Question on estimating battery life for 2006 Precedent?

[atomarchio]

I have a 2006 Club Car precedent with 4 12V trojan batteries replaced in September of 2015.

When fully charged, the batteries read from 12.4 to 12.6 volts.

I am concerned about how long I can drive it around without getting stuck somewhere.

How can I measure how long I can drive the cart without fully depleting the batteries? I have a very basic voltmeter and hoping someone can help me estimate this.

Please let me know. Thank you.

[ThreeCW]

Find attached a State of Charge Chart that you can use to determine your battery charge based on the "stabilized" battery voltage.

At 12.4 to 12.6 volts fully charged, your batteries are only reaching about 70 to 90% of their capacity.

By the time you get to 12.1 to 12.2 volts (stabilized voltage), you better be back at home charging them.

It appears you are near the end of your battery life with these 6 year old batteries ... in my experience, once my batteries got to this point, sudden failures (cell shorting) started to occur. I replaced the first failure with a used replacement battery but a second failure occurred a few month later.

Note - after charging it takes up 24 hours (with the charger disconnected) for your battery voltage to stabilize. After using your cart, the battery voltage can be read after 10 minutes to get an indication of remaining charge, but it takes up to 1 hour to get a stable voltage.

[CP241]

Get a digital voltage gauge and mount it to the dash. They should 50.9 or better when fully charged. Check voltage when you stop and let it sit for 2-3 minutes. When that sitting voltage is around 48.5v I would be heading home.

If you continue to let it sit for 30-60 minutes it will continue to creep up, probably settling around 49v. But at the 48.5 mark she’s done.

I wire it to the key switch so it comes on and off with the key. But do note that on average you will have about 0.1-0.2 volts less that what you will have if you connect it directly to the pack. There’s a slight bit of voltage drop going through the controller, run/tow switch, ans the key switch. But it will be close enough for you to not have to guess anymore.

[Bama Brad]

Yes, get digital voltmeter....those "bar" readers are useless. I also printed the battery chart out, laminated and stuck on dash by key switch so whoever is driving can see it as a gas gauge. I highlited the yellow line and indicated to head to house when it hits the yellow line (after resting for a few minutes).

[kgsc]

Surprised someone hasn’t invented a meter that can be set to a voltage to start flashing at similar to the low fuel light in a car...

Never mind.. I found one.