How to Charge my 48 Volt Club Car

[garsm]

I just bought a used 1998 club car. The batteries are from 2007. I need some help with how to charge it. The golf cart started getting slower so I knew it was low on battery. I hooked it up to my charger around 10 am this morning and the amp meter moved pretty well down to 10 amps. It hasnt moved past 10 amps in a couple hours now. I am wondering if there is a problem with my charger or if I just need to let it go for longer since it was only on for 5 hours. Tell me what to do? I tested the batteries with the volt meter every few hours and they were climbing up half a volt every 45 min or slow. When I unplugged the charger the bank was at 54 volts. Each battery was reading about 8.7 volts. All the batteries were within .4 volts of eachother. Just give me some help.

Also, what should the bank read for volts when fully charged?
What should each battery read?
Does the ampmeter of the charger tell me how many more amps it needs?

I am new to this so thanks.

[shadowman]

make sure your battery cable ends are god tight and clean......its not uncommon for the charger to stay on for 16 hours depending on how the batts. were broke in and maintained.................plug it back in and keep an eye on it if you start smelling the rotten egg smaell than upplug it....but i have seen chargers stay at 5 amps for 8 hours or so..........your voltage reading seem fine and with good batts fully charged the pack may read 59 volts they are all a little different but don,t panic cause it didn,t move from 10 amps after just a few hours........keep us updated we,ll get it figured out if theres something wrong...............by the way welcome....................

[garsm]

I just cleaned all the battery ends and plugged it back in. What would the rotten egg smell indicate? I also noticed that one cell on one of the batteries was a little low. I am going to fill that and hopefully it will be ok.

[sunking]

Originally Posted by garsm

What would the rotten egg smell indicate?

That the batteries are gassing which is normal. If the batteries are really low, they could take 10 or more hours to fully recharge.

[garsm]

Hey Shadowman, I pluged the cart in for another 5 hours tonight. I just went out and checked the voltage on the whole bank and it was 61.3. The ammeter on the charger was at 4. Seems a little high. It(the charger) stopped charging while I had the volt meter on the bank. Each battery was at 10.4 volts except the two in the middle. One was at 9.4 and one was at 9.8. Is that maybe a problem? I went over to the charger and the ammeter was at 0 but it was still humming. Then about 2 min later it kicked in again. It went back to 4 amps after a few minutes. I watched it for 30 min and the bank was up at 61.4 volts. I just unplugged it because it seems too high. Am I just too nervous or is all this normal?

[sunking]

61.4 is about right. Trojan recommends with a constant current charger to a finish voltage of 2.45 to 2.7 volts per cell. So at 61.4 volts you are at 2.54 volts per cell so you are OK.

The lower readings indicate weaker cells and the batteries may need a EQ charge. Do you have a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity? Hydrometer readings are more accurate and reliable than voltage.

[dougmcp]

The voltage is correct and the charger is slightly overcharging the better batteries trying to bring the weaker ones up.
I would let the charger finish it's cycle, let the batteries rest overnight and check the individual batteries in the morning.
After the rest period, if you have any of the batteries in the pack below 8.4v, they are suspect and may need replacement.

[shadowman]

yes what doug said the charger is trying to get the lower voltage batts up to the others level.......................................

[garsm]

After a few 8 hour intervals of charging the charger finally shut off. I guess it was just really low. All the batteries hold a close to equal voltage after a few hours of being off the charger. I think everything is good. Thanks for your help.