Charger will not stay on

[SimplyMe]

I just bought a EZGO Trextron, 36volt cart with a Total Charger 3. All 6 batteries are 6 mouths old and have plenty of life in them (when fully charged). I got it home the other night for the first time and the kids ran it around the yard alot. It had about a quarter charge left in it. Kids ran it till power meter was flashing on the second to last bar. We brought it in for the night to charge. I plugged it in and the charger kicked on. Next morning... full charge.
Now here is the problem... 2 days later after running the cart alot. It is time to charger. I plug the charger in and it kicks on everytime BUT it will kick off after 5 seconds or maybe 5 minutes. It will not stay charging enough for the meter to stop flashing. It still seams to have plenty of life left. Its not slower at all.
When I put my voltage meter on the batteries that have all the wires connected. It reads 36volts. When the charger is plugged in. My meter read 39volts.
Questions...

1. Should I run it till it will not move (totaly dead)?
2. Could my power meter (on the cart) be wrong?
3. Could something be tripping my charger off?

Im guessing maybe my batteries are still fully charge and that is why the charger is kicking off. Maybe a bad power meter.
Can anyone help me in anyway? This is my first cart and my whole family loves it.

[Bowslayer]

If your meter shows 36 volts your batteries are very low. 38.2 is roughly fully charged. You should not run it until it's fully dead. Charge it every chance you get. The higher average charge you keep on the batteries the longer they will last. Sounds like you have something wrong with your charger or a connection issue. If you know someone else with a cart try your charger on theirs or their charger on yours and try to figure out if it's a charger problem or cart problem. Hope that helps some. In case I didn't say it before, charge your batteries often!

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by SimplyMe

Questions...

1. Should I run it till it will not move (totaly dead)?
2. Could my power meter (on the cart) be wrong?
3. Could something be tripping my charger off?

Im guessing maybe my batteries are still fully charge and that is why the charger is kicking off. Maybe a bad power meter.
Can anyone help me in anyway? This is my first cart and my whole family loves it.

Answers:
1. No, never, ever, allow batteries to discharge below 50% State of charge.
But, it looks like that warning is too late since 36.31V is 50% SoC.

2. LED bar graph SoC meters are best replaced with a DVM type.
Even an old analog type is less likely to lie to you.

3. Yes. Bad battery(ies) and/or something amiss in the charger's battery sensing circuit.

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Here is a chart that correlates voltage to State of Charge.
(Note: the voltages given are taken 12 hours after the charger shuts-off automatically.)

In a nutshell, put you cart on charge each night.

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When you connect the charger, what does the ammeter go up to?
Should be 18-20 Amps.

Using a DVM, what is the battery pack voltage when the charger turns off?
Should be in the 44-46 volt range.

Here is the manual for a TC III/ Lots of good info in it.
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What are the individual battery voltages?
If fully charged, they should be 6.37V after 12Hr of rest, and should be within about 0.1V of each other.