Sudden power loss / weak batteries

Dlav

Bought an 01 club car ds. When I bought home I had never had a golf cart and didn't charge it for several days the cart worked great never had problems. I did have a noise coming from rear but I put new oil in transaxle and installed a motor centering kit. I have had the cart about a month now and now the cart won't charge? I can't even get up the hill in my drive but it does ok once I get to flat ground. This didn't start until I heard to leave it on the charger all the time. I cleaned batteries today hoping that will help them charge better. What would cause this? I don't think the batteries are bad as this happened so quickly and actually ther are days when it seems fully charged. Any help would be appreciated.

BGW

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jjance

The first thing to come to mind. Can you push it with one hand on level pavement? But I really think its the batteries/charger. A change in weather could also be causing intermittent problems.

Dlav

Yes I can push on level ground easily. I don't think its weather because I keep in my garage. Temp stays basically the same in there. Could my installing of the centering kit be the problem?

Also just for an update I cleaned all posts and cables and charged. Took the cart around the neighborhood and no problems? I wonder if my charger is not getting a good connection or something? Could it drain the battery?

yamahaguy97

sorry but there seems to be some inconsistent info. How old are the batteries? because if they truly are not good they can't go from not doing well one day to great the next lol. Your centering kit would not be the issue, but likely so far it seems like a battery/charging issue. As for whoever told you to leave it on charge all the time, that's not needed. Just charge it every 3 or 4 weeks unless it's used everyday. When you plug your charger in, and the meter jumps to 15-20 amps put a voltage meter across the two main battery positive and negative and see what the voltage is. That being said, is your car a 36 or 48 volt system? i feel like it's 48v

mrgolf

Wow. DO keep your cart on charger anytime you are not using it.

yamahaguy97

mrgolf, because I don't know everything and I am curious, is it really necessary to leave your charger on day after day after day? I understand it will leave the car always charged when you want to use it, but I only ask this because I work at a yamaha dealer and we only charge our electric cars every few weeks and they are just fine. Dlav doesn't seem like he uses his car everyday. Does leaving it plugged in keep the batteries in great condition or something like that?

Sergio

You should not allow a battery that has been discharged due to use (not self-discharge) to remain in a discharged state for very long.

The lead sulfate that gets created during a normal discharge cycle will harden over time if not broken down back to lead and sulfuric acid during a charge cycle.

Leaving the charger always plugged assures the batteries will not get severely discharged due to neglect.

Sepex Club Cars in particular, when using the OEM OBC, have a much lower storage SOC loss since the OBC disables the Controller when the charger DC cord is plugged in (The charger does not have to be running).

mrgolf

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...batteries.html

This should explain it.

yamahaguy97

Ok I understand it, but how long is considered too long in a discharged state? 2-3 days? Longer? I feel like it would take a week or two to discharge significantly

Sergio

The only safe answer is to "plug the cart to the charger at the end of the use" day.

How long will take for the lead sulfate to harden at the particular outside temperature, at the age of your particular batteries, given your particular amount of discharge, before your particular charger can no longer break it down could be an expensive guess at best.