Overcoming challenges and trying new things!

Ever take on a project that is WAY above your pay grade, but working through all the challenges, tears, and frustrating moments and coming out ahead on the other side makes you feel INCREDIBLE and SUPER EMPOWERED? That was this project for me.

When my golf cart broke down last week, I knew I was going to have to re-wire a bunch of things and fix it's battery charging port, so I looked around for a ridiculous "improvement" project to do while I was at it, and boy did I find one, in the form of a 150 Decibel Train horn. I recently saw a Luke Bryan video pranking his wife with a train horn on his truck, and I immediately knew what I needed to do: put a train horn on my golf cart! Adam begged me not to do it, showing me a whole bunch of videos comparing the sound levels of the 150 db horn to other commonly occurring sounds, but of course it didn't work. I have always loved pranks and mischief, and this seemed like the perfect project for that.

The best thing about this project was that I don't know anything about wiring, electronics, wiring, or what goes on under the hood of an electric vehicle, so I had to figure it all out. As far as modifications on a battery golf cart went, I needed to fix the charging port on my golf cart, install a horn on my golf cart, and install an LED light on the battery powered ezgo golf cart. The only peek into this world I'd had prior to attempting this project on my own was working on the alternator and starter for my 1953 Chevy with Isaac and putting the light bar on the front of my golf cart with Caleb. But I was totally on my own in this one. There was a ton of frustration, and of course, everything took way longer than I expected it to, but when that charging port worked, when the golf cart turned back on after being completely dead, when I flipped the switch and turned on the light, when I honked that horn for the first time, I felt so strong, so empowered, so excited about the other possibilities that figuring out this project opened.

I use this golf cart for literally EVERYTHING on the farm, from feeding and watering the animals to moving fences and as my transportation back and forth to the milking parlor. The three days I didn't have it while it was broken down made my daily chores totally miserable. Hauling 5 gallon buckets of feed and water back and forth across our acreage to feed the animals, carrying fencing and my 85 pound charger across the field by hand in 92 degree heat, carrying garden produce in a bucket up and down our 1/4 mile 30 degree grade driveway several times a day without the cart was totally miserable. It really made me appreciate the cart so much more! And, until I get my 1953 Chevy running, I don't have a car of my own, so this thing gets a lot of mileage on the farm and around the neighborhood. Re-wiring my golf cart I learned how to pick the proper gauge wire, the different ways "positive" and "negative" energy acts on a battery, how to strip wires, how to crimp wire ends, how to heat shrink wires, that batteries need distilled water regularly added when they regularly charge, how to use dialectic grease properly, how to clean battery terminals, and how simple contact buttons work.