2006 Club Car Precedent Battery life?

[atomarchio]

I have a 2006 Club Car Predecent with 2008 batteries.

Just charged the cart and my volt meter is reading 51.1 volts which is good.

However, I understand batteries in the cart need to be replaced every 5 years. I am currrently way past that at 7 years.

Is there a way to tell how much more life I have with the current batteries? I don't want to be stuck somewhere should the batteries suddenly die permanently?

Please help me understand. Thanks.

[Hecky50]

Originally Posted by atomarchio

I have a 2006 Club Car Predecent with 2008 batteries.

Just charged the cart and my volt meter is reading 51.1 volts which is good.

However, I understand batteries in the cart need to be replaced every 5 years. I am currrently way past that at 7 years.

Is there a way to tell how much more life I have with the current batteries? I don't want to be stuck somewhere should the batteries suddenly die permanently?

Please help me understand. Thanks.

It is best to take the reading after the Batteries have rested for 12 hours after charging. I don't think your cart will just stop running, it will be a gradual loss of distance. Keep doing what your doing maybe you will get another year or two.

[atomarchio]

I have noticed the cart is running slower and takes longer to charge.

I guess my question is how can I tell how much more time is left?

You think a reading after 12 hours is best way?

[SaltLifeCC]

The batteries are not likely to just quit working one day when you are far away from wherever. You will just notice what you are noticing. You will see shorter run times and longer charge times. If you have 7 years on the 4x12v setup, consider yourself ahead of the game. However, there is no hard and fast rule that they will last at least 5 years but no longer than 5 years. There are way too many factors that determine how long they will last but the main factor is how well you take care of them.

I bought both of my carts used and each one had batteries that were a couple of years old at the time I bought them. Both golf course retirees and I had no idea how well the batteries were cared for. On both of them, within less than a year, I discovered that I had 1 battery in the pack that went bad and wouldn't hold a charge as long as the rest. I could charge the entire pack up, check the voltage and it looked good. Then after riding the cart for a fairly short period of time, I found the pack voltage went lower than it should have been for that little bit of use. So, I had to switch my focus to each battery in the pack and once I did that, it was easy to find the problem. In both cases, I was able to swap out the 1 bad battery with a used one of about the same age, and continue to get good use out of the cart for quite a bit longer.

Charge the entire pack, take a reading of the entire pack, then each battery. Go ride it a little bit and then come back and check each battery again. If you have 3 that have fairly close readings and one that is way off, you could possibly get away with replacing just that one and still get more time before replacing all of them. In both of my cases, I'd check each battery and they'd be like 12.85 volts, give or take, each. Go ride it for a little while, come back and check and 3 would still be like 12.71 volts each and one would be 10.3 volts (culprit identified).

[atomarchio]

I just tried then and they all are reading a similar charge of 12.5 to 12.8.

I've been using distilled water for the plates. Should I continue to do that or does regular tap water work OK?

[HiTechRedNeck]

Distilled water

Tap water has impurities which deposit on plates reducing batt life.