Battery Cable Washers - Oh My

[mrgolf]

My battery shop said do not use washers. At 110 inch lbs I don’t know that you could compress a lock washer. If the batteries are vibrating enough to loosen the nuts something else is bad wrong with the cart. The lead post is not strong enough for compress lock washers anyway. I don’t know, just seems like a waste of time to fool with washers on batteries.

[CCNorth]

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

Red wire connected to battery 1 should be 10awg and it goes to the charge receptacle +.

Red and Blue wires on battery 4 should probably not be there, for a couple reasons. One is that whichever accessories those are powering, they're only getting 12v from that battery. Eventually that causes that battery to become out of balance with the rest (depending how often and for how long you use the accessory), which leads to uneven charging and different state or charge between batteries in the pack. This leads to some batteries being chronically Undercharged, which causes sulfate buildup on the plates, and degradation and loss of capacity.
12v accessories should ideally be powered by a voltage reducer that draws its energy from the whole pack, rather than just one battery.
The other reason is, the energy being used by those accessories is not being accounted for by the OBC, and is not being correctly replenished during charging. (assuming your cart still has the OBC and uses the Powerdrive charger) This will eventually cause the entire pack to be undercharged, and the one battery will be severely undercharged.

You said your "blue" wire goes to a fuse holder, which probably means it goes to a light kit. Does the other red wire on battery 4 go to a fuse? I know it's hard to see in the battery box where all the wires go. What kind of accessories are on the cart, and if you unhook that red wire, which one doesn't work?

No batteries in cart so can't check what works with which wire.
Spent 6 hours today looking and tracing wires. Can't say I know much more than I did.
I have a radio system, built in speakers, that I forgot about because I never use it. It's mounted underneath the front of the roof. Also, I have a 30 inch LED light bar mounted to the roof. I don't know the brand but it says 6K LED on the top. It's powerful and easily lights up to 250 yards but I have no idea how many amps it draws. The light has a push button switch on the dash that is _always_ illuminated with key switched on OR off. I've always wondered about it staying on all the time. (Photo)

So, I have

1. The red and blue wires to #4 battery.

The red wire comes off a relay and goes through a fuse, then connects to battery. I think this is for the light bar power??

The blue wire with the red plastic fuse box is spliced into a blue wire that comes from a bundle from the front of the cart. Beyond the splice the bundle splits and appears to go to the taillights. I believe this is my radio. (photo) I plan to redo that splice. :) (Photo)

2. Found one more connection I failed to mention. Have a black 10g wire that connects to Neg of battery #6. This is the ground wire for the light bar switch, I think. Made a note that when it's disconnected from the battery the light on the switch goes off. (photo)

I have not found a "reducer". If it's there I don't know what I'm looking for.

You explanation is excellent and I understand the need to make some changes. Just not sure how to do it, yet.

[R&TBabich]

Originally Posted by scottyb

.... I use a truss head serrated stainless nut . It covers all the bases in one piece. ....
Super-Corrosion-Resistant 316 Stainless Steel Serrated Flange Locknuts
These flange locknuts have excellent resistance to chemicals and salt water. Serrations grip the material surface instead of the threads for easy installation and mild vibration resistance. The flange distributes pressure where the nut meets the material surface, eliminating the need for a separate washer. Height includes the flange. Nuts may be mildly magnetic. ....

I had not seen these nuts, thanks for pointing them out.
I like the one piece nut/lockwasher versus 3 pieces.
Technically they are a flanged nut, not a truss head.
I use truss head screws and bolts when working with soft materials.

[CCNorth]

Originally Posted by R&TBabich

I have a lot of 18-8 SS hardware and according to McMaster Carr "18-8 refers to stainless steel that has approximately 18% chromium and 8% nickel; it generally applies to 301, 303, and 304 stainless steel". In the pic the 1st nut has 3 plus marks (+++) and are 18-8s from McMaster. The nuts that were on my Interstate batteries are the 2nd one in the pic and has "304" stamped on it. The nuts I ordered from McMaster have "316" stamped on them. A plain steel nut will stick to a magnet, these do not. I only use a washer between the wire connection stack and the split ring lock washer.

You are so very kind to take the time to gather those screws for that pic. Your information was a great help!!
Being OCD, I remeasured the nut today and it is 9/16 inches wide.
Looking at the 18-8 SS at McMaster-Carr they show those nuts to be 5/16-18 but only 1/2 inch wide. You'd have to step up to a 3/8 to get 9/16th width.
THEN, I found a separate listing for 18-8 SS "Extra-Wide" nuts and the 5/16-18 is 9/16 inches wide. The specs and drawings did not show a +++ mark.
That's very interesting and if I ever need more nuts I'll know what to order.
Again, thank you so much!

[CCNorth]

Thank you to everyone who replied! I am going with the no-washer opinions or maybe the bolts ScottyB suggested.

I am still sorting the wiring on my cart and it was so much easier when I found the _correct_ wiring diagram. LOL.

1. I still cannot understand why I have an extra 10G Black wire on the #6 Battery Negative. I'm almost positive it's coming off the push button switch for my LED light bar. The red and black wires from the light seem to run through a relay, then a fuse. All I am positive about is when I disconnect this black wire the push button light switch goes off. Otherwise, the push button light is always illuminated, 24-7,...... key on or off.
I would like to know how to stop this 24 hour drain on the battery.

2. When looking at the stock controller I noticed the wires at #2 and #9 on the 16-pin connector have some sort of rubber around them. Does anyone know why this rubber is there?? (Photo)

[R&TBabich]

Originally Posted by scottyb

.... I use a truss head serrated stainless nut . It covers all the bases in one piece.
.....
These flange locknuts have excellent resistance to chemicals and salt water. Serrations grip the material surface instead of the threads for easy installation and mild vibration resistance. The flange distributes pressure where the nut meets the material surface, eliminating the need for a separate washer. ....

Thanks, again for pointing out these nuts,
Excellent corrosion resistance, large surface area, mild vibration resistance and no lock washer or washer needed - nice!
I like the vibration resistance, apparently so does Alltrax, the bolts they use are serrated, too.