Charger amp meter pegged for hours

[CharlotteCart]

Hello, Newbie here. Just got my first cart: '04 Precedence. It came with an '08 charger and batteried (4 x 12v). When I plug the charger in it gets crazy hot and the charger meter stays over 15amps for hours. No excessing battery noise and it seems to run fine. I charged it overnight on Sat night and the charger turned it self off when I checked on it Sun morning. Ran it a good bit on Sun with no problems. Is it normal for the amp meter to be pegged for hours and get so hot? Thanks for any thoughts or help you can provide.

[Nate]

Do the batteries get warm? If not they are good. If you touch the charger can you hold your hand on it or is it to hot to touch?

[CharlotteCart]

Just checked: batteries are about room temp. held hand on charger for abot 5 seconds, any longer skin would liquify. 3 hours deep into charging and this time the amps seem to be dropping a little quicker. It now reads 12 amps. Guessing (hoping) all is OK. Thanks for your help Nate.

[Nate]

Batteries are not being harmed if they feel room temp so you're good there, the charger is running to hot in my opinion. The charger may be undersized or inefficient, it should not be so hot that you can't touch it for longer than 5 seconds. It will have reduced life, if nothing else aim a fan at it, this is kind of a band-aid and not a real fix but cheaper than a new charger. If it is a factory charger then take a pole of other folks here and see who has the same model and if their's runs hot.

[shadowman]

if they wern,t being charged proper like someone only letting charger on for 3 or 4 hours then unplugging and driving that can cause that.......if your letting charger do its thing and completly charge batteries then sooner or later it won,t stay pegged like that it will start working normal as long as batteries are still good.........you might want to at least check cells with a hydrometer and load test batteries but always let charger complete its duty............................