Battery and Charging Problems

[hyzdufan]

I bought a new charger off Amazon - This one here

I'll do the load testing tonight when it gets here. In the mean time, I'll keep adding water to cover the plates and charging it each night.

[Tom47]

Originally Posted by hyzdufan

I bought a new charger off Amazon - This one here

I'll do the load testing tonight when it gets here. In the mean time, I'll keep adding water to cover the plates and charging it each night.

That charger may have the wrong plug on it for your Club Car. It says Club Car, EZGO and Yamaha in the description but the plug is wrong unless 36 volt carts have crowfoot plugs. I'm not sure.

You may want to cancel that and get a Lester or DPI from a sponsor.

[hyzdufan]

Mine does have a crowfoot plug. I’ve already been using the smart charger, thankfully I didn’t screw that up too. 😂

[Tom47]

Originally Posted by hyzdufan

Mine does have a crowfoot plug. I’ve already been using the smart charger, thankfully I didn’t screw that up too. 😂

Good news! Lets hope that smart charger brings some life back into those batteries.

[hyzdufan]

I just topped off the plates and plugged it in and it charged for another hour even though I hadn’t driven it at all since yesterday. Fingers crossed I keep doing this and it keeps sucking up that water and reviving those batteries.

I’m going to start some body work tomorrow. But that’s a story for another sub forum. :)

[hyzdufan]

So the battery load tester indicated every battery was good as well. Any idea what I could try next? What else would explain that voltage drop and sluggish hill performance? Battery health appears to be okay. 🤷🏼

[Tom47]

Originally Posted by hyzdufan

So the battery load tester indicated every battery was good as well. Any idea what I could try next? What else would explain that voltage drop and sluggish hill performance? Battery health appears to be okay. 🤷🏼

Well that's the good news. Your batteries may have survived the mismanagement they had.

The bad news is I don't have a good answer for you. This cart is a toaster coil cart, correct? Possible one of the higher speed coils is not pulling in. Or does it have a controller? Unfortunately, I know little about this.

What speeds are you now running on flat surface and what speeds do you now have when you say it is sluggish uphill? Is it still 6 mph?

In all fairness, your cart was designed for golfing and it may be doing all it can on the open road. There are upgrades available to make it fly, however.

Let's see if we can get Fairtax to reply to this. He always has effective suggestions.

[Fairtax4me]

Seems to me likes it’s doing pretty well for a 36v cart with questionable batteries.
A stock 36v cart is only going to run about 12-14 on flat ground and might do 7-8 up even a moderate hill. That’s just the nature of the beast. Sounds to me like someone has put in a higher speed motor, which will increase top speed, but generally lose torque. So less power to climb hills with. If it’s a stock motor, then you’re doing pretty darn good to get more than 14mph out of it at all.

Dry batteries are permanently damaged. No ifs, ands, or buts, no two ways around. The capacity suffers when the plates go dry and there is no way to regain that lost capacity.
The voltage can still be perfectly fine, because the voltage is partly based on the specific gravity of the electrolyte in the cell. But voltage is only part of the story. Now they may be “fine” for several years to come, depending on how much you plan to use the cart and how far you want to go.

Also a carbon pile load tester is not really much use for testing a cart battery unless there’s a serious problem with the battery. The best load tester is the cart itself. Driving the cart with voltmeter leads attached to the pack, so you can monitor voltage while the cart is moving. You can also check each battery by itself while driving to see which one(s) are suffering the largest voltage loss when under load. Typically I try to check voltage after a charge (12 hours or so later) then drive the cart for 10-15 minutes, and then check pack and individual voltage while at rest, and then while driving, usually when going up-hill on the steepest hill I can find. The weakest battery is the one with the most voltage loss under load after being driven. Especially so, if you are monitoring the voltage while the cart is having the symptoms or problem occurring. This is most effective way to weed out a weak battery or even possibly the whole pack. If the cart doesn’t act up until it has been driven for 20-30 minutes or more, then drive it until it acts up and then test the pack while the problem is happening.
This same test method will tell you exactly the same thing that a load tester will, but is more accurate since not all battery problems can be revealed in a 3-4 second button press test, especially if it was tested right after the pack was charged.

[Tom47]

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

Seems to me likes it’s doing pretty well for a 36v cart with questionable batteries.
A stock 36v cart is only going to run about 12-14 on flat ground and might do 7-8 up even a moderate hill. That’s just the nature of the beast. Sounds to me like someone has put in a higher speed motor, which will increase top speed, but generally lose torque. So less power to climb hills with. If it’s a stock motor, then you’re doing pretty darn good to get more than 14mph out of it at all.

Dry batteries are permanently damaged. No ifs, ands, or buts, no two ways around. The capacity suffers when the plates go dry and there is no way to regain that lost capacity.
The voltage can still be perfectly fine, because the voltage is partly based on the specific gravity of the electrolyte in the cell. But voltage is only part of the story. Now they may be “fine” for several years to come, depending on how much you plan to use the cart and how far you want to go.

Thanks Fairtax! He said the specific gravity of all cells were in the good range and a load test showed all batteries good.

I was afraid that might be all he can do at this point. I think the OP may be open to an upgrade.