Inverter Questions

[Bilito]

I went for a drive the other night to look at the decorations and I had my strings of lights flashing away on the cart and playing holiday music on the sound bar. The sound bar kept losing the bluetooth connection and we noticed that the light strings cut off but if I took my foot off the gas pedal the lights came back on.

Is it possible the two batteries that power the inverter have lost their ooph and cannot power the inverter with enough power to run everything all at once

My batteries are all around 5 years old

[camaroluvz28]

It is very possible...once batteries start dropping voltage when the pedal is pressed to the point of accessories cutting out, most likely time to start thinking about replacement. Usually get between 4-6 years out of a good set so your right at the line. I would also purchase a voltage reducer that runs off the entire pack rather than just the two batteries to maybe get a little longer out of your next set. You can verify this with a multimeter holding it on each battery while pressing pedal using the cart as the load like normal...No battery should drop below about 5 1/2 give or take under a load...Usually it will be pretty obvious if one or more is bad...don't just replace the one or two replace the set or you will be on an endless cycle of one battery going bad at a time and ruining the new one or two you install at a time...hope that helps...

[Bilito]

I was thinking about buying two new Trojans to replace the ones powering the inverter, I think you are reading my mind

I don't use the cart nearly enough and I charge the cart after using, but then after 3 or 4 weeks of non use I give it a couple hours of charge before using it and the batteries always seemed to be working fine.

We have noticed the bluetooth sound bar not staying connected to my phone and thought that issue was with the sound bar

But last night when the Lights cut off and the sound bar lost connection, hmmm

What can I do to fix the situation to get me past the holidays?

[camaroluvz28]

Well if your cart is still functioning enough to get you around, you can always move the inverter over to the next two batteries and try and see if they still have enough juice to run it under a load...mind you which two batteries of course and that they are only producing 12 volts together before you hook it up...This is a temporary fix if it works though but seems like that all your going for...Also I never mentioned make sure your batteries have the correct amount of water just above the cells..If they are low they can also cause this issue.

[Bilito]

Sounds like a good idea and should be simple to do

I just went out with my multimeter for kicks and grins, and almost every single battery was reading 7.68V? The charger was running tho and the amp gauge on the charger was showing near the end of the charge at 6 amps, it always starts out around 15 amps and when it gets down to around 5 amps it shuts off

I topped off the water a few weeks ago several cells here and there were low

[camaroluvz28]

This sounds like its charging correctly...the real test will be to check each battery under a load after it has rested overnight though...the drop out will tell you a lot about the state of each...

[Bilito]

How much should they read when the charger shuts off?

[camaroluvz28]

The full pack should read close to 38.2 volts and each battery should read around or close to 6.37 volts... if it reads close to 36 volts or 6 volts a battery it is only at around 50% capacity and so forth...you may have a battery with a bad cell or that is weak that can throw off that entire pack reading though so important to test each battery individually... Also keep in mind that this is done after cart has rested after a charge for at least an hour or overnight

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by Bilito

How much should they read when the charger shuts off?

It depends on the charger. What Make/Mode charger are you using?

Starting at 15A and tapering off to 6A sounds like one of old types with a transformer that wieghs a ton. That type typically shuts off at 45V +/-1V.

The voltages on the attached SoC chart for Trojan brand batteries are taken 12 hours after charger shuts off, or 1 hours after the batteries have been used.

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How to get through the holidays on same batteries:

Give the two 6V batteries used a few hours charging with a 12V charger and do some back to back charging with the 36V charger on the pack to equalize it

Use different pairs of 6V batteries to power the DC to AC inverter.


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When you can, install a 36VDC to 12VDC converter or get a separate 12V battery to feed the inverter.

Or Get 12V LED Xmas lights.

[Bilito]

The charger has shut off and I checked all 6 batteries individually with my multi meter, 4 of them read just about the same at 6.48V the two connected to the inverter read 6.37

I will check them again in the morning

According to that chart they are all at almost 100%

It is a Power Wise charger and it weighs a ton