.
Ovi Bello was a young French adventurist who in the mid 1700’s joined a river expedition by the explorer Pier Chavet into the interior of the new continent. According to Bello’s account, the jealous Capitan exiled him from the expedition over the love of a young stowaway woman disguised as a cabin boy. Bello claimed the Capitan was falling in love with the cabin boy and then killed her after discovering her true identity as a woman already in love with Ovi, a common sailorman.
Abandoned by his crew and distraught by the loss of his love, Ovi wondered through the wilderness for days until he slumped down near a rock to die. Sitting motionless waiting it seemed for days to succumb, Ovi kept noticing movement and glimmers appearing in an area just a few feet from where he collapsed. At first he thought he was having death visions of angels but soon realized he was observing something extraordinary. He quickly forgot his woes and dedicated his life to documenting his discovery.
Ovi Bello lived the rest of his life as a recluse in the mountains looking for and documenting the ‘Fees de la Foret’ and claimed to have discovered fourteen locations in the Ouachita Mountains where ‘petite portes’ naturally formed. Fortunately, the rotting sea trunk with his journals was discovered during the tear down of the old Imperial Bathhouse in 1922.