Pds cart with short run time

Turbo_Pumpkin

I just bought my first golf cart this weekend. I've identified it as a 2002 pds cart (with the help of resources on this site). When I picked it up, it didn't run at all so I came home, cleaned corroded terminals/cables, checked the water and charged the batteries. After a few hours of charging, the charger turned off and the cart seemed to work fine but I have a very short run time. After less than a mile it slowed down and almost stopped. I recharged it and had the same result again. The previous owner said that the she had the batteries replaced in the "last year or so". This morning, I went to testing the batteries. The cart was fully charged so I tested the "econopower" batteries one by one. Five of them had 6.3v and the sixth had 6.1v fully charged. After driving the same distance again the cart almost stopped and the batteries were at 6.0v. This didn't seem unbelievably low to me, at least not so bad to make the cart stop. I tested the controller by following the tests in the stickey and it seemed to be fine. I'm not sure what to test next.

I think I got the cart for a fair price and I don't mind buying batteries but I don't want to invest in quality batteries unless I'm pretty sure that will resolve my issues. Anyone have any ideas how I can confirm that my issue is battery related? I just bought a hydrometer to test the batteries further and will probably do that next.

BGW

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Great white north

To BGW - Sorry to say , looks like you need to go battery shopping , make sure to get
Top name brand batteries , the one batt is suspect ( 6.1) if the batts go to 6 volts there toast
Is your cart all stock , is it lifted ? What size tires , are the batt cables and connections all tight and clean ? What guage cables do you have ?
You might get lucky , if you take that one low battery and put it on seperate
6 volt charger
good luck

Turbo_Pumpkin

It is all stock (except batteries) as far as I can tell. The first thing I did was pull each battery connection off, clean the terminals and ends with baking soda mix. They are all clean and tight now. I do have a new cables on my wish list but I want to make sure everything else works well before sinking too much money into it. Thanks for the advice, I'll try to charge that battery seperately and see what happens. I read about pouring out the battery water and adding salt water to help restore the batteries, anyone done that? Seems like a bandaid fix for dead batteries that should be replaced.

LostHusker

At those voltages your batteries sound like they are gone, look at the negative terminal should be a letter followed by a number, i.e. E8 would be May of 08, for when the batteries were made. If it is not on the negative terminal look on the side there should be some markings.

dmi518

Congrats and welcome.
i only had luck bringing one battery back to life and it was a small 12v atv battery. Seems most people never get the batts back to full soc when using the salt trick, but it may by you some time. If new ones are in the budget, just break them in right and take care of them.

JohnnieB

If a PDS cart goes backwards and forwards and will run for about a mile, the motor and controller are working.

Replace the batteries and cables and you'll have a cart you can cruise the neighborhood in, or drive cross-country, or (heaven forbid) haul a couple sets of clubs and a partner around a golf course. (If you want to do morer than that, you will have to upgrade it a bit. )

The batteries may only be a year or so old, but the fact the cables were corroded indicates the battery pack was not properly maintained and the battery voltages indicate they are, at best, on their last legs.

If they all came up to 6.3V (2.1VPC or 89% SoC), I'd suggest charging them repeatedly without discharging them, or just small discharges, to see if the would recover some of their capacity, but the one that only charges to 6.1V (2.033VPC or 57% SoC) is probably beyond redemption.

The high current cables (all 10 of them) need to be at least 4Ga and the batteries ought to be 225AH or higher.

Turbo_Pumpkin

First of all, thanks for all of the input. I'm glad I confirmed that it is batteries. Now the real question, if I have to buy batteries anyway, what's the best bang for my buck? I've been reading about the 72V and AC conversions but I think that they are a little bit too much for me. How can I go faster... on a mild budget... I looked at motors last night but a $650 motor plus controller, batteries, wiring etc may not be do-able right now. What is involved in doing a 48V upgrade? What are the benefits to that? Obviously more power... What do I need to upgrade to be successful? Batteries, charger, controller, motor, F/R switch?

I live in a neighborhood that allows golf carts everywhere so we will be using this one to make short trips to the store, taking the kids to school and even run up to the bar for a beer so I want a little more speed but I cannot sacrifice range too much. I understand that quality doesn't come on a budget (Cheap, reliable, fast.. pick two) but can I do a 48V upgrade in stages? batteries/charger now, motor later? I've been doing reading but have not been able to find a definitive "this is what you need to do to upgrade and this is what you will have" in terms of 48V upgrades. Hopefully you can point me in the right direction.

My neighbor has a mid 80's Yamaha gasser that we stretched and did some motor work too. It goes around 40... I don't expect to go that fast but I'd like to be able to keep up when we head out...

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to explain where I'm coming from. I don't mind spending money but want to put it in the right place.

JohnnieB

Battery prices vary by location, so the best bang for the buck is dependent on your location. Here are comparison lists of 6V and 8V batteries.
The lists are not all inclusive, but just pick a battery with similar AH rating (Amp-Hour) to see where what you are considering stacks up to the rest.

You want to get the highest Amp-Hour rating you can afford and don't limit your search to just the places that you would think would sell golf cart batteries.
I special ordered mine through a tractor supply store.

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You've got a PDS cart and a PDS controller limits motor RPM to about 4.4k in freedom mode (about 19MPH on stock 18" tall tires), so an aftermarket controller that doesn't limit motor RPM will get you into the low to mid 20's on stock height tires.

To go faster than that, you have to up the battery pack voltage and/or install taller tires and/or change the gears in the differential.

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The easiest way to up the battery pack to 48V is installing six 8V batteries.
However, for maximum run-time, you need to install eight 6V batteries.

The two additional batteries can be mounted in the bagwell, or under the seat with a little rearranging.
I opted for 42V and the seventh battery in the empty space under the driver seat because my primary goal is range rather than speed or torque.

An eighth battery would fit under the passenger seat, but the controller and solenoid would probably have to be relocated.

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20" is the tallest tire that should be mounted on a non-lifter cart, which will give you a 10% increase in speed, but will also reduce torque by 10%.

With the cart lifted, a 400A controller will turn 22" tires (18% speed gain/torque loss), but you will need at least a 500A controller for 23" (22% speed gain/torque loss) tires.

Note: the increased amps from the controllers offset the torque loss and then some)

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The controller, solenoid and battery charger will have to match the battery pack voltage.
The Controller and Solenoid I have work at 36V, 42V and 48V.

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Scottyb has a pretty good overview of the things to take into consideration when upgrading a cart. http://www.cartsunlimited.net/Custom_Options.html

While on the site, read everything with the word "Battery" in title. Lots of good general info, as well as how top break in new batteries.

Attached Images

	6 Volt Battery AH comparisons.JPG (102.4 KB, 0 views)
	8 Volt Battery AH comparisons.JPG (79.6 KB, 0 views)

Turbo_Pumpkin

Thank you so much for all of the info. It looks like I still have a lot of reading to do before I pull the trigger on new batteries.

You mentioned that I can use 6-8V batteries or 8-6v batteries but that the fewer batteries will give less range. Is there a comparison between the two? What is the expected range of a stock cart? I understand that you should not run the batteries dead or even beyond half charge or it will cause them to prematurely fail, just wasn't sure what expected range is. For example, if expected range of a stock cart with the 8-6V bats is 20 miles and the range of a cart with 6-8v bats is 16 miles, that might be doable but I don't know what the expected is and it's part of my decision making process...

scottyb

Compare the amp hour ratings. 220 vs 190. Calculate the mathematical difference and convert that to a percentage








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