Rejuvenating weak 12 volt batteries

Outcast

Has anyone had much success? I have an 09 Precedent that sat for awhile prior to my recent purchase. Batteries move the cart but not with much power. Tester shows they are weak and the charger doesn't make much of a difference. Any advice?
Thanks in advance!!

BGW

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Volt_Ampere

Time for new ones. You did not say how old they are but batteries don't heal themselves.

joesam

But hey....since it's an '09, at least you have a battery compartment that can easily be configured to hold 6 - 8 volt batteries; and let you abandon those (ill conceived) 12 volt batteries.

beau

All you can do is cycle them, equalize them and see if they come up any better.

sunking

They are sulfated. You can try an EQ charge, but unlikely to work once Lead Sulfate Crystals harden on the plates cannot be dissolved back into solution.

Outcast

Thanks! Is the 48 volt system really that much better using 6-8s vs 4-12s???

joesam

Lots of threads in here describing why you should switch (longer run times plus years more of battery life) - but more importantly, on the newer (past 2008.5) Precedents - virtually no modifications are required to make the switch.

The newer battery tub was re-designed to switch back to 8's (because golf courses who got burned using the early 4 x 12 v system basically refused to re-order CC Precedents in their fleet unless CC switched back to the 6 x 8 v system).

To switch over, you just buy a couple battery hold down plastic bars, a couple short battery cables & remove a plastic divider at the bottom of your battery tub. Others who have made the change on the newer model cart can describe it better than I (if they feel like chiming in); but its really not hard to do. Pretty sure there are even photos somewhere on this forum showing the difference between old & new battery tubs.

Sergio

This is from another thread, it has the hold-down part # needed:

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...tml#post991882

sunking

Absolutely. It is about Amp Hours. Think of Amp Hours like gallons of gasoline.

Trojan 6 volt golf cart batteries range from 210 to 260 AH. Put 8 of of them in series and you have a 48 volt battery from 210 to 260 AH depending on which battery you use.

Trojan 8 volt batteries range from 170 to 204 AH, so 6 in series gives you 48 volts from 170 to 204 AH. Ranger 160 is excellent.

Trojan 12 volt batteries come in two flavors of 140 and 150 AH. So 4 of them in series gives you 48 volts at 140 or 150 AH.

So as you can tell 6 volt batteries are going to give you the longest range followed by 8 volts, and 12 volt batteries will be the shortest range.

Trojan Battery Golf Cart Batteries. See page 7

jjance

Here a better way "I think" to explain it. If you have a Trojan 8V 204 AH battery you would multiply 204AH X 51V=10404KwH=10.4KwH storage for an 8V battery system.

Now 12 V. 150AH X 51 V=7650KwH=7.65KwH.

That is about 1/4 less capacity than a 8V system.

Considering a stock golf cart motor is 3.3 hp which is 2500 watts. 8V will give you 4 hours run time and 12V will give you 3 hours. In reality you wouldn't want to run your batteries to zero so half of those times would be realistic.

Note 1. 51V is the pack voltage.
Note 2. All reading are done under STP and STC. Your results may vary.