Drained batteries but full meter.

[danke]

My golf cart (Ezgo TXT) has been non-operational for about 6 months now. My charger died on me and I haven't had the spare cash to purchase another one until recently. I charged the cart up (honestly, it probably wasn't long enough to fully charge drained batteries) and took her out for a spin. After about 30 minutes, it started to slow down. We inched the cart back to the house, which I know is not good for it.

When I got home and hooked the cart back up to the charger and installed a new battery gauge that just arrived in the mail. When the battery meter turned on it read FULL. I immediately grabbed my voltage tester and ran the negative pole to the negative terminal of the last battery and the positive pole to the positive terminal of the first battery. The reading was 37.9v.

How can my batteries be reading FULL when they were completely dead and then only on the charger for 20 or so minutes?

All help is greatly appreciated!

[Sir Nuke]

well, the reason being is because they are charging......or just came off the charger, for a TRUE reading of the condition of your batteries, plug in the cart....let it charge until the charger shuts off automatically. THEN take your pack voltage reading 12 HOURS after the charger has shut off....NOW you have the TRUE voltage of your pack.

any voltage reading before your pack as rested 12 hours after the charger has shut off, is NOT a true reading of its available voltage.

[scooterman]

yup you need to check the levels also and let charger do its work.

[Russ/TN]

Depending on what type of battery gauge you have....if it is led bars it will show full when you hook it up. It should re-set itself when the battery charger has finished a complete charge cycle.
See if it does not get more accurate on a full charge cycle.
Happy Trails.

[danke]

Ah great, thanks for all of the replies. All good things to know.