36V Medalist Painfully Slow on minor inclines

Soonercntry

I am brand new to golf cart ownership. I bought a '95 medalist today that supposedly has 1 yr old batts. It test drive fine in a parking lot, but once I got home and drove it around the neighborhood I noticed a huge reduction in speed going uphill, or against the wind.

One known issue is a battery cable connector has come off and the prior owner just threw some vice grips on it. I've already ordered some 4 ga wires to replace all the way around.

Other than that, it's stock and just feels weak/slow. I would like to speed it up above stock speeds at some point anyway, but I want to make sure my basic systems are operating normally prior to doing anything like that.

Any other suggestions beyond replacing the batt cables?

BGW

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cgtech

Your gonna melt down that battery terminal, and should stop driving it till the new cables are installed. You need to charge the batteries, wait 12 hours, and take readings from the whole set & each battery. You should read around 38.5v. then drive it around while monitoring pack voltage, if it's dropping below 31v for any period of time longer than just a second while accelerating briskly, you have battery problems.

Soonercntry

That's exactly what I needed! Thank you! The cables should be here this week. What do you use to monitor pack voltage while driving? I have a very basic voltmeter.

scottyb

Basic voltmeter can be attached to the pack and laid on the seat but a better system is an in-dash voltmeter.
Like these > http://www.cartsunlimited.net/battery-meters.html

Sideways

ScottyB do you know of a voltmeter that also has a USB and AC outlet that will work on a 36v Medalist?

Soonercntry

I removed the battery cables today in preparation for the new set I ordered. Nearly each cable was fried around the connector. I had 3 connectors fall off as I removed them. Also, one of the post's threading was stripped and it wasn't making good connection at all.

The batteries were gurgling non-stop, even with nothing connected, leaking horribly out the top and all were bulging on the sides. I went ahead and pulled all of them out. They are in the back of my suburban (still gurgling). I don't feel good about these so I'm just replacing them for peace of mind.

CrazyDad

Look on the batteries for a sticker somew on the case stamp on the terminal that would tell you how old they are. If you see something like A6 that would be A=January and 6=2016or2006.

Some bulging is ok and gurgling is normal during charging and if you pulled them off the charger before it stopped they will make noise for awhile. As they bubble some fluid comes out of the vents in the batts. If over filled then a lot more will come out. BE Careful that's acid and if you are storing them inside your truck you might do some damage if it gets on anything. Clean your garage floor and anything that got wet with baking soda and water, even if it dry already.

If your batteries are only a year old then you might just need to test them and see if you can get them working again. Then you can spend that $ on upgrades!

Soonercntry

Good call. One of them needs replaced, for sure. The post is stripped and I can't get the nut off of it

Soonercntry

UPDATE:

I took the batteries to O'Reilly's for testing. 4 failed & the other 2 were showing they needed to be charged and tested. I consider that a failed test since they had been charged alongside these others. These are 2 years old.

I wonder if the charger was causing problems...it's a EZGO Textron Total Charge III, Model 26984.