Ezgo pds charging issue... I think

[engineer73]

Hello everyone I am new to the golf cart scene I just purchased a 2008 TXT - PDS model with 2010 Trojan 105's in it. I am quite sure this has been addressed before I have even found a couple of threads but nothing that actually answered my question. Here it goes when I got home with the cart Friday evening I told my wife to drive it until it was dead and she did when I went to plug in the charger which is a power wise two 36 volt 21 amp it was only charging at a 10 to 11 amp rate and then dropped overnight to 4 to 5 amps. Is something wrong with the charger or possibly the batteries? I am just figuring the charger because the batteries are almost new. I have checked all of the connections everything looks good I checked all batteries Saturday and they are all 6.7 and 6.8 volts each. I installed the freedom chip in it Friday evening I don't think that could have done anything to it. Any help would be great.

[rib33024]

Sounds like your charger is working ok , it will start off at 10 to 15 amps and then drop down as they charge, and will stay at 3 4 amp till the pack levels off, but one thing you DO NOT want to do is run the battery pack below 50% never, and keep you water levels 1/2" about the plates with distilled water only,


Here read this about batteries

http://www.cartsunlimited.net/Batter..._Tutorial.html

[engineer73]

Thank you very much for your help I will never do it again. I guess the next thing on my list will be a voltage meter.

[rib33024]

and welcome to BGW

yes you need a meter

and alot of people will say to never run them down below 70%




not sure if you saw this in my first post, read this it will tell you about your batteries


http://www.cartsunlimited.net/Batter..._Tutorial.html

[engineer73]

Thank you for that link it was very educational stuff.

[stretchman]

Ive always been told no more than 80%. It's when voltage starts to drop, the amperage starts to rise (heat), and that is what breaks down a battery.

[JohnnieB]

Hi there - Welcome to the BGW forum and golf carts.
I'm new to both myself, but I've learned a lot here in the month I've had my 2008 TXT PDS.
Your screen name implies you have a engineering background and I'm a retired Clinical Engineer, so we might have a few things in common.

If you haven't already, read all the STICKYs at the top of Electric EZGO area of the forum and download all the manuals. Lots of good info.
Also read the New Battery Break-in procedure at the website rib33024 posted. In fact, read everything on the website.
In addition, click on the "Site Sponsors" on the above menu bar and check out all of their websites, they have good info also.

Just about any DVM will be accurate enough for Golf Carts. I have a good one, but use a throwaway I picked up at Wally-World for measuring battery voltage. (Less expensive to replace if I screw-up )

If all 6 of your 6V batteries are reading 6.7 or 6.8 volts shortly after they came off charge, they're probably okay, but what you are reading is a surface charge that will drop off rapidly under load. Run your cart around the yard a couple times and the readings will drop down to the values found on the battery state of charge chart. Or you can just let it set for a few hours and the same thing will happen.

As you may have guessed, Golf Cart batteries aren't maintenance free.
I charge my batteries every night and water them once a week, cleaning the terminals as needed.
My cables and terminals looked pretty good, until I took a closer look.
Crimp on cable ends were full of corrosion and charger cable connectors were between main battery cables to controller/motor and battery terminals.
I took every cable off, cleaned and dressed contact areas and stacked the connectors correctly. (Cart seemed to have more ooomph afterwards. )
I haven't put them on yet, but I bought a set of soldered on connector 2 gauge cables from Scottyb.

I use a mixture of 1 heaping teaspoon of baking soda per pint of distilled water sprayed from a re-purposed Windex bottle and a stuff brush to clean the battery cables/terminals during routine maintenance. Thoroughly rinse with tap water.
Be careful where you do this, the gunk that washes off stains concrete. Don't ask how I know.

[engineer73]

Thank you guys very much for the help I would have never guessed any of this about the batteries. I am used to nicad packs that require a full discharge and then only after that do you plug them in and charge them. It looks like you guys saved me some headache on this topic. JohnnieB I am a mechanical engineer and pretty much design material handling equipment but it looks like I will be cutting my teeth on some electrical here shortly. Again thanks for the help.