US Batteries and Power Drive 2 charger

[Kashmir]

After reading up on replacing batteries here, I saw a few posts talking about the US Batteries not charging all the way with the stock Power Drive chargers.
I was planning on replacing my four 12's with six 8's because my '04 Precedent doesn't have nearly the run time I would expect out of good batteries.

Here's my question, I have US Batteries that are 2012's. The cart gets used on the weekends only at camp over level gravel roads and some lite off roading trails. Primary driver is a 16 year old girl that is just cruising....
I'm only getting about 1.75 hours before she comes back needing a charge.
I have no accessories on the power pack as I have a marine battery in the bagwell for lights, radio and phone chargers.

Could my US Batteries still be good and just need to be fully charged?
I would think that 4 year old batteries being used on weekends should last seven or eight years....

Let me know what you think.

[mrgolf]

Knowing young girls driving habits, she is getting at least 15 miles. Not bad.

[teecro]

Originally Posted by Kashmir

... Could my US Batteries still be good and just need to be fully charged?
I would think that 4 year old batteries being used on weekends should last seven or eight years....

Let me know what you think.

This is where your logic may be faulty in that batteries that are infrequently used should last longer. How is the cart treated when it is not in use? Does it sit for long periods of time without being plugged into the charger? Boom that right there will shorten the battery life considerably. In my opinion carts that are NOT in use need to be plugged into a charger and preferable that charger has a FLOAT function that keeps the batteries at their peak all the time full time...

[teecro]

Also no matter the brand 4x12 packs will never last as long as 6x8 or 8x6 packs as there is only just so much room to stuff energy into a given size and 12 need a lot of extra lead to make up the voltage so they store less energy...

[jjance]

Could my US Batteries still be good and just need to be fully charged?

Teecro beat me to it. :)

[Kashmir]

The cart sits in the shed at camp and the charger is plugged into a timer that turns on every day for eight hours (10am-6pm)
It is always fully charged on Friday evening when I get there.
I know the Power Drive does not "float", that's why I set it up on a timer.

Also, I do know that the previous owner that I bought my camper and site off of just plugged it in every Friday when they got there. So for most of their life, the batteries were idle and not charging Sunday afternoon through Friday evening.

[teecro]

Originally Posted by Kashmir

The cart sits in the shed at camp and the charger is plugged into a timer that turns on every day for eight hours (10am-6pm)
It is always fully charged on Friday evening when I get there.
I know the Power Drive does not "float", that's why I set it up on a timer.

Also, I do know that the previous owner that I bought my camper and site off of just plugged it in every Friday when they got there. So for most of their life, the batteries were idle and not charging Sunday afternoon through Friday evening.

And they still might not be getting charged... I got rid of my PD charger some time ago but unless I'm mistaken you can NOT run the Power Drive charger on a timer that cuts the A/C Power to the charger while it is still pulled into the cart. If during a charge cycle the timer turns the charger off the OBC sees this as a power failure and locks down...

Again my opinion for what its worth DITCH the PD charger and get the 17 amp DPI charger, it has a true float and does not boil down your batteries. Many times my cart sits untouched for 4 weeks it stays plugged in 24/7

[Sergio]

If You want to run the PowerDrive charger from a timer, You need to add a $7 relay to the sense wire, here is how I did mine:

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...e-control.html

If the AC power goes out during a charge cycle, the OBC will retry for 7 days before it goes into sleep mode to prevent additional battery discharge.

I also remember reading that only OBCs manufactured after Jan 2008 are designed to work with 12v or 8v batteries.