Hot Battery Wire

bendingoaks

I have a 2006 four battery 48 volt club car that after running for an hour strait the red battery wire is red hot almost to the point of melting the casing. Is their something going bad?

BGW

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Golferdave

Wire size? Controller size?
Heat is from more current flowing thru the wire than it can handle, generating heat.

Some causes
Driving Up long steep hills, a to heavy load on the cart
Damaged wire,

One solution is install larger wires
But
Golf carts were designed for stop & go with some continuous light duty,
Time between use to disparate the normal heat from high current motors.
1 hour of continuous current draw, is generating a lot of heat
Heat reduces wire efficiency , 1 hour of getting hotter & hotter

If you are gonna use a golf cart as a buggy, you need to upgrade to heavier duty drive components

I bet the motor was really hot too.

For sure,
Replace the wire that's getting hot, might be as simple as that, a bad wire.

most recommend #4 welding cable for all the battery , motor , controller wires

Mooncarter

When you say for an hour straight do you mean actually not stopping for an hour?

bendingoaks

Yesterday I went to the store which was about 3 miles. Stopped for about 5 minutes then to the park 2 1/2 miles then back home with out stopping at the park 1 1/2 miles. When I got home I checked the water in the batteries and that's when I noticed the hot red wire. None of the rest of the battery wires were even warm just the first red one. I don't know weather it makes a difference but the batteries are new Trojans.

theboss20

The problem can simply be corrosion inside the wire that you can't see causing a drop in voltage and heating up the cable. Or a bad connection at the post...black corrosion. Clean everything first with a stiff wire brush...if that doesn't solve it then replace the cable and see what that does...always clean everything you can.

tag50

To determine where the issue is reverse the cable. If the heat stays at the same end of the cable replace the cable.

If the heat stays at the battery post, you have a bad post or had a bad connection. Remember the post only needs to be tightened to 1/4 to 1/2 turn past snug.


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jjance

Is your battery post corroded? If it is replace the cable. There is no fixing it. The next thing that will happen is that you will melt the battery post. Get yourself a in/lb torque wrench and keep your terminals torqued to 100 in/lbs. Another thing wiggle the cable left to right if the bolt moves it has already been over tightened.