Cart won't go

[Night Train]

I've got a 98 ezgo that's had the full upgrade: 48v, speed controller, motor, etc. I had 1 bad battery that I replaced this week. Cart has ran fine until just a few minutes ago. I wanted to add some more water to the other batteries so I was first cleaning them with distilled water and baking soda. Sprinkled the baking soda on then added the water by a squirt bottle. After all the corrosion and filth had broke down I sprayed them off gently with water hose being very careful not to get any water on the controller and other electronics. Now the cart won't go. The backup siren is putting off a low buzz when it is in neutral or forward. The led on the controller is lighting up and you hear the normal clicking but no go. What did I do, how can I fix?

[rib33024]

I'am guessing this is a series cart?? do you have a yard blower??, you need to blow off the F/R switch, the solenoid, and try to dry every thing up, it should be ok when it drys

[Night Train]

Ok thanks. Just already had enough problems with this thing figured I had fried something. Runs now. Thanks. All that's left is to figure why it won't stay running for more than 2 hours.

[rabbitreborn]

Originally Posted by Night Train

Ok thanks. Just already had enough problems with this thing figured I had fried something. Runs now. Thanks. All that's left is to figure why it won't stay running for more than 2 hours.

continous pedal down time? consider yourself blessed if thats the case......

seriously though, a pack should give you roughly 110 minutes of pedal down time.

[Night Train]

There are other carts running around our neighborhood and according to their owners they last up to 2 weeks without charging. These carts run right beside this one, it goes down and they just keep going and going like the energizer bunny. Why is mine so short lived?

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by Night Train

There are other carts running around our neighborhood and according to their owners they last up to 2 weeks without charging. These carts run right beside this one, it goes down and they just keep going and going like the energizer bunny. Why is mine so short lived?

Hopefully you are maintaining your batteries better than your neighbors are.
GC batteries self-discharge anywhere from 1% to 4% per day, so without moving the cart a single inch, the batteries will be down 14% to 56% in two weeks.
The fuller you keep the batteries charged, the longer they last, the deeper you discharge them between recharges, the sooner they will have to be replaced.

You may be comparing Apples to Oranges when you compare your cart's run-time to other carts in your neighborhood.
The motor, controller and 48V upgrades may have increased Torque and/or Speed, but they might have also decreased run-time.

What does your 48V battery pack consist of?
The bigger each cell is physically, the more chemical energy can be stored in it.
(8x6V = longest run-time --- 6x8v = shorter run-time --- 4x12V = even shorter run-time)
The heavier a battery is, the greater the plate area and the higher current capability.

FWIW: I dissolve a teaspoon of baking soda in pint of distilled water and spritz it on with a re-purposed Windex bottle. It rinses off easier.
Also, I put my cart on charge every night. If I don't use it the next day, it stays on charge.

[Night Train]

The cart has 6 8v. Leaving the cart on charge that long won't hurt the batteries? So with my setup the best I am gonna get is 2 hours? Does it hurt the batteries to charge them even if they do not necessarily need it? Also the carts I am comparing to are completely stock.

Yeah I was gonna put baking soda in the squirt bottle but everything was so corroded from the previous owner not maintaining the cart. I figured I needed to do something a little more evasive. Won't do that again.

[rabbitreborn]

Again, the discharge time of a set of Trojan batteries (the standard of the GC batteries) is 110 minutes. So at 110 minutes your pack is considered dead. Most everyone you speak with will tell you at that point you have degraded the life of the battery 3 times the normal rate. But that is 110 minutes of constant pedal down time.

Adding larger controllers, high speed/torque motors, bigger wheels, rear seating.... all of these things will shorten the actual pedal down time considerably.....

The batteries come from the manufacturer with a set number of charge cycles in them (forgive me but it has been years since I was told the number and I really can't remember it right now). When I spoke with the manufacturer regarding this, I was told that they base the charge life on rounds of golf (since that is the primary purpose of a cart at that time). A single round of golf averages 6 miles (following the cart paths that most courses use). A single round of golf equals 1 charge cycle (roughly 4 hours of play and 6 miles distance), however, 2 rounds of golf equals 3 charge cycles (roughly 8 hours of play or 12 miles). What that means is that a course that sends a cart out for a single round of play each day, 365 days a year, will see approximately 3-4 years of life out of their batteries (assuming they charge them each night, which most courses do). Whereas a course that doesn't have the correct number of carts to compensate for their rounds of golf and sends their carts out for 2 rounds a day will only see 1-1.5 years of battery life out of the same carts.

Those are real life numbers based on years of doing fleet service and seeing it happen more often than I care to think about.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by Night Train

1.The cart has 6 8v.
2.Leaving the cart on charge that long won't hurt the batteries?
3.So with my setup the best I am gonna get is 2 hours?
4.Does it hurt the batteries to charge them even if they do not necessarily need it?
5.Also the carts I am comparing to are completely stock.

1. & 5. If they have 6V batteries and you have 8V batteries, they will have longer run-time.
(IE: 8V battery is in the same sized case as 6V battery, therefore the individual cells are physically smaller and have less storage capacity)

2. Not if you have a charger that shuts of automatically when batteries are fully charged. Which charger do you have? Manufacturer & Model - There are several varieties out there.
(If you have an automatic type charger, be sure to leave your cart on charge until the charger automatically turns itself off!!!!)

3. If you put the pedal to the metal and leaving it there, you are doing okay get 2 hours out of a matched set of new batteries that have been properly broken in and were fully charged.
(When new, batteries only have about 75% of their storage capacity until the have been "Matured". If they aren't broken in properly, they will never reach 100% of their full potential.)
According to your first post in this thread, your batteries are neither new, nor a matched set.

4. No, the closer you keep your batteries to being fully charged, (and properly watered) the longer they last.
If you only discharge 10% before recharging you get about 5000 recharges, if you discharge to 50%, you only get about 500.
In fact, the process for equalizing the batteries in your battery pack is to fully charge them and then restart the charge cycle several time.
(All batteries in your pack should read within 0.1V of each other.)

5. See answer 1. above.

Scottyb (Carts Unlimited - one of BGW's site sponsors) has some good info on batteries on his website.

[madoc1]

night train, if the batteries were really all that dirty you should probaly pull the cables one at a time and clean up the terminals and lugs.