1996 CC battery drain issue

[Kdaugherty]

I have a 1996 Clubcar 48volt powerdrive. I run 4 12 volts and the cart is pretty much stock except for a 36 volt CC motor. I have owned the cart for years and I have never had any issues with it, but recently it's been showing near dead on the gauge with just a short amount of use. I put a meter on each battery and only the last battery in the series showed at about 12 volts. All three others were well above 13 still. I swapped that last battery with another in the series to see if it was indeed a bad battery or something else wrong. The battery I switched over to the last location did the same thing after a good all night charge. Cart went less then half the distance it normally does and when I checked the batteries on the meter only the last battery was run down. The last battery is also where my gauge reads from and where my headlights pull power. Any ideas on what would cause this? Batteries are less then 1 year old. Last set I had never did this and they last around 5 years. Any ideas? Note: it has this problem with or without the headlights on, off, or disconnected.

battery gauge ?? if its an analog they are not reliable .. get a digital votlmeter and see results

first i'd get the low battery up to the others range by using a 12v charger ..
then charge the entire pack
i'd get a 48v > 12v converter to use headlights and accessories to stop the drain on only one battery