Cart struggle...literally!

[Pitbull Joe]

So took the new cart the first ride while extended family is staying with us for the holidays. I'm a bigger guy, about 250lbs and with me driving, 3 kids under 5 yrs old and my sister-in-law on the back the cart barely wanted to above 10 mph. With me and my 4 yr old daughter on it, the cart did around 20 mph. We rode down our 100 feet concrete driveway, onto 250 feet of crushed limestone road and on to a paved road at which point I realized something wrong. We limped back to the house and I put the cart on the charger. When we got on the cart the battery meter read 1 bar from full, when we returned it was at the halfway point.

Cart is 2010 EZ-GO 36v PDS, previous owner was open about not knowing how long last but said they held a charge for over a week and would only drop one bar from full which has proven to be true, but he didn't state how well the batteries held up during use.

My question is does this seem normal for the load for a 36v? Do you guys think it could be weak batteries that need replacing or does it scream upgrade? My wife, daughter and I will be using this cart when we go camping at Disney's Fort Wilderness and I need it to be able to do at least 18 mph. Thanks.

[WalterM6]

Do you charge your cart after each use? If not you should.

[Pitbull Joe]

Put it on the charger as soon as we pulled back in the garage. Previous to the ride the cart hadn't been charged since I got it about 3 weeks ago, battery was on closest to full bar when I picked it up and remained at that level until during the ride. From this day forward, I will keep it on the charger. I plan on mimic the ride tomorrow once with a full charge to see the difference. But also researching 48v upgrades along with thinking of selling this one and going back to gas but I would rather not.

[nickdalzell1]

My advice: NEVER rely on that battery meter. Those things are garbage. they look pretty but almost always die around half, or never reset when you charge them. Ignore it and enjoy. You will know when the charge is getting too low because you will get plenty of warning by it slowing down or just performing poorly uphill when the charge is getting low.

If the batteries are reasonably new and a good brand (aka NOT Rural King, Econo Power, Super Start or some other generic make) you should get anywhere from 15-40 miles per charge depending on the usage.

[Pitbull Joe]

Thanks Nick. I'm going to check on it this morning. Will manually check the battery pack with my multimeter. Supposedly the batteries are 2015.

[Pitbull Joe]

I let the charger do it's thing over night, unplugged it for about 20 mins and then plugged it back in and it ran for another 30 mins (initially around 18 then tapering off to about 7). Afterwards, I manually checked pack with multimeter and got 38.4v, which I figured was a good sign. Loaded up with same weight of passengers, took same route and what's difference. The cart probably ran 15+ mph the whole route. Came back and put it on the charger and this evening the wife, daughter and I cruised the neighborhood (equating to about 5 city blocks) with 2 blocks being old asphalt/hard packed sand roads and the rest being slight incline both ways, battery me dropped one bay from full. I didn't get to check pack with meter due to neighbors waiting for us when we returned to check out the cart because it was the first time they'd seen it. Planning on doing more in-depth maintenance checks on battery circuit tomorrow and will report back.

[DaveTM]

Get a "real" meter. http://www.cartsunlimited.net/battery-meters.html These digital meters tell you what you have. No bar BS.