Run time on new batteries

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by madtuna187

What is everyone's opinion on proper water level? Some say slightly above the plates and others say to the bottom of the plastic sleeve.

If you can find the specific fill to levels recommended by the manufacturer of the batteries you have, use those guidelines.

Otherwise, at least a 1/2" above the plates and from 1/8" to 3/8" below the bottom of the vent tube.

Here are five examples a various recommendations.

[ADSFR075]

Still having issues, but not sure its the batteries. When fully charged, and on the charger, i get a reading of 51 on the volt meter. After running it for an hour and 5 minutes around the neighborhood, the battery gauge shows half full. Checked the batteries again before hooking up to the charger and the reading is 48 volts. Does this mean the gauge is bad?


2016 RXV 48v w/ 5" lift on 23" tires

[Mooncarter]

Check them on your DVM.

[rockfordpi]

Originally Posted by ADSFR075

Still having issues, but not sure its the batteries. When fully charged, and on the charger, i get a reading of 51 on the volt meter. After running it for an hour and 5 minutes around the neighborhood, the battery gauge shows half full. Checked the batteries again before hooking up to the charger and the reading is 48 volts. Does this mean the gauge is bad?


2016 RXV 48v w/ 5" lift on 23" tires

Like Mooncrater said, check it with DVM. One problem with some of the charge gauges I have seen is that they are not linear (in terms of range) like a Gas Gauge.

Also, a lot depends on the terrain and speed you were driving. That cart unlocked, with 23" tires goes 25mph+ . So if cart was running at WOT, it traveled 25 miles and still shows half charge

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by ADSFR075

Thank you for the reply. Didn't get any of that info from the battery store when i had the new ones put in the other day. The guy just told me to expect 8-12 hours of run time per charge.

12 X 15 = 180. So, if you ran the cart at 15 mph for 12 hours you would have a range of 180 miles. This is impossible. You need to understand how these things work.

"Run time" is a relative term. On a golf course, cruising a campground, a neighborhood, stopping etc. as a golf cart is intended to do is what "run time" means here.

[LabRat]

So many variables with "RUN TIME". Tire size, type, condition, air pressure just to name a few. Uphill, down hill, grass, rock, mud who knows where our carts must go. No 2 trips in a cart is ever the same. Another factor is how many pancakes we had at the all you can eat buffet, but never how many the wife had. :)
The Lester discharge machine draws a defined amp and shut off voltage. This test can establish an approximated run time. Its only an educated guess however it does provide some Science to our customers, instead of just an opinion.
In God we Trust, everybody else needs to provide Data
Enjoy the ride

[DaveTM]

Originally Posted by ADSFR075

Does this mean the gauge is bad?

May not mean the gauge is bad......but those "charge lines" don't really tell you all you need to know. Pickup a digital volt meter from ScottyB. https://www.cartsunlimited.net/battery-meters.html

That way you KNOW what the remaining voltage in your pack is. I've always judged "how much left" by looking at my VM. Even now with a lithium pack I still do that......but I also know that with lithium, the power drop is much faster from 49-V to 42-V than from 57V to 49-V.

With an on board VM it makes life easier.

MHO

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by ADSFR075

Still having issues, but not sure its the batteries. When fully charged, and on the charger, i get a reading of 51 on the volt meter. After running it for an hour and 5 minutes around the neighborhood, the battery gauge shows half full. Checked the batteries again before hooking up to the charger and the reading is 48 volts. Does this mean the gauge is bad?


2016 RXV 48v w/ 5" lift on 23" tires

If the bar graph type gauge showed "Full" when the pack voltage was 51V and later showed "Half Full" full when the pack voltage was 48V, it is working and fairly accurate.

See attached SoC (State of Charge) chart for Trojan brand batteries:
50.93V = 100% SoC
48.41V = 50% SoC.

------------
As for runtime, it depends on the storage capacity of the battery pack (Fuel tank capacity) and how many miles the cart will travel per kWh of storage (MPG). Plus how much of the time the cart is actually moving has to be taking into consideration.

For example, it takes about 4 hours to play 18 holes of golf, but cart is only being driven about 1/10 of the time. So is the runtime 4 hours or is it 24 minutes?

Harkening back to Post#3 with the battery vendor saying: "The guy just told me to expect 8-12 hours of run time per charge.", what I suspect he was trying to convey was you could expect to get two or three rounds on a single charge.

[rib33024]

Was the charger still running/charging when you took the volt reading and got 51 volts??

Originally Posted by ADSFR075

Still having issues, but not sure its the batteries. When fully charged, and on the charger, i get a reading of 51 on the volt meter. After running it for an hour and 5 minutes around the neighborhood, the battery gauge shows half full. Checked the batteries again before hooking up to the charger and the reading is 48 volts. Does this mean the gauge is bad?


2016 RXV 48v w/ 5" lift on 23" tires

[ADSFR075]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

Check them on your DVM.

Not sure what a DVM is???