2001 EZGO low power & Battery questions

[BostonBob]

Hi all,

I just bought a 2001 EZGO and I noticed that it has very poor hill climbing ability. I have not tested the cart at my campground yet but I am now nervous about the hills. In addition - the cart has an extra 12V battery that is used to power the headlights and the stereo.

I must admit I don't know much about carts. In fact - most of my knowledge came from this site. I plan to take some battery compartment pics soon. But, I believe my cart is a series (I see a metal rod connecting the FNR to ??. It is 36V. The Energizer batts are marked 2/08. Each Energizer 6V is reading 6.4V on the multimeter and the total for the pack was like 38.5. I assume the batts are good so I may need to consider the alltrax 400amp controller and whatever else I need. My neighbor has access to 4GA wire and lugs. I plan to upgrade those as well.

The 12V battery looks older than the rest. I noticed it was only putting out 12V after a full charge. I put the headlights on and they looked great for a few minutes. Then they dimmed to almost nothing and I re-checked the 12V battery was down to 3.2V. UGH! I plugged the charger back in and it immediately started to climb back to 6V and climbing.

This weekend I will pull out that battery and probably replace it. I see some small wires coming off the charger cable that must keep this 12V charged. If this was a good battery, how long should I expect these to power my headlights between charges?

Sorry so many questions.

[COURTESYCART]

If that 12V is tied into your battery pack and is indeed bad than that is not helping your situation. it is acutatly draining the 2 6V batteries it is hook up to.

Also just b/c a battery reags 6.4v does not mean it is good. they may show perfect voltage, but not be worth a flip under a load.

The life spain of the light/radio depends on what kind they are. I would say they will keep them lit for several hours. I have a setup like that in my hunting cart(12v not connected to pack) and i charge it once a mth and i have 2 55W KC daylighters running off of it, radio and my 12v aux plug.