EZ Go Series 48V cutting off

[wyatt3d]

Okay I have a lifted converted 48V cart with 6 8V Trojan batteries that are all about 4 years old reading about 8.4V per battery and 50.3 V for the pack. (I haven't checked under load) All the typical 48V upgrade goodies from Scotty including 500A Alltrax controller and HD F&R Switch. and I put new cables on from Scotty B about 8 months ago and did let the cart sit in a hot shipping container for 4 months and got some corrosion on the cables.

I was having this issue and cleaned the cables and ran the cart across the neighborhood last night with no issues so I assumed I fixed the problem. I jumped in this morning to run about 1/2 the distance and it cut out on the way home. I let off the pedal for a couple of minutes and tried it again and was able to get home as if nothing was wrong.

With the exception of leaving it in the cargo container for 3-4 months a couple of times, I have been OCD about battery maintenance keeping them filled with distilled water about every other month and always keeping a good charge on them.

Nothing feels hot, all connections seem to be clean, I'm thinking I need to load test the pack or maybe even each individual battery. Am I on the right track thinking the batteries are failing? Does this sound like something else to anyone?

thanks.

[Clemsoncartguy]

Maybe the it's petal switch or whatever is on the petal?

I'm just guessing here but that's logical to me?

I will wait to see what experts say.

You could have corrosion there too

[JohnnieB]

You may have some corrosion on the control wiring also. All the connections in the cart were exposed the the same conditions that cause the high current cable connections to corrode.

While the cart was in the hot shipping container for 3-4 months, were the batteries charged at least monthly or on float charge?

[wyatt3d]

No, both times I charged the batteries and put the cart away for 3-4 months in 90-100 deg South Texas heat. Had to be closer to 150 in the container.

[scottyb]

That amounts to battery abuse. They took a hit, no matter how you care for them the other 8 months of the year.
I'm not saying this is your cutting out problem, I'm just saying that is not a good battery care plan.

[wyatt3d]

Originally Posted by scottyb

That amounts to battery abuse. They took a hit, no matter how you care for them the other 8 months of the year.
I'm not saying this is your cutting out problem, I'm just saying that is not a good battery care plan.

Agreed, hopefully there isn't too much damage. I'll clean all the connections on the controller and if that doesn't work I'll go buy a load tester and check the batteries.

What's everyone's opinion on replacing a single weak or bad battery versus a whole battery pack?

[scottyb]

The fact is this, most often all the batteries in a pack are in the same condition... that is they have all seen the same service for the same time and possibly suffered the same abuse.
Replacing 1 or 2 bad batteries with new ones results in the new replacements being drug down to the same condition as the old batteries in a short time - so you never really get your full value out of those replacements.

Typically if you have 1 or 2 bad batteries in the pack they are simply leading the pack parade toward the recycling plant. The others are not far behind in my experience.

[cgtech]

Originally Posted by scottyb

The fact is this, most often all the batteries in a pack are in the same condition... that is they have all seen the same service for the same time and possibly suffered the same abuse.
Replacing 1 or 2 bad batteries with new ones results in the new replacements being drug down to the same condition as the old batteries in a short time - so you never really get your full value out of those replacements.

Typically if you have 1 or 2 bad batteries in the pack they are simply leading the pack parade toward the recycling plant. The others are not far behind in my experience.

when you mix new batteries with old batteries, you might as well pull out a couple extra hundred $ and burn em.