Golf cart battery cables: gauge, lengths and lug sizes by make

Buy 4 AWG pure copper golf cart battery cables in a set cut for your make, or 2 AWG if you have upgraded the controller or motor. Match the lug holes to your terminals, which is 5/16 inch on the batteries and sometimes 3/8 at the controller, and replace all of them at once; one new cable in a corroded set fixes nothing.

Cables are the cheapest part of a cart’s battery system, and their faults are the ones most often blamed on the batteries. A cart that is slow on hills with a healthy pack usually has a bad connection somewhere in the string, and the testing page shows how to prove it. If you are also deciding between a new flooded set and lithium, the battery calculator runs that math.

Gauge: 4 AWG for stock, 2 AWG for upgrades

Cable gauge runs backward: the smaller the number, the thicker the copper. Golf carts came from the factory with 6 AWG or 4 AWG jumpers between batteries and 4 AWG main cables from the pack to the solenoid, controller and motor. Trojan and the cart makers both treat 4 AWG as the right size for a stock 48V or 36V cart, and that is what to buy.

A stock controller pulls 250 to 300 amps for a second or two on a hard start and far less cruising. 4 AWG copper handles that with a small voltage drop over the two or three feet involved. Upgrade to a 400A or 500A controller, add a high-torque motor, or lift the cart onto 23-inch tires, and the current goes up while the cable stays the same. That is when you go to 2 AWG, which has about 60 percent more copper and runs cooler. Many owners go to 2 AWG on a stock cart as cheap insurance; nothing is lost by it except a little room around the posts.

Do not go the other way. 6 AWG is marginal on a 48V cart under load, and the heat it makes at the lugs is what turns connections green.

Lengths by make

Every cart has a set of short jumpers between batteries and two or three long main cables. Jumpers are mostly 9 to 12 inches; the long ones that cross the tray are 18 to 24 inches; the mains to the solenoid and controller run 24 to 48 inches depending on the cart. Cutting cables to length yourself works but the crimp is where most homemade cables fail, so buy a pre-made set unless you own a proper hydraulic crimper.

Cart	Battery layout	Jumpers in the set	Notes
Club Car DS 1995 and later	Six 8V	Five	One long jumper crosses the tray; the negative main passes through the on-board computer ring on carts with an OBC
Club Car Precedent mid-2008 and later, Onward, Tempo	Six 8V	Five	Batteries sit three a side; two longer jumpers connect the rows
Club Car Precedent 2004 to mid-2008	Four 12V	Three	Electronics sit between the batteries; order the early-Precedent set
EZGO TXT to 2009	Six 6V	Five	36V; short tray, mostly 9-inch jumpers
EZGO TXT48 2010 and later	Six 8V	Five	Similar to the 36V TXT; confirm the year when ordering
EZGO RXV	Four 12V	Three	Fewer cables, tight tray; angled lugs help. A cart converted to the six-battery tray needs a six-8V set
Yamaha G19, G22, Drive, Drive2	Six 8V	Five	Standard set; most 2007 to 2010 Drives have four 12V and take a three-jumper set
Yamaha Drive, Drive2 with the long-range tray	Eight 6V	Seven	Most cables of any cart; batteries in two rows of four
Yamaha G14, G16	Six 6V	Five	36V

Order the set by make, model and year and the lengths will be right. The 48 volt diagram shows which cable goes where for each layout, and the fitment pages for Club Car, EZGO and Yamaha have the serial plate details if you are unsure of the year.

Lug sizes: 5/16 and 3/8

Golf cart batteries use a 5/16-inch stud terminal, or a combination post with a 5/16 threaded hole, so jumper lugs need a 5/16 hole. Most solenoids are 5/16 as well. Controllers and motors vary: some are 5/16, many are 3/8. Look at the posts on your controller and motor before you buy the main cables, or buy a set that includes both hole sizes.

A 3/8 hole on a 5/16 stud works with a washer but puts less copper against the post. A 5/16 hole will not go over a 3/8 stud at all. Get it right once.

Copper against copper-clad aluminum

Pure copper is what you want, and tinned copper is better still because the tin resists the acid mist that sits over a flooded pack. Copper-clad aluminum, sold as CCA, is an aluminum core with a copper skin. It carries about 60 percent of the current of pure copper at the same gauge, so a 4 AWG CCA set behaves like 6 AWG copper and heats up under load.

CCA is lighter and cheaper, and that is how you spot it. A 4 AWG copper cable about 12 inches long weighs around 4 ounces; a CCA one is noticeably lighter in the hand. The listing should say “pure copper” or “OFC”. If it says nothing about the conductor, assume CCA.

Look at the lugs too. Good sets have tinned copper lugs crimped with heat-shrink over the joint. Bare brass lugs with a loose crimp are where corrosion starts.

How to replace golf cart battery cables

About an hour for a six-battery cart. Have the new set laid out and matched to the old ones before you start.

1. Photograph the pack from above so you have the routing. Set a Club Car or RXV Tow/Run switch to Tow. Unplug the charger.
2. Remove the main negative cable from the battery first, then the main positive. Then remove the jumpers one at a time, swapping each for its new cable as you go, so the string is never confused. Keep the orientation shown in the diagram.
3. Clean each terminal with a baking soda and water paste and a brass brush until the lead is bright. Rinse, dry.
4. Fit the new cable with the lug flat on the terminal, then the washer and nut. Torque to about 8 foot-pounds, which is Trojan’s spec; more than that strips lead posts, less lets the lug work loose and arc.
5. Coat each terminal with a battery terminal protector or a thin smear of dielectric grease. Replace the main positive, then the main negative, last.
6. Switch back to Run, charge fully, and after the first drive feel every lug. A warm one needs retightening.

On Club Car carts with the on-board computer (DS from 1995, and Precedent through the early 2010s), the main negative cable must pass through the sensing ring on the OBC. If it does not, the charger will not start. The charging page covers that symptom.

When to stop and call a shop

If a cable has melted insulation or a lug that has burned blue, the cause is upstream: a failing solenoid, a controller fault or a battery with a shorted cell. New cables will burn the same way. If the cart has a lithium pack, do not open the pack’s own terminals; call the maker.