additional battery on my gas cart?

[HFDTower]

I'm looking for some ideas on installing an additional battery on my gas golf cart. My concerns are charging first and foremost and secondly finding the correct battery that will do the job. I intend on powering my stereo, led undercarriage lights, headlights tailights, etc. Any help would be great. I have seen that people are recomending a sealed 12 volt battery off of a wheel chair!? Any idea of where to buy such?

[dbmachine]

Honestly depending on what size stereo you have the 1 battery allready should be enough. I have led light bars, head and taillights, horn, cd player, and 12outlet for charging cell phone. Ive had the radio playing loud for hours at a time and never had an issue with starting the cart. In the winter months i put a battery tender jr to keep the battery maintained. If your battery you have now is getting old just go get the biggest and strongest battery you can fit under the seat. With 2 batteries under there the generator will have a tougher time trying to charge both if they run down. Alot of stop and go driving doesnt get much charge time from the generator as it is.

[roughneck424]

Every battery known to man here
http://www.atbatt.com/

[HFDTower]

Thanks for the input guys, The problem I'm having keeping my stereo on the main battery is that everytime or most of the time rather that I press the gas the cd player cuts out for a short period of time. I'm wondering if installing an Optima gell battery would take care of this problem?

[cgtech]

AGM batts like a different charge profile than wet batteries (they hate high voltages), but that is a topic for another thread. A battery isolator will allow your cart to charge your second battery, while never drawing power from that battery. These are common on RVs and boats with multiple batteries. These are expensive, so, i would suggest making your own from a rectifier from a electric cart charger, some common ones are rated for 25 amps plus, that would be your max charge rate into the extra battery. I think that due to the capacity of the extra battery, that would be ok, if heatsinked properly. But this setup would still allow the stereo (or whatever) to drain the primary battery enough to leave you stranded if the device (stereo) were left on for long periods without driving to recharge your batts.

[Mike Mac]

I put a top of the line batt from Auto Zone in my car 4+ yrs ago. I can play the radio 8 hrs, and can still just start the car,(but just barely)! I suggest putting the largest batt that will fit in the battery hold and live with it. Carrying two batts just seems to inconvenient!!

A side note, I put the same batt in my cart that goes in my diesel or Tahoe, so if one of those go bad, the cart batt serves as a back-up!!




I've had 4 optima batts, they all performed poorly! Won't own one again!!

[dbmachine]

Ive always had great success with interstate batteries..

[Mike Mac]

There ya go! Just any top of the line, high amp, lead acid!! I'm not pushing brand, just HUGE amps!!

[HFDTower]

Thanks for the help guys, I have an Interstate in there now it may just need a charge. I will try that first. Maybe I will try the Yellow top Optima in my 4 Runner

[sho305]

You could put a capacitor on the line to the CD player and try that, even a 1f should work, if it does work for voltage drop it depends on how fussy the player is. I have a jumper pack, I just take it with me if I think I will need some power or a jump. I ran my cart on it for one fall there was no point to buying a new battery until spring. The new battery is a boat battery the bolts are handy to wire accessories to, it has tons of power though I only have subs in my car not the cart. Also the jumper has a light and power plug on it. Most jumpers have a gel battery in them, some are cheaper than buying the battery itself. I have seen people put a battery in the bagwell to run a stereo/sub. You can just buy a full time solenoid to connect it with a switch or to the run wire for the ignition depending on what cart you have. Then it only connects when its running, some car stereo guys do that, you can buy the solenoids on ebay or amazon/etc. pretty reasonable.