Resistor cart - timer charger - charging strategy?

rlw

After reading all these recent threads about cable gauge, charging strategies, watering strategies, etc., it seemed to me that I should ask the BGW hive mind (this means YOU, JohnnieB! ;^) about the correct way to charge my buggly's batteries with the charger I have.

Batteries are 1 year old US Battery 1800XC2s
Charger is ancient EZ-GO ferroresonant with a 12 hour timer (no auto-VOLTAGE-shutoff).

I generally don't let my batteries get below 80%, or 37.6V (US Batteries have a tad higher voltage than some others). When I put the thing on a full charge (11-12 hours), the batteries' surface charge is around 38.9V. Driving the cart 300' or so from the garage to the house, then letting it rest a bit usually shows the voltage to be bouncing around from 38.39V-38.42V (close enough to 100% SOC for the US1800XC2s). After the first "long" drive of about 1-1/2 miles and after resting, I'm still up around 38.3 or so.

JohnnieB is a proponent of charging every time the cart's sitting still, and, failing that, at least every night. I'm pretty close to every night, but sometimes the cart sits overnight without charging. I don't think I've ever let the thing dip below 37V (about 65% SOC) since I got the batteries last year.

If I'm charging every night, should I set the charger to 12 hours and let the ferroresonant magic happen, or should I set it to a shorter period (4 or 5 hours) so I don't burn too much coal at the local powerplant (and dump SO2 and mercury on JohnnieB's house, across the mighty, muddy Ohio River! ;^)??

Thanks in advance for any response(s),

RLW

BGW

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rlw

Bump!

Anybody?