Battery health?

goatdoc

I have a electric ezgo with 6 batteries (6volt). When fully charged what should each battery actually read? I have issues after running for 15 minutes it makes a clicking sound especially when ascending up a slight grade. When fully loaded with 4 teenagers it dies after 15 minutes. The cables are a little crusty and I have been replacing them when they rot totally. Where is the best place to get a whole set of replacement cables? (I have been making my own up with scrap heavy wire.

BGW

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roady89

Welcome to BGW Doc!

A fully charged pack should read 38+ VDC. It's kinda hard to say because it depends on what kind of shape the batteries are in. 40+ VDC is of coarse better. 36 volts is 80% of capacity and considered dead. Try not to run below 36 volts because you can hurt the batteries. Each cell should produce 2.3 volts per cell for a total of 7.2 volts but that is whats on paper, real world being a different story. I would say around 6.5-6.8 volts per battery or better is good.

If you have a bad cable or bad connection it will cause the short run times you are describing.

scottyb

WELCOME TO BGW DOC !!!

These cables may be fooling you. They corrode from the in side out creating resistance to the flow of Amps. So they may look good when they are actually swollen with corrosion. Your 6v battary can read as high as 6.8 when fully charged. ( let battery settle 30 minutes after charge before reading) There may be a weak one in the pack?

rusty

Welcome................ You're on the right track. You may need to replace all of your heavy cables and keep water in the bateries too.

buckmanmike

On those cables you want big O.D. made up of hundreds of small wires. Not one big wire.

jbowersop

What is the advantage to having more wires inside? I got some 4 gauge wire from lowes that is stranded but only has around a dozen wires inside. Will this work alright?

scottyb

Electricity travels along the outside of a conductor, not the inside. The more strands you have the more pathways there are for the amps. SO, what you got is high voltage/low amperage wire. What we are dealing with in GCs is low voltage/high amperage which needs lots of pathways. So the wire you got may work but not as well as the designed wire.

You can find good cables ready made at any one of our site sponsors.
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/annou...=site+sponsers


PS:
Welcome to the forum, jbowersop.
Adding a Q to someone elses thread is considered hyjacking. A crime punishable by 3 days in stockades. In the future please post your Qs in a new thread. Were we can gladly help.

1986g3a

Load testers are a good way to tell if you have a bad battery in the group. But they will not work if you have just taken off the charger.

scottyb

Yes, batteries need to settle for 30 to 60 minutes after being taken off of the charger bfore any sort of testing or readings are taken.