Newbie, question about my precedent's charging system

webygail13

I just bought a 2006 CC Precedent with 2008 Trojan batteries. It does have the updated 3.0v software according to what the sticker said. I brought it home today and checked the voltage of my batteries, all 4 were at 12.3v. The guy I bought it from couldn't remember the last time he had charged it. The charger that came with it is a power drive 2. I plugged it in and let it charge for a few hours tonight, 2 or 3 I guess, went down stairs and the charger was still running, only showing about 5 amps on the charger. I check the total pack voltage and it was at 54.2 volts and still running. Now, isn't this too high for the charger to still be running. I didn't give the batteries time to settle, I check them as soon as I unplugged the charger, but I was afraid that it might damage my batteries if i leave them plugged in. I read that the charger should shut off at 51 volts. So do I have a problem already or do I just need to plug it in and see if it will shut off??? Thanks so much for the info.

BGW

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krc15

Just did the same thing tonight, i checked my packs while they were charging i got 59.8 volts total. I checked on them every 15 min till the charger turned its self off. 55.4 volts right after charge then came down to 53.4. I was told here that this is very normal for these chargers to reach these voltages while charging.


Kevin

SaltLifeCC

Same model and year here webygail and also sort of a noob. But I was told that the OBC on the cart needs to be reading 58.3v in order to shut the powerdrive2 off. When I first got my cart it was never getting there and I found I had a weak battery. So, the charger was running too long and then I had a charger problem with a relay. Replaced the relay and swapped the bad battery and cart charges fully now. But it takes more than a few hours to do it. Be a bit more patient with it, let it run longer but keep an eye on it. It could easily take more than 10 hours, from what I'm told, and still not be an issue. Bottom line, 54.2v, while still on the charger, is not too much and it won't show that much within a short time of taking it off the charger. 51v is not when the charger shuts off - rather, that's considered a fully charged pack after everything settles.

Colbyntx

NEVER unplug your charger or cart during a cycle. It is normal and good to bring the pack up to 60ish volts. They will drop back down to 51 or so as long as your batteries are good. If it doesn't do exactlly what it was doing, then you have a problem.

webygail13

I plugged it back in last night before I went to bed and woke up this morning and checked it, the charger had shut off and I had 51.4 volts on the pack. So I guess everything is working as it should. It just scared me last night when I check it and saw that kind of voltage! Thanks guys.

SaltLifeCC

Make sure you check each battery periodically and see if they are all holding a good charge. Also, if the seller doesn't remember the last time they charged it, they may not remember the last time they checked the battery fluid. Pull the caps off and check every cell and make sure the fluid is covering the elements in each one. If not, add distilled water to bring the level up. And check them again periodically, at least once a month.

webygail13

That was the first thing I did yesterday was check the fluid. They were all filled up perfectly. So I thought that was a good sign!