New charger & New batteries question

[tawtone]

Happy New Year
Santa brought me a new Onboard Solutions Protec 48V charger and 6 new T875 Trojan Batteries.
I musta been a good boy!
Anyway i have installed the new batteries, did a thorough cleaning of cables and sprayed on corrosion inhibitor.
I noticed the middle battery jumper is 6ga and the rest are 4ga so i know i need to change that one out.
I use the buggy off and on throughout the day and after the last trip back from the woods i check the voltage. It measures at the 80 to 90% charge voltage.
I have been plugging it in every night.
Am i doing the right thing to charge every night?
The charger is on factory default at profile 1 and a 4hr absorption time.

This setup makes the old 96 carryall so much nicer and dependable.
Thanks in advance for any support.
Mike

[sonicj]

check the voltages on each battery after a charge. if the are all within 0.1V, i would turn the absorption time down to 2 hours. as the pack ages, you may need to bump up the absorption to keep the pack balanced.

run time & performance will increase as the pack breaks in. (approx 30 to 50 charge cycles.)
-sj
-sj

[shadowman]

i,m not sure how to answer because of the aftermarket charger i have no idea about them....did you have to bypass OBC? if not it shouldn,t hurt at all charging every night..........the OBC will sense when its time to turn charger off but if you bypassed it i don,t know.........................................

[scottyb]

This charger is a stand alone micro processor type unit. It will be hard wired on to the battery pack and will do it's own pack analysis and decide when to do what.

Sonicj, I'm curious why you would suggest he change the factory absorption rate setting for lead acid GC batteries?

[tawtone]

Thanks for the replies. I too wonder about the absoption time. I surely don't want to overcharge. I will check the voltages in the morning and see what i get. I haven't done this because the ready light was on, didn't consider it. I know this is a plug and forget charger, just curios about the settings. I need this type charger as i am gone for a month or more at a time. I removed the original plug/receptical and use the hole to run the new plug/wires thru. I do not plan to install the charger on the cart, just use the plug and charge method.

[scottyb]

It is better not to install the charger in the cart in my opinion. If installed it will be subject to the voltage spikes a running cart typically delivers. This plus the vibration and dirt of being mounted on board = short charger life in my experience ...

[sonicj]

i feel its better practice to start at the lower setting and work up as needed. boiling your batteries for 3 hours or 4 hours is just going to shorten their service life if all they need is 2 hours to equalize.

whats odd is protech's #2 profile seems to be a better match for flooded trojan batteries imo. the top chart is from the protech manual, bottom is from the trojan site. number 1 charges low, then floats high. number 2 is spot on for absorption, but a little low for float. if it were me, i would probably use profile #2 and monitor the absorption duration for a while.
-sj

[tawtone]

I checked voltages a couple times at begining of days use and again at end of day before charging. At both times the voltage across each battery was within 0.1 of each other. At end of day pack was usually between 80 to 90% charge. I have left charger on the profile 1 and 4 hour absorption and will see how they are doing when i get back in 18 days. Sure hope this thing works as it is supposed to! Thanks everyone, and Happy New Year!