Chatter after 20-30 min ride

[Brushpup]

Nice lookin cart man...really sharp. Hope you find your answer soon, but if you have to buy new batts, at least you'll be able to make sure they last you a long time.

Trojan, Crown, and US Batteries seem to be the most popular around here. Buy the best you can possibly afford. As Shadowman says: Batteries aren't the place to save money, don't skimp here....

[shadowman]

trojens, crown, us whatever you can afford..............if you go with 8 six volts you,ll get 25% more runtime and torque if you need it if not just drop in 6 eight volts...... break in and maintence is very important so thats top of list................................

[simple man]

Welcome!
Remember, these high powered, lifted carts with large tires, will use a lot more juice than a stock cart! You really need to use eight 6V batteries to get the capacity for a longer run time.
Here's a link to " scottyb's " site. He's one of our sponsors, and has some great battery info. Read everything on his menu with the word " battery " in it. You will learn tons about golf cart batteries and their care!
http://www.cartsunlimited.net/
Just a quick edit: I just looked up some battery specs and your 860's are the lowest capacity in the 8V series, so yours are probably not bad, but just inadequate! They can be used as a trade in on new ones, but how much allowance you'll get will depend on the vendor. :)

[Huntmaster143]

Here's another test...

I took three adults and three kids (most weight I have had on it) for a short slow ride through the woods today. After probably 15-20 minutes, the cart would not move at all. No chatter this time, but it would just slow down and then come to a stop. I would let off the pedal before it stalled, but after we waited 5 minutes it would go just fine and had plenty of torque and speed.

As we nursed the cart back to my house, we would go for 100 yards and then we would run out of juice. We would give it 5 minutes and we were good to go. I repeated this a few times to make it back. On our way back, we stopped at my neighbors and let the kids play for a couple hours. Then we jumped on the cart and we could cruise around just fine.

One thing I noticed during this process, is the motor was extremely hot. Is it possible that the motor is part of the problem? We run electric motors for work and I can hold my hand on them after a days worth of work. You couldn't hold your hand on this motor for more than a second it was so hot. That doesn't seem right to me at all.

After I parked the cart for the night, I put the meter on it to get a reading and it tested at 50.4 total and 8.4 each.

Any thoughts? I just hate buying all new batteries if there is possibly something else in the mix here and when I put new batteries in and get the same result...

Is there any effective way to test the motor, controller and other parts to make sure they are working properly?

[shadowman]

it really shouldn,t get that hot.....what color is controller? you can take the motor out and look at the brushes see if something is going on with them......the cart should have a v-glide by the drivers side front battery on frame rail you can open it see what it looks like.............it may not be the batteries but something is effecting it and thats all there is in the system..........................

[Huntmaster143]

Shadowman, I'll have to take another look at the controller color tonight, but I think it's grey. He gave me the paper work for a Buggies Unlimited SK1001 if that helps any... On BU, it shows a grey and a black controller in their install kit.

The joys of buying used, I am trying to figure out all of the components I have.

[Huntmaster143]

Well I confirmed that it is they Grey controller. Does anyone know what size that one is? The printed info says 488-727 Amps. I don't see any writing on the controller that specifies. I'll give BU a call to see if they can help me with that.

I also made time to hydro test all of the batteries and they all look good. The lowest cell I had was 1.275 with the highest 1.300. Each individual cell within the battery was within 0.020 of the other cells.

I also checked the voltage again after the pack was charged over night. 8.64, 8.71, 8.63, 8.62, 8.67, 8.63 and pack total reads 51.9

So it seams like I can rule out the batteries. Now I guess I'll pull the motor to see if there is something going on there. I do have a GE D380 Speed motor that also came with the cart. Maybe I'll put that in to see if it is any better.

Thoughts?

[shadowman]

before you pull motor does it have a v-glide or pot box?? v-glide will be drivers side on frame rail by front battery its sorta a pie shaped box you, ll need to take the battery out to take cover off and look at it.......make sure its all good in there and if its a pot its underneath and theres reall nothing to look at to see if all is working.......i think you should have a v-glide.........................

[Huntmaster143]

I think i must have a pot box. I looked in front of the batteries last night and nothing there. I did see a box looking thing under the cart though.

What does this do?

[shadowman]

that is your speed control if you look at the linkage rod from the pedal it goes to that box........problem is i don,t think you can buy that anymore and if thats where the problem is you would have to convert to an M-cor i beleive...............they sell a kit to convert but its not cheap........there is a way to test that pot eith scotty or david can give you a step by step......i,ll let one of them since they can explaine it so much more understandable.........unless you have the service manual the step by step is in there...................................