Testing batteries

[shadowman]

Originally Posted by scottyb

The equipment is only as good as the operator, lol.

man oh man how true.........i don,t care if you have the most accurate tester made if its not used right you might as well wipe your butt with it, since i can,t afford the best equipment i use a load tester a battery hydrometer and a meter and these work quite well for me.....i can,t wait to see 2 sets of batteries i have been maintaining for years now, the ladies are still in flordia, 1 set is now 14 years old and 1 set is gonna be 13 years old they are still pushing their carts along quite well..........i wish all batteries behaved like that..................

[OLD MEC]

My own 8 volt Trojans are now OVER 9 years old and still doing great. Last month while at a parade I covered 12 miles ( longest trip in several years ) and hand held meter still showed 49.50 pack.

[scottyb]

That's a record, but really what kind of #s would they put up on a draw down machine? But still they get 3xs the average useful life out of them

[pachanga90]

They do make a small,cheap hand-held load-tester known by many as a "Toaster-Box".They only load about 125 amps.A lot of people have them and they are fine for a quick check on a car battery,but thats it.This is where people get confused,saying that load-testers don't always work.A real Carbon-Pile Tester will pull them hard and find the weak ones.

[scottyb]

That is right HF sells 50-100amp models that won't hardly test a GC battery ... We have an old adjustable unti that will draw 3-450amps and show you what the battery voltage is while you are doing this.... that is an old pile load tester
The draw down machine is invaluable too because not all weak batteries show as right away... Run time is the true mark of a good pack.

[gcs13]

Originally Posted by OLD MEC

I hope you purchased a single float hydrometer with temp correcting scale rather than a antifreeze multi float unit which is great for its use BUT NOT BATTERYS.

Yes I bought a single float hydrometer. The meter worked great. I've only gotten 2 good batteries and the rest is toast. I did a test one hour after full charge. The 2nd test I did was 12 hours after full charge.

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by gcs13

Yes I bought a single float hydrometer. The meter worked great. I've only gotten 2 good batteries and the rest is toast. I did a test one hour after full charge. The 2nd test I did was 12 hours after full charge.

My honest take on this is ...... if you have only 2 passable batteries out of a 6pack then it is time for new batteries all the way around. The 2 you think are good are likely not very good when taken out on the road. All 6 batteries have been through the same war and had the same treatment.. 4 are dead, 2 are weakened or near dead in my humble opinion

[gcs13]

I'm going to replace the all. This cart I'm working on has been neglected to say the least. The cart is a badboy buggie, it belongs to a hunting club. I don't think they ever checked the water in the batteries. The 2 batteries that checked out good, are the 2 they replaced after they turned the buggie over and shorted 2 out. This thing has ( 6 volt batteries in it. I did a little checking around on pricing. The best price I found was $95.00 each and that was for Interstate batteries. I called a few local golf cart dealers and they wanted $120.00 to $130.00 each for T-105 Trojans. Is there any place in the North Ga. area that I can get a good deal on a new pack?

[kernal]

T-105s were $92.00 ea. week before last here on southwest side of Atlanta. That's with trade in and before tax. I heard a rumor of a price increase on Apr 1st but I didn't check. $120.00 for t-105s is way out of line for this part of the country IMO. Don't know how far north in Ga. you are but might be worth the trip to Atlanta.

[scottyb]

Just be sure you are comparing apples to apples .... don't go replacing a T105 220 amp hour battery with a bargain 200 amp hour battery and think you won't notice a performance and useful life span reduction.