Cart Charger

Ok, I've got one battery that reads -1.8 volts. I didn't notice that until I hooked the car charger up to it and the charger wouldn't kick on, which I've noticed it does on bad batteries.

Would a bad battery keep my cart charger from kicking on?

T.P. said:

Ok, I've got one battery that reads -1.8 volts. I didn't notice that until I hooked the car charger up to it and the charger wouldn't kick on, which I've noticed it does on bad batteries.

Would a bad battery keep my cart charger from kicking on?

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Certainly.

I would take it back to the shop, more than likely the batteries have a warranty. Also, wouldn't be a terrible idea to take your charger with ya and have them look at it.

Great info. My brother bought an old golf cart that had been sitting and the batteries were bone dry. After filling with regular di-hydrogen monoxide, charger wouldn't even "click". I think we will try charging two of the 6 volts in a series at a time with a regular car charger and test their capacity. I went to the local retail parts store to buy a hydrometer to read the specific gravity in each cell. Didn't see one, so I asked them at the counter where I could find one? Boy, that one stumped them ......

I talked to the guy that sold me the batteries this morning. I'm going to take the one battery back to him and swap it with a new one, it's still under warranty, and try that first.

T.P. said:

I talked to the guy that sold me the batteries this morning. I'm going to take the one battery back to him and swap it with a new one, it's still under warranty, and try that first.

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That's fine if the others charge and are good but one thing to remember is.............. No matter how many batteries you have, they are no better than your worst one. In other words one bad battery will drag your others down and also one bad battery will keep your others from charging.

K80Shooter said:

That's fine if the others charge and are good but one thing to remember is.............. No matter how many batteries you have, they are no better than your worst one. In other words one bad battery will drag your others down and also one bad battery will keep your others from charging.

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I just left up your way from the cart guy with a brand new battery. Hooked the charger up and still nothing. Checked the batteries again and either I traded the wrong battery or I have another bad battery. I don't know if I took the wrong battery or the one next to it is bad now.


Mercy.

Someone get TP a drank before he explodes.

So TP, what did you finally find out?

Is this a 48v club car with the rocker switch for Foward/Reverse? If so, I just spent days troubleshooting the same problem.

First, you must have >32 volts before the charger will come on. If you have < 32 volts, you can bypass the charger interlock just as described below.

If it is a 48v Club Car and won't charge when pack voltage > 32 volts,it's likely the OBC (On Board Computer). These are prone to failure and will prevent the cart from charging at all as the computer looks at total battery pack voltage to determine how to charge.

A new OBC was around $300 and I was able to get a DPI charger that does all the work of the OBC for the same money. I went that route and everything works great.


Here is what you need to do.

On your wrench, tape up one end so all that is showing is the very end, that way if you drop it you don't short out a battery and cause it to blow up.

1. Move the Tow/Run Switch to Tow.
2. On the left most rear battery, drivers side (battery number 6), Run a jumper wire from the cart side of the yellow fuse holder to the number 6 negative lead
3.Move the Tow/Run switch back to Tow.

Plug in the charger. If amps jump up and the charger works, you have a bad OBC (if pack voltage is >32 volts)

Here's a diagram:


If pack voltage is <32 volts then you can perform this same procedure, but because you are bypassing the interlock I would suggest only charging the cart while you are nearby and parking away from anything potentially flammable. You should be fine because you have new batteries. Once voltage is >32 volts, remove the jumper and replace the fuse. If the charger comes on, you know your OBC is good and pack voltage was just too low to start a charge.

To state the obvious, make sure that fuse is good before doing all this.

If it's not a 48v series Club Car, I just wasted a lot of typing.

4HAND said:

So TP, what did you finally find out?

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Y'all ain't gone believe what I found out. Sorry I never got back with this, I guess I forgot about it. I finally had enough of messing with it and pushed it out of my garage and around into the basement to get it out of my sight. For whatever reason I hooked the charger up in the basement, and guess what? Yup, charged right up.

I drove it around for a while until the batteries where dead and hooked it up in the garage thinking that it would work up there now, and again, nothing. It charges fine in the basement, not fine in the garage. IDK. Plug anything else into the garage outlet, like a drill or whatever, and it works. I haven't actually checked the garage outlet, but at least my cart is charging now.

I've just recently picked up a 48volt electric cart that I plan on using hunting, had to buy new batteries recently too, one thing I have been told by many people that own carts is don't run the batteries all the way down , it will cause them to fail prematurely, if your cart doesn't have a voltmeter in the dash you need to get one installed, it will tell you the voltage in the battery bank , a set of good 8volt batteries should read somewhere between 51-53 volts when fully charged, you should never run them down past 48.4 volts, which usually amounts to 4 or 5 hours of running around, sometimes more. If you run the pack down till the cart slows down you are hurting the life of the batteries. I've attached a pic of the meter I'm talking about .

I wander if it has something to do with a GFI circuit? What is the voltage reading in the garage versus the basement?

I've seen certain things that won't work but one way when plugged in. I had a cell phone charger that would plug in either way but it would only work plugged in one way not two. Man that's confusing and I wrote it hehe. Maybe the outlet in garage has white and black wires reversed. I've always heard it really didn't matter but maybe.

More than likely the garage outlet is wired wrong, it will still work for most things. It could be that the white and black wires are crossed or maybe the ground (bare wire) is loose or not hooked up at all.