battery question

[booney2360]

I have an 86 marathon that I got for free, but no batteries came with it. I have to replace the battery tray, but I want to get the batteries before hand so I know the exact dimensions of the tray. I have the manual, but cant find the size. do cart batteries use a group size like cars? im sticking with standard 6 volt batteries for now, and when looking is there more amps from on to another? all the searches I find on the net for battery places don't go back as far as my cart. thanks in advance

[handtools]

This should help

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...BbF2YUDn4ASJ4t

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by booney2360

I have an 86 marathon that I got for free, but no batteries came with it. I have to replace the battery tray, but I want to get the batteries before hand so I know the exact dimensions of the tray. I have the manual, but cant find the size. do cart batteries use a group size like cars? im sticking with standard 6 volt batteries for now, and when looking is there more amps from on to another? all the searches I find on the net for battery places don't go back as far as my cart. thanks in advance

are you building the trays yourself? if so, using the chart posted in the link that handtools posted, the dimensions of all golf cart batteries are the same, as far as their "foot print" goes. looking at that chart, the first 7 batteries listed are the dimensions you need to use.

10.30 (L) x 7.11 (W) x 11.07 (H)

[bronsonj]

Originally Posted by booney2360

im sticking with standard 6 volt batteries for now, and when looking is there more amps from on to another?

The most AH you can get is what you want. So if you see two batteries and one is 190 amp hours and one is 210 amp hours, go with 210.

Once you get the batteries, check the water in them frequently at first and keep them charged up. Letting them sit will cause them to self-discharge about 1% per day and letting them sit in a discharged state leads to the early death of batteries.

There's a sticky about batteries, worth a read.
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...batteries.html

[yurtle]

Originally Posted by booney2360

I have an 86 marathon that I got for free, but no batteries came with it. I have to replace the battery tray, but I want to get the batteries before hand so I know the exact dimensions of the tray. I have the manual, but cant find the size. do cart batteries use a group size like cars? im sticking with standard 6 volt batteries for now, and when looking is there more amps from on to another? all the searches I find on the net for battery places don't go back as far as my cart. thanks in advance

As far as sizes, just match the sizes of the old battery tray. It has the right amount of "slop" for any batteries.

As far as your second question, batteries are rated in Amp-Hours. Yes, there are several different "classes" of amp-hour ratings. In general, look for the highest amp-hours within reason. By that I mean don't pay exorbitant amounts just to get the highest amp-hours available. Prices vary widely, so be sure to call around. May even be worth a one hour road trip to save a few $$$. Also worth asking if places can special order, which will ensure new batteries. Make sure all have same date code, and are within a month or so of new. Don't drive before fully charging.

[Brob1969]

I recently purchased a cart that had no batteries also. The core charge was a pretty substantial factor in my end purchase decision, given the fact that many places I checked accepted only golf cart batteries as core returns, and the core charge was $25 each. I ended up buying Exide batteries from Rural King as they allowed me to return any kind of lead acid battery as a core and I had several dead car batteries to turn in; and their core charge was only $12 if I didn't have the cores.

The old Marathon carts are a resistor coil type drive. What that means is that to go slow, the energy has to be dumped into the coils to generate heat instead of going to the motor. In other words, try to run full throttle as much as you can; you will be using the same amount of energy going full speed as you do when you are going slow. In addition, if you are going slow speed too long, the resistor coils get VERY HOT, and have been known to catch things on fire! I recently helped a friend upgrade a resistor style cart to an electronic controller system after he set a field on fire with the hot resistors.

Congrats on the new to you cart. I would love to see progress pictures as you get it and start to work.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[booney2360]

thanks for all the input! its very helpful!! ill be sure to post the progress of the cart

[bronsonj]

Originally Posted by Brob1969

I ended up buying Exide batteries from Rural King as they allowed me to return any kind of lead acid battery

I did the same thing at Sams Club. I purchased two 6V golf cart batteries to be used as power for my camper. I took in a 12v power wheels battery (yes, they are lead acid and tiny) and the bad 12V battery that was in the camper for the cores. I've no clue how they'd perform in a Golf Cart, but on the camper they're doing just fine...