Charging 6 volt batteries

tybeegb

My wife managed to get an old EZ-GO golf cart that has been sitting up for a while and the batteries show anywhere from 1-3 volts each. The pack voltage (I think that's what it's called from reading the other charging posts) is a little over 15 volts. The charger won't come on so I had it checked at a golf cart shop and they said it worked okay. I've read that the batteries have to be at a certain voltage before the charger will kick on. And I've read that you can charge two batteries at a time with a standard 12-volt car battery charger, or possibly "trick" the charger into working by hooking up the car charger to the battery pack and then plugging in the charger. Now my very amateur question. Can I use the 12-volt car battery charger to "trick" the charger, and if I can, do I hook it up to the first battery in the pack or do I put one lead to the first battery and the other lead to the last battery? The cart serial number is 379223 and the model number is 85I10. The charger is an EZ-GO Textron S/N 12432 (120 volts, 60Hz, 9.5 amp). The batteries are Trojan 105s except for the one I replaced with a Werker to at least see if the cart works before putting in a full set if necessary. Any help would be appreciated.

BGW

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roady89

Welcome to BGW

I moved your topic to the right section so more people will see it.

Yes, you can use a 12 volt automotive charger to charge 2 six volt batteries at a time.
(DO NOT hook up to first and last battery like you described, damage might occur)

Place the 12 volt charger's clamp on the first battery's positive terminal....... then the charger's negative clamp on the second battery's negative terminal.......when they are charged move on to another set of batteries. Once you get them up around 28+ volt you can plug in the golf car charger and let it take over.



According to the numbers you provided your cart was built March 10, 1985.


I drew out this diagram to give you an idea how to hook up a 12 volt charger to charge 2 six volt batteries at a time. This does not work for 8 volt batteries.

tybeegb

Most excellent. I thought I would have to disconnect the two batteries to be charged from the other four batteries. If not then that makes it a whole lot easier.

roady89

You can if you are more comfortable doing that but it is not needed.

tybeegb

Hmmm. Not good. The 12-volt charger doesn't like that, unless pegging back and forth from 0 to 12 amps is normal for the 6-volt system. I've never seen it do that on a 12-volt system. I checked the charger with my boat battery and it worked fine so it's not the charger. I disconnected the positive cable on one battery and the negative on the second battery from the pack, leaving one cable from + to - on the two batteries, and I get no response at all from the 12-volt charger. I tried it with two other batteries, the new Werker and one of the Trojans, and the charger did the same pegging action. I checked the output on the charger and it's putting out 16+ volts. I think the Trojans are shot so I think I'll go ahead and bite the bullet for new batteries. If I had to guess I would say the Trojans are probably 10+ years old, so it's now or soon enough anyway. Plus the cart was free so this isn't much expense to get it going again. Thanks again for the quick reply.

roady89

You either have it hooked up wrong or you found a battery with a shorted cell....or the cart is not wired right. I would lean toward the internally shorted battery.

10+ years.....yea, I'd say those batteries are shot. Don't waist your time trying to revive them.

scottyb

Roady, Excellent, excellent tutorial diagrams! They will make a terrific stickie!

rusty

Welcome to the forum tybeegb..................

tybeegb

The hookup was my first thought, that's why I tried just two batteries--hard to mess that up. I'm pretty much a "measure three times cut once and then cut on the long side to be sure" guy, since I tend to be a little dyslexic sometimes. Goes with being left handed I guess. If I find it's something other than the batteries I'll post that for future reference. Thanks.

pappy42

Hey Roady, great info. I didn't have any clue that you could charge those batteries with a 12V charger while still hooked into the pack.