My first golf cart but I have no clue about ownership.

[Cheapguygolfer]

Hello everyone,
Well I have been holding out on buying a golf cart until I found this one today in my very cheap price range $600. I think I got a good deal but y’all tell me what you think. I’m not sure what year it is but it does run. The batteries all have different shipped dates on them Jan 2015,dec 2017, October 2017. One of my main questions is about the Lestronic 2 charger and the batteries. So I just filled up the batteries with water and put it on the charger. When I plugged it in showed about 17 dc amperes then after 15 min or so it went to 12 then hovered on 10 for about an hour then shut itself off. So what does that tell me about the batteries? I just took it for a spin and it seems ok to me. Maybe a bit sluggish but I realize what I paid. Do y’all have any suggestions for a newbie like myself?

[Mooncarter]

Hello. Welcome to the club and BGW.

First things first. You need a Digital Voltage Meter and get familiar with it before you can do much of anything troubleshooting an electric cart or charging system.

Although it sounds to me as if the charger shut off prematurely, that mix of batteries will never be 100% right. If they work OK for you right now, you may get some use out of them for a while. Get a meter and check the voltage of each individual battery.

to BGW!

[Cheapguygolfer]

Thank you mooncarter. So I will get a digital voltage meter and I will also google it to see what it is and how to use it. I assume it’s going to tell me first off his many batteries I have are good? Can I use it to test that my battery charger is working correctly?

[jakesnake27]

to BGW

It sounds to me like your charger is working properly. It should start at a higher amperage and work its way down.

Just curious, what kind of your cart do you have? There should be a serial number plate/tag under the dash behind the go pedal. What are the first six digits?

[Swan]

there is a few different voltage meters , the one moon talking about is a small digital meter that reads the pack as a whole




what you would check the charger with is a regular hand held meter

[Cheapguygolfer]

I just plugged in the serial number and it told me it was a 1997 club car ds.
The LESTRONIC II Charger that came with the deal does start in the 20-30 amperes range and then goes down to around 3 amperes then shuts off. Now I got a voltage meter like y’all told me and I measured every 6 volt battery. After charging 4 of them were at 6.0 and above 1 was at 5.9 and 1 was at 1.8. So can I just replace the one until I can save some money to buy all 6? Will just replacing the bad one or two make the cart last longer than 5 min or so like it’s doing now?

[handtools]

You need to let the batteries rest without use about 12 hours after the charger shuts off before checking the voltages to get a clear picture of their health. Here is a state of charge chart to help you determine the condition of your pack. Replacing one battery is really a waste of money unless you can find a good used one cheap.

CartsUnlimitedStateofChargeChart.png

[Cheapguygolfer]

Woah thanks for that chart so even when my battery’s are fully charged and I put the voltmeter on I never get above 6.3 so I guess my battery’s are shot. Time to replace then all!

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by Swan

there is a few different voltage meters , the one moon talking about is a small digital meter that reads the pack as a whole




what you would check the charger with is a regular hand held meter

Actually that is not what I was talking about. I hate those things.

[_ogre]

you can typically get a free multimeter from harbor fright with a coupon by subscribing to the emails
even at the full price of $6.39 you can't go wrong 20% off coupon
it's all i use on 5-480 volts 3 phase, since letting the smoke out of my fluke


harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter