Help, Have I killed my batteries? T875

myeallan

I have 6 new Trojan T875 bought in Aug of 2016. I have been away for the last 3 months, and I check the GC yesterday, and realized I left the 48-12V converter on
The voltage on each batter is around 3.0V (some are more/less), total is 20V (vs 48V). I plugged in the charger but nothing happens. Are the batteries done, or can I revive them?

Please help!
Marc

BGW

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum

cgtech

While you have damaged the batteries, reducing their capacity, they likely will still be serviceable. What charger do you have?

myeallan

The charger is an old LestronicII that I bought used, worked all last summer- I'm wondering if it is sensing the voltage is to low?
The GC is an old Marathon that I converted to 48V

cgtech

That is exactly what's happening. OK, it is possible to "jump start" your charger if you need to, by taking the top off. An alternate method would be using a car battery charger on 2 batteries at a time, to boost them up high enough to allow the charger to start.

Volt_Ampere

If you left it for 3 months even without the converter running you would have dead batteries. They self discharge fairly rapidly. Get them recharged and they will probably still have some life left in them. Next time you leave them you need to have a method of keeping them charged.

scottyb

Wet cell batteries are pretty forgiving. You will be able to revive these. They have lost some of their capacity in this but you will still get serviceable use from them. Invest in a DPI Accusense or similar charger with automatic battery maintenance features.
Meanwhile simply connect a 12v battery charger to any pair of batteries in the pack and retry the cart charger. Disconnect the 12v charger as soon as the cart charger begins and let the cart charger finish if it takes all night and half a day.

myeallan

Thanks Scotty and cgtech, I will give that a try.
Scotty, the upgrade kit I got from you last summer has been awesome, the customs officer at the airport looked at me a little strange when I showed him the motor what I was bringing into Canada :-)
Snows is almost melted here, can't wait to get back camping with the GC

JohnnieB

After you get the batteries charged, do a few back-to-back charges (Initiate a new charge after charger has shut off, with or without cart being driven) over the next week or so. Doing so might recover some of the lost capacity.

myeallan

Thanks guys, the 12V charger worked to kick the 48V charger on (now with 12V disconnected). There is a 1V different between the batteries, will this normalize out after a while? There are 3 batteries around 9.6V, while the other 3 are around 10.5V- I take it this delta is because they were dropped so much. I'll keep an eye on it for the next few hours while the charger is humming away.

dundeebarnbuggy

Where was your cart located? One nice thing about being up here is that batteries don't go dead on their own in winter. As long as there is no drain they can sit for months without loosing appreciable charge.