Power usage is now to fast

DaveTM

Ok, last year I upgraded my batteries in my EZ-GO TXT from six 8-V to eight 6-V Trojan T-105's. I was getting great "milage" between charges.

Now, about a week ago, I posted that I fried my HD old style F\R switch board. I have all new battery and motor welding cable wires installed, plus just a few weeks ago I cleaned all of my batt terminals. My water levels are all good.

So, just last week I installed a new F\R switch (Reversing Contactor from ScottyB's…great piece of equipmentBTW!!) and today I had the cart out for it's first woods trip. (Now, prior to the board fry, I got an easy 12 mile trip out of one charge) But today, I probably traveled only 5 miles, maybe 6 at the absolute most, and that took the power indicator down to 1\4 power left. I didn't climb any major mountains where I would expect a major power draw\drain. Also, nothing is now getting hot, nor is anything smelling of burning. (You know…..no plastic sheathing going south!!)

My initial though is my charge indicator may be bad, as the day I toasted the HD manual F\R switch it showed 1\4 power left, yet when I got the cart home, and 3 days later finally got the new R\C switch installed, when I turned on the key it showed 3\4 of power remaining….and of course I didn't charge it.

Now, I DID have my B-I-L check my rear brakes and he DID tighten the castle nut (right term?…you know….big nut that holds the drum on the axle) as tight as all get out. But the cart still has an easy roll to it.

Is there a way to check the remaining power with my digital Ohmmeter? Or do I need to perform some type of check on each individual battery? Or….

Advice needed and appreciated.

Thanks

Dave

BGW

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kernal

Could be a problem with a battery or charger but when the cold weather moves in range drops noticeably. Scares the H... out of me every year until I remember.

Attached Images

Trojan Temp vs Storage Capacity.jpg (81.1 KB, 0 views)

LostHusker

The biggest thing I see in this statement is new batteries, you need to condition them keep them above 50% charge and break them in. They will get stronger as you go by going this route, if you discharge them too much you could give them a early life span.

Knothead

"Last year" means that they're not new batteries. I agree that cold temps may be one reason for shorter runtime....

And my advice would be to get a digital gauge from ScottyB if you're using one of the bar-graph gauges, so you'll know exact voltage left in your battery pack. Your battery gauge may be lying to you....

LostHusker

OK, missed that statement...

Good luck

scottyb

What caught my eye in the Trojan tech note was at temps over 80 batteries put out over 100% power... WHen I read 12 miles off road I thought man, that is a long way but we all had over 80 degree weather this summer. Could that have set Dave up to think 12 miles was normal when in fact it was not?

Just thinking outloud and asking if anybody knows the answer.

DaveTM

Ok, then perhaps it was the cold. I never thought of mentioning that fact. It was, in fact darn cold. My cart had to sit outside all night as the temp's got down to about 18 degrees, and it only got up to 25 degrees today.

When I had the cart on it's little 12 mile jaunt earlier this year, it was summer and about 78 degrees outside. Some of this was gas well roads, some just gravel roads, and some actual paved public roads. I wasn't on a tough woods trip. OTOH, when I took it bear hunting, the mountain was darn steep…..yet my total trip for that day was not 12 miles and my charge indicator did get down to about 25%. (But again…..it's one heck of a mountain. Bears like mountains. Yeah….I found that out….my first time bear hunting was this year. Oh, Bears 1, Dave 0.)

I didn't give a second thought to the temp's having that kind of effect on the batteries. BTW, I usually don't let the batteries run below a 25% charge. In fact, it's rather rare that it gets that low. Normally my usage gets to 50% or just a tad under.

kernal

I think that is entirely possible. I believe I have experienced that phenomenon myself. Summers here in the Atlanta area are long and hot. Many people like myself use these carts daily in our little city, traveling the same routes over and over. We become aware of landmarks where when we pass we expect the SOC meter to drop a bar ( or whatever type SOC is used ). We also notice if the bar drops before we get there or after. I can gage if I'm getting better range that day or worse and can usually correlate it to an obvious cause. IE: "got my foot in it that day" or " 3 passengers instead of just myself". As the weather cools in the fall, temp related range reduction is very gradual at first because most of the carts are garaged at night and probably charging so the batteries retain a lot of the heat. But as time passes and the weather cools faster and people use the carts less, the batteries cool to equal the ambient temp rapidly. So one day you jump on the cart and notice a big drop in range and of course the first thing that comes to mind is the batteries are giving up. I think this phenomenon tricked me into changing a set a batteries a year or maybe two early once. I believe the situation is aggravated because we are getting longer than normal ranges for 2-3 months in the summer so the range drop that catches up to everybody in about November looks severe (scary).

These are my thoughts based on running two carts for about 13 years coupled with my battery research and the wealth of knowledge on this forum.

Sir Nuke

OMG......where are you at Dave?? obviously somewhere up north.... but what REALLY got me was the above statement......it was SUMMER and it was 78 Degrees out......what was it....Midnight?? lol

JohnnieB

If I read everything correctly, you were getting about 12 miles on fully charged batteries at 78°F.
Now you get about 6 mile at 18°F from batteries that showed 3/4 charge on the SoC meter.

If so, the 3/4 charge alone would reduce the range to 9 miles and the 60° drop in temperature would drop that by another 30%, so 6 miles is in the ballpark mathematically.

On fully charged batteries, your range ought to be around 8.5 miles at 18°.