Newbie. Bought a 96 ezgo and have battery questions

[Stillinamerica]

Edit- it is a 2006 not a 1996-

Hi, I was looking for a cart to drive round the neighbourhood and picked up a 96 36v ezgo cart for $1600. Really clean car, lights rear seat i think it is a pds. I looked a good deal, even if unneeded new batteries which I may :(

So I hve spent the last two days researching as much as I can.

The owner told me he hadnt driven It lien he should, has been sitting idle for months on end, the batteries are two years old, not too dirty.

It does not seem to run great though and it died after cruisin for 15 mins with the family (luckily in my driveway).

When I have been charging with the powerwise II, it has been humming like it seems it should and the amp reading on the charger (there are no led lights) goes to 10amps then drops to five and stays there.

From what I am reason I may have a problem with the charger, batteries or both! I intend to take the charger to a golf cart place in the am and test it on one of theirs. If it works I am assuming that my batteries are dead.

Any advice help would be great. Before Sunday I knew NOTHING about golf carts but am learning quick. I know alot about cameras and use a similar forum to this for photography and love helping others, hopefully someone can guide me. Cheers!

Martin

[yurtle]

Go here and read everything about batteries. If they sat for any length of time in a discharged state, they may be toast, even if they're fairly new.

http://www.cartsunlimited.net/

[scottyb]

It sounds like your charger is working just fine. Check the water levels in the batteries and recharge. let the charger finish. This may take 12 hours or more.
The previous owner may have compromised their condition by letting them sit unattended for months on end.
At this point your best plan of attack would be charge, charge, charge. Daily, with little use if possible.

Welcome to BGW !!!

[Stillinamerica]

Yurtle-thanks for the link, I had already looked at it, seein I guess where you had commented before. A lot of it is starting to make sense, as I said I am completely new to everything golf cart, even understanding amperage etc.

Scotty B, thanks for your reply also. I am glad to know that it sounds like my charger works. Just so I understand, and please excuse my extreme ignorance, but If my batteries were in great condition, maybe a 5% discharge, how would my charger operate when charging? Would I be different from going to 10 amps then dropping to 5, 4 etc?

Also, I have not it to the point where I have let the battery charge until it stops by itself. It's generally been charging for 3-4 hours then I shut it off when I go to bed or leave for work. Is it normally good/safe just to leave it runnin unattended?

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to help me.

[JohnnieB]

Welcome to BGW!

It is both normal and typical to leave the cart/charger unattended while charging.
If you aren't letting the PW-II charger run until it automatically shuts off, you are not fully charging your batteries.

Starting at 10A is a little low, but that is how a PW-II reacts to batteries with high internal resistance. (I have a PW-II )
If you have the opportunity to try it on carts with good batteries, it will probably start in the more typical 15A to 20A range.

The batteries in my cart were only 18 months old when I got it, but had been poorly maintained and would only charge to about 85%.
After charging them repeatedly after small discharges or no discharges for weeks, I got them up into 95% range and they improved some more over the next year.
They still don't have the run-time or travel distance of a new batteries, but they have lasted a lot longer than I originally expected them to.

One of the things that you need to do, is determine how high you batteries will charge.
Here is a Chart showing State of Charge vs voltage.
The voltages listed are take about 12 hours after the charger shuts off automatically.
(The surface charge the batteries acquire during charge has to be depleted to get a meaningful voltage read and deep cycle lead-acid batteries self-discharge at about 1% per day, so half a day at rest or a short ride will deplete it)

After establishing a baseline. Initiate a charge cycle two or three times a day, or whatever is convenient.
If you ride the cart, plug it in immediately after the ride. If you don't ride the cart, unplug charger from cart and then plug it back in.

Keep a close eye on the water level, the batteries will be gassing a lot.
Use distilled water only and don't over fill.

If you don't have a DMM (Digital Multi Meter) get one, you will need it.
An inexpensive one in in a blister package from an auto parts or discount store will suffice.

Also, you want to establish a baseline for the individual battery voltages as well as the pack voltage.
A fully charged 36V pack will be 38.22V and fully charged 6v batteries will be 6.37V

[Irishjoker]

Welcome to BGW and hello from Indiana.

[Stillinamerica]

Thanks. Well it stopped charging after 3 hours this morning, so I am charging it again. I am going I head out to et some distilled water and the volt testing thing.

Thanks