07 Precedent wont charge

[Noleman]

Hi team - excellent forum. First cart ive owned and had it almost a year. Suffered through the first Ohio winter and I believe my cart batteries are the casualty.

Cart has 4 - Trojan T-1275s in it. Ran fine all of last year. As I prepped for winter, read the forum and found that I should try and charge batteries at least once a month through the winter. Followed this religiously.

First issue I noticed was that typically my charger makes a distinct humming noise while it charges the battery pack. About 2/3 of way through winter, when I plugged it in.....it clicked on but hum was very faint. Was stuck in garage so I never tried to move it. Never thought too much about it.

Spring is here, so opened up garage, plugged in charger......same faint hum from charger. Tried to take cart for a spin, went about 100ft and then went dead. Pushed it back home.

Plugged charger back in, same faint hum, noticed that needle wont go above zero. Unplugged charger, cleaned all terminal connections one at a time, hooked charger back up - same faint hum and needle on zero. Popped caps off batteries, filled with distilled water over plates - no improvement. Put cart in reverse, it buzzes.....my lights will come on as well.....but it wont move.

I tried hooking up my standard car charger at 10A to each battery one at a time to bring up voltage.....3 of the batteries took a good charge. 1 of the batteries looks dead, wont register on my car charger panel readout.

Before I drop $800 on a new set of Trojans - does this sound like just standard battery failure/replacement? Or should I be checking something else.

Thanks for help.

[joesam]

First thing you should do is spend $5-10 bucks for a DVM (digital voltmeter). Everyone who owns an Electric Cart needs one. You don't need an expensive one. That will measure what (if any) power is in that battery. As long as your charger doesn't get hot or trip a breaker, you can leave that charger on the battery for quite a few hours (maybe at 2 amps)...for no reason other than to see if persistence (and blind luck) pays off.

How old are your batteries - do you know?

If you determine it is shot - the others are very close behind; so you'll need a new pack. If you DO need to replace them, download the attachment below - Lifted from the "stickys" above - DIY 4x12 to 6x8. You'll create a better performing and longer lasting pack if you do it.

[Hecky50]

You may also want to consider a battery maintainer which you can keep plugged in all winter so this doesn't happen again. It may save you $800 next year.

[teecro]

Originally Posted by Noleman

.... Cart has 4 - Trojan T-1275s in it. Ran fine all of last year. As I prepped for winter, read the forum and found that I should try and charge batteries at least once a month through the winter. Followed this religiously...

Well if you read this forum you should have read that you need to keep your cart plugging into its charger anytime that your not riding it.... Most all modern chargers such as the Power Drive will turn themselves back on every 2 weeks and/or you can unplug/plug the DC cord from the cart once a week to equalize them.... This might have kept crappy battery alive a little longer; but moving on...

You likely need all new battery due to their age and past treatment. Next question you need to field is can you afford to convert to six 8 volt battery as they work and last longer than four 12 volt battery.

[TahoeDawgZ71]

I'm thinking you may have an internal short in one of your batteries. An internal short breaks the internal series connection of the batteries and won't allow the charger to register any amps. Post the results of your voltage test for each battery and I'll make a decision based on that. It's also possible that the On board computer has failed and isn't providing an internal connection to the battery pack due to a bad charging circuit. There are tests we can do to bypass this circuit to see if we get any results. Post battery voltage and we will take it one step at a time until we find the problem.

[Noleman]

Got the voltmeter - I'll check the pack and individual battery this weekend when we head up to cottage.

Teecro - I've read both side of the argument that:
a). You should keep the charger plugged in all winter
Or
b). You should not keep the charger plugged in....but use a battery maintainer
Which is the consensus? Or should you charge once a month as I did?

Tahoe - hoping it's the short in the battery and not the obc. Seems the short would be more likely since when I put my car charger on individual batteries.....the one doesn't register. And the other 3 do. Just odd that it ran for 100 ft before shutting down.

Can I eliminate the charger from the equation since it kicks on albeit with the softer hum and needle at zero.....or should I be looking to borrow a buddies charger as well?

[teecro]

Originally Posted by Noleman

Got the voltmeter - I'll check the pack and individual battery this weekend when we head up to cottage.

Teecro - I've read both side of the argument that:
a). You should keep the charger plugged in all winter
Or
b). You should not keep the charger plugged in....but use a battery maintainer
Which is the consensus? Or should you charge once a month as I did?

I don't recall much if any support for option B at all.... Club Car clearly states to keep the cart plugged in as much as practical and here in this forum you will find sticky threads telling you the exact same thing.

Rule of “P and P” When Parked keep it Plugged-In.

PARDON my correction I did overlook the comment about the maintainer.... That is indeed a very viable addition to the life of the battery pack. I myself now use a DPI charger which has that function.... But until you have either I say keep the stock charger plugged in 24/7 when not in use as it is better than doing it yourself....

[joesam]

If you stay near the cart leaving it plugged in and equalizing once a month is fine. I squeezed 11 years golf running my 8v batts that way. The 12th year I bought a maintainer but they didn't get more than 4 months thru the 12th year without barely completing a round of golf. Maintainers are personal choice. The longer the cart is stored unattended, the more sense they make. I'm sure others might think differently.

[TahoeDawgZ71]

Originally Posted by joesam

If you stay near the cart leaving it plugged in and equalizing once a month is fine. I squeezed 11 years golf running my 8v batts that way. The 12th year I bought a maintainer but they didn't get more than 4 months thru the 12th year without barely completing a round of golf. Maintainers are personal choice. The longer the cart is stored unattended, the more sense they make. I'm sure others might think differently.

You've got a Regen 1 that's still running and you got 12 years out of a set of batteries? You need to play the lottery my friend.

[joesam]

I know..... I know. But if I won the lottery I'd be cruising a new Precedent with all the custom whistles pre-installed. Where's the challenge in that?