01 48v Club car ds been sitting for 4 years

[pn8hall]

So I was just given a 2001 Club car Ds 48 volt. It has been sitting in a garage for about 4 years. They lost the charger so they just let it sit. It was only used occasionally for parades and security cruises.It did run just fine last time it was used. I have not put a volt meter on the batteries yet but I suspect they will read 0 based on the time sitting. I did check the water levels and several of the batteries have plates exposed. My question is what to do 1st. I figure I should add water to the batteries and then try to charge them. It has 6 8volt batteries. 2 trojan, 2 crown, and 2 no name. I am reluctant to spend $300 for a charger just find out I need to drop a bunch of cash on batteries. It does have the OBC so how should I go about getting that initial voltage reading so I can even get a charger to work if I do buy one? I only have a 12 volt charger at present. Any advice on what steps to take to bring her back to life would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[kgsc]

Batteries are going to be toast. If you just want to see if it works and you can get your hands on another 48 volt cart you could just run jumpers from the good pack. Disconnect theo old pack first and put it on stands. If it runs plan on $1k for new wires, batteries and a charger.

[Qman97]

I too got a cart that had been sitting and was curious about what to do. Since this was the wife and I first cart we were not sure how much we wanted to throw at it and if we would even like it.

First thing i did was remove and clean all terminals and wires. I topped off the batteries and checked voltages of each one. I then used the handy dandy 12v car charger to put a bump charge of around 6+ volts in each battery individually. This took 10-20min per battery.......watch the charge close and check often with a volt meter.

Once I got all the wires put back on I put my charger on to see if they would charge and hold a charge. I got lucky and they did both. This lasted me about 3 or 4 months before I had one battery explode while out cruising.

I was lucky and got to "try before I buy" and we found out we actually love to ride around especially in the summer. We ended up getting new wires, batteries, and in the dash volt meter.

We have a friend at one of the local car part stores that we used his discount on 6 batteries........I know, you get what you paid for but shelling out $1k for batteries wasn't in the budget. So far so good, I keep meticulous care of the ones I have, followed the break in procedure posted on the forum (look for the sticky post on this) and I'm hoping to get good use out of them.


One word of warning......since it actually happened to me, PLEASE be careful!!! Wear eye protection, long sleeves, and gloves. When the battery exploded it sounded like a .38 shot under the seat....scared the hell out of my wife and I. There was no warning it just exploded.

Good luck!

[kgsc]

One of my carts has an imprint on the underside of the seat that is an exact replica of the battery cap on a Trojan battery. Sister and nephew were on the cart when it happened. Lifted the seat.

[pn8hall]

Thanks guys.That is pretty much what I figured unfortunately. I think I will probably try to at least get the batteries tested before I deem them dead. Do you have recommendations for a battery brand? If I buy batteries 2 at a time and dont actually put them in service will I be ok if it takes 6 months to get all 6 of them. Thanks in advance. I have big plans for this cart. Thinking about a 6' lift with tires and wheels and probably new paint with flip down rear seat that has a work platform. Gonna use it around my hunting lease.

[mrgolf]

My local battery store will allow you to pay for one battery at a time, then when you get six batteries paid for you can go pick up six batteries of the same date.

[Volt_Ampere]

Don't buy them in 2's. Save up and buy them all at once!

[pn8hall]

Ok so I have been playing around with this cart quite a bit now. I added water to the batteries to the total of about 1 1/2 gallons of distilled water. I located an 8v battery tender charger and started to see if I could get them to take a charge. All the batteries had a reading of about 4.5 volts. I know I won't get any real life out of them but I couldn't resist tinkering. I charged each battery and got them up to about 6volts. Then I bump charged em with the 12 volt charger and get them all to about 7.5 volts. I located a powerdrive 3 charger for $150 and plugged it up. Charger turned on and the next morning I had initial total voltage of 52.4 volts right after I turned off the charger. Individual batteries starting with 1 were- 8.96,8.80,8.84,8.68,8.86,8.56. I let them rest for about 5 hours and then had a total voltage of 50.5 and battery voltage of - 8.48,8.50,8.42,8.35,8.46,8.31. I took it for a test spin and it all seemed to work properly. I drove it for about 10 minutes total and then put it back on the charger. The next readings after about 6 hours of resting were total of 50.5 volts and all the batteries were between 8.5 and 8.6 volts. The only issue I have is the turn signals/hazards don't work. If I have the brake lights on and turn on the turn signal the lights go out. I assume its a bad ground but not really sure where to start troubleshooting. Any advice would be appreciated. My other concern is this chatter about batteries exploding. How does this happen? Should I be concerned at this point with mine blowing up? I am going to buck up for batteries but it will be a few months before I can afford them. Right now just gonna tool around my shop yard for awhile. Thanks again!

[jakesnake27]

Wow, those are better results than I expected! Explosions in batteries usually occur when the water levels go below the plates and an internal short occurs, igniting the hydrogen gas. Keep your water levels up and you should be fine. As for the lights, many light kits are wired differently, just remember all grounds go to battery negative terminals and never the frame on an electric cart. Also look for a voltage reducer. Ideally it would have a 48-12v.

[kgsc]

I'm surprised as well but great! Run them till they die. Turn signals and brake lights are part of the same circuit and 1 brake light will turn off because it is supposed to flash. If they both go off I would suspect a bad switch or wiring.