just picked up club car precedent, how to charge or replace batteries

justinm001

Hello everyone! I just picked up a 48v club car precedent from an auction and looking to test it and get it all good to go. Unfortunately I don't have the 48V charger and can't get one until Monday/Tuesday so I'm looking to find a way to charge it. It has the standard 4x12V batteries (ones a lot smaller and seems sealed) so I just plugged in a 12V car charger to a battery but i'm assuming i'll have to do all 4 separately... is that correct? We charged one battery for about an hour and was able to get it to go down the street before batteries running out, so i'm pretty sure the cart is working fine. Even with the the cart dying it looked like we were getting 45+V on all the batteries, shouldn't it be much lower if batteries are dead (I'm thinking 30-35V but have no idea).

How can I use a voltmeter to check if batteries are full/low, i was assuming 48V is full and 30-35V is low, but apparently not.

Also I have like 12 AGM 12V batteries laying around which are about half the size of the batteries currently in the cart, would it make any sense to swap the 4 original batteries with 8 of the others in series-parallel? They were pulled from an enterprise phone system (also 48V) backup so i'm assuming they're top quality batteries but haven't taken a look.

BGW

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justinm001

So far we plan on ordering a standard 48V club car charger (like the $280 amazon ones) and a battery indicator. Also a switch to replace the key. Is there anything else for these that are recommended to get? Soon we'll be getting light kit, dash and back seats i think.

Gregorio

The right charger and a full charge is needed before you drive it again. Running it down like that is only making the batteries worse. A good digital volt meter is another must have item. I'm not a fan of the series parallel battery setup. Way too many connections and points of failure. A good set of FLA golf cart batteries like Trojan or US, Crown, etc are great and if you are really looking for the ultimate, go lithium.

That's really all you'll need to get on the road safely. However, search this forum for Precedent builds and pictures. You will suddenly find a whole bunch of stuff that you now NEED!

Here is my ongoing project.
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...on-begins.html

Good luck with the addiction!

BlueandWhiteRV

Congrats on the purchase. I recommend ordering from a site sponsor. Sooner or later they will provide you with invaluable advice.

Aflyer

justinm001,
Welcome to BGW, there will be allot of people willing to help you here.

For starters you should read through the All about Batteries Sticky thread, I have pasted the link to it below. Lots of good information to help you get started:

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

I would also search the forum looking for threads on DPI or Lester SMART chargers they are a much better investment.

And here is a link to a state of Charge Chart freon Carts unlimited, this will help you determine if any of your battery's are salvageable.

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/attac...ng-soc-new.jpg

Aflyer

kgsc

Welcome to the addiction

As for the AGM batteries, they would introduce many more connection failure points but if they are free it might be worth looking into while you save for another option. What are the AH ratings on those?

justinm001

Thanks guys for all the info.
I haven't found any local places that sell chargers (I'm Columbus, oh) and are open today and we really want to use it today. Is there anything I can do to charge these or anything available at any box store to help get this charged?

kgsc

You can change them individually with a car charger and if you have 4 of them charge them all at the same time.

As for the charger order a full floating charger and bypass the obc. At this point you don't know if the current obc is any good so if you order a obc based charger and the obc is bad there is another $200 out the window.

justinm001

So I picked up 4 cheap harbor freight float chargers (12v 1.5a) and it looks like all the batteries need replaced. There's 1 RV type battery but shows 12V 155AH and the other 3 look very old. I replaced one of the other batteries with a cheap $100 RV battery and everything seems to be working fine. Is there anything wrong with just using these cheap chargers and having it charge overnight? Also can I just replace all the batteries with cheap $100 RV deep cycle batteries? Everything I read says RV type batteries only last 1-2 years where golf cart batteries last 4-5 years+.

I bought this for my daughter and her friends to roll around the neighborhood and not sure if they'll be bored after a couple months or so.

Gregorio

When you have multiple batteries connected together, it is best to have them all identical and of the same age. Otherwise, they will not charge evenly and you will not get the most performance or life from any of them.

RV batteries? What is that? Look for batteries that are specifically designed for golf cart service. You will get what out of them what you put into them. Regardless of what you get, charge them every time the cart stops. And buy a real 48V charger. Those 1.5A units are maintainers. They do not have enough strength nor the right algorithm to actually charge the batteries.