Drive Charger Question

[kmonty2]

I have a 2007 Drive. It has been in storage for the whole winter inside a heated building. I went to pick it up today and the batteries were dead. Ok, so I hooked up the charger but it would not charge. The charger worked last October with no problem. It has not been used since and it has just been sitting. No the power light comes on but it will not charge the cart. I checked the output of the charger with a volt meter but I don't get any reading, should I? and if so what? The batteries are full of water and there is no sign of leaks on any of the batteries. I checked the batteries too, they were all around 5-8 volts only, would this be a problem for the charger? Could the charger just go bad?
Thanks for the help.

[simple man]

I'm sure the charger has to "see" a certain voltage to initiate charging. I'm not familiar with Drive, so I don't know what voltages your batteries are. What you need to do is to charge either pairs of them (6V) or one at a time (12V) with an automotive 12V charger to boost the voltage enough for the vehicles charger to initiate.
Edit: also, the batteries are probably permanently damaged from sitting discharged this long. You'll know when you get them charged.

[smallblock450sl]

Does the red "ac" lite come on when plugged into ac outlet? The Yamaha charger (guessing you have a JW-H2107-03-00 charger or a DPI), needs at least 44 volts or more to "sence" it is plugged into something and you only have 20-volts Like simple man said, charge one battery at a time with a 12 volt automotive charger till you have enough voltage in each battery to add up to 44+ volts. Plug in the stock charger and see if it will go thru the lite cycle and start charging. It may charge for a while and stop and read "incomplete or an error lite", just unplug and replug in the charger to restart the cycle and it useually goes to green (full charge) over night. Let's hope there not damaged. If there not damaged, every charge and discharge can bring them up to there full capacity run time "for there age", only a "download machine can tell you that. Good luck

[Volt_Ampere]

Your batteries are not going to be much good if you let them discharge that much but you can get them charging again by charging them individually with a car battery charger - just enough to get the voltage up. Next time you store your cart, figure out a way to keep the batteries charged. Those things are expensive and yours are probably not much good now.

[Drive2007FL]

Let me ask a follow-on question. Have a 2007 Drive with the stock charger. When charging, the green light won't come on when complete. Instead, I get the read Power light (the top light) blinking. If I unplug, wait, and plug it back in (the charger), the full charge (green) light comes on.

Any thoughts?

[kmonty2]

I will try charging them. I hope they are not bad, I checked the water and they are all almost full still. We will have to see, I'll keep you posted on what happens.
Thanks for the info.

[cgtech]

The red power light blinking means the charger is in equalization/boosting mode. This means the charger thinks the batts may be out of balance, this mode may run for something like up to 10 hours after the regular charge cycle has completed.

[Volt_Ampere]

Do NOT add water to batteries that are not fully charged unless they plates are showing. Then only add enough to cover the plates. Otherwise, they will overflow when you charge them.