Club Car Battery usage

[trigger1937]

I've read that you should never run the batteries down to 50% power (as displayed by the red usage light). However every now and then I have to borrow a friends cart when my daughter and her husband come up to play golf. That cart has 1 year old Trojan 875's and when charged it shows 100%. After 1 round of 18 holes the indicator shows the batteries are down to 50%,.. and this was a pretty simple gold course and 18 holes only takes 4+ hours. The water level was fine.

I'm about to switch my 2008.5 CC over from 12 volt batteries to 8 volt Trojans and I want to know what to expect as I maintain them. I know about the break in period which indicates that you "SHOULD RUN THE BATTERIES TO 50%" and then charge them back to full right away. I know this has been done on that cart since his last set of Trojans lasted him 8+ years.

By the way,... my local CC dealer has been switching out every golf course around him from 12 volt batteries to the 8 volt trojans.

[shadowman]

i know i,ll take heat for this but thats ok......you can put 10 different meters on the cart and chances are you,ll get 10 different readings...........i do have meters on my elec,s but i pay no attention to them...............when i,m riding it and it feels like its getting sluggesh i charge it..............as for my meters they are there so if i hit my pedal and it drops like a brick then theres a problem......or if i jump on it and look at the meter and it says 30 volts then there is a problem......other then that i don,t even pay attention to them...........it might drive you batty..........in the end i do think everyone should have a good battery meter on their cart..............................

[scottyb]

I'm getting mixed signals here Everybody should have a meter on their cart but don't pay any attention to them?
If you use the seat of your pants to tell you when you need to recharge you may be discharging deeper than 50%.... That's okay, just realize that the deeper you discharge the fewer times the batteries can recover from said deeper discharge...

As for using the meter for catastrophic readings only? I think if you can feel the difference between 40 & 60% capacity you can feel 30v too

For the rest of you, use the digital meter to get the longest useful life from your batteries per Trojan battery company specs. Here is their info.

[shadowman]

Originally Posted by scottyb

I'm getting mixed signals here Everybody should have a meter on their cart but don't pay any attention to them?
If you use the seat of your pants to tell you when you need to recharge you may be discharging deeper than 50%.... That's okay, just realize that the deeper you discharge the fewer times the batteries can recover from said deeper discharge...

As for using the meter for catastrophic readings only? I think if you can feel the difference between 40 & 60% capacity you can feel 30v too

For the rest of you, use the digital meter to get the longest useful life from your batteries per Trojan battery company specs. Here is their info.

scotty no your right everyone should have a meter......i,m talking just how i use the ones i have and as you know i have never conformed to the norm........but i,ll say this what i do and the way it works for me is just fine for me......everyone should have a meter on their cart though..............................

[erict]

While we are talking meters, Scotty do you have the square metal trim back in stock?

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by shadowman

scotty no your right everyone should have a meter......i,m talking just how i use the ones i have and as you know i have never conformed to the norm........but i,ll say this what i do and the way it works for me is just fine for me......everyone should have a meter on their cart though..............................

I know , I know. I'm trying to explain that while you can discharge deeper than 50% routinely and still have good performance you will shorten the useful life of the batteries. I need a meter cause I have too many carts to remember which one charged when!? If I'm not careful I could hurt some batteries by letting them sit at 60 or 70% charged for months on end....

[shadowman]

when my carts start getting sluggish i stop and check and i,m about 55% discharged so i,ll then put on charger..........after checking them over a few seasons i now just about know by the way my carts drive just about how discharged batteries are..................................

[trigger1937]

I think we are the lucky ones on this issue. Just about all we use a cart for is golf. At the most we average playing something less than 3 times a week all year long. Of course thisis cut down in the winter on rainy days and also cut down in summer on super hot days but even if we average 3 days per week,..the Trojan chart about indicates that we should still average 8 years life. We will all take that and be happy.