# Cart Charger



## T.P. (Jan 22, 2016)

A few months ago I had new batteries put in my cart. I ran it for a good while before the batteries ran down and I tried to charge them and the charger isn't acting right. The needle goes up, then goes right back down, and doesn't charge.

Can I check the charger somehow?


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## T-N-T (Jan 22, 2016)

I had a huge dirt dobber nest in my charger that stopped from charging.
I opened it up and cleared the dirt off the capacitors and whatnot.
Open and look for obvious nastiness.
I hope this helps.


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## chadf (Jan 22, 2016)

Yes

Voltmeter !

You have made sure battery's didn't dry up ? Hope! First time this has done this or haven't charged new battery's yet ?


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## T.P. (Jan 22, 2016)

chadf said:


> Yes
> 
> Voltmeter !
> 
> You have made sure battery's didn't dry up ? Hope! First time this has done this or haven't charged new battery's yet ?



They are new batteries. I had taken the cart to a shop to get worked on and he installed new batteries. After I brought it home it ran like a top until I needed to charge it.


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## T.P. (Jan 22, 2016)

How do I check with a voltmeter? I'm very voltmeter uneducated.


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## K80Shooter (Jan 23, 2016)

Not sure what type charger you have but it is not uncommon for a charger to read high for just a little bit then come back down to just a trickle of a charge. This keeps from getting the batteries from getting too hot and boiling out the acid/liquid inside then. 

Now all the above is assuming you have a 12 volt system and a 12 volt charger. Different voltage work similar.

To check with a volt meter; check voltage before you turn on the charger (for instance lets say it is at 10 volts), now hook up and turn on the charger and check voltage again. (it could read high say maybe 13 to 14 volts). When the needle comes back down recheck the voltage a third time, anything over 12 volts even 12.2 or so means they are charging. It might take a while but it will charge. If you had a hydrometer you can check the specific gravity of each cell to tell you when it's charged or if it's a automatic charger it should cut off on it's own. This could take days not hours if your charger is just a trickle charger.

It's best to never try to "fast" charge your batteries, this only shortens the life of them. Try keeping your batteries charged as you use your cart rather than running them down all the way.

I hope this is not too much info.


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## southernman13 (Jan 23, 2016)

If it's really dead that how the charger will act. If it's charging it will start down low on the meter and work its way up until it peaks and go back down to zero upon full charge. As stated above you can verify that it's charging with a multi meter. If we're in a charged state already then the meter/gauge would go up and come back down fairly quickly but then shut off. Yours as you know is in need of a charge so that's not the case here. Good luck


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## T.P. (Jan 23, 2016)

Check the voltage at the charger plug?


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## K80Shooter (Jan 23, 2016)

T.P. said:


> Check the voltage at the charger plug?



At the batteries. Also note that a bad battery will not charge and will keep the others from charging, does not matter that they are new. I have saw lot's of new batteries that were bad.


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## chadf (Jan 23, 2016)

These boys nailed it. I check the charger from the cart side (female) of the charger plug.
On a bad boy, it's 8 or 9v battery's, can't remember. I don't know what charger or battery's your setup has.

Keep them battery's charged !

Might have to check each one to find your bad battery, if you have one. Might have to help "jump start" the charger as stated above.


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## Cmp1 (Jan 23, 2016)

Are they deep cycle batteries, they should be, if so you should run them down and then recharge, check voltage at charger output, should really check amps also,,,,


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## T.P. (Jan 23, 2016)

This cart sat for several years because it quit charging for whatever reason. This past summer I took it to a shop and he said it just needed batteries so he replaced them. I ran it a good bit and attempted to charge them before they ran down but the charger wasn't acting right and the batteries were eventually drained down.

It appears to be a 48 volt charger by Lester.


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## T.P. (Jan 23, 2016)

I just plugged the charger in, it's been a while since I've tried it, and it does nothing now.


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## K80Shooter (Jan 23, 2016)

To check the charger only, unplug it from the batteries, check the connections at the plug for voltage then tell us what it say's. If nothing then the charger is bad.

You might also try cleaning the connection at the plug just to make sure.


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## chadf (Jan 23, 2016)

Check out Diversified power for a new charger.
Best deal I've seen when shopping for one.


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## T-N-T (Jan 23, 2016)

If the cart sat a while and the batteries drained down th3 charger doesn't recognize it's hooked to anything and won't charge 

Mine is a 36 volt, and from my research anything under around 33 vlots won't kick the charger on at all.
This is likely what's wrong now.
You will need to trick your charger to get it going.


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## southernman13 (Jan 23, 2016)

Normally cart chargers will come on no matter
What voltage is present. There are many chargers that won't and they do require jump starting. However what you decribed shows that there is voltage present because your charger is responding. Check voltage at batteries. Whatever system voltage is put meter on CensoredCensoredCensored/neg terminals see what it reads. Turn on charger them take a reading. Youll know if charger is putting out. Also your cart probably won't work if charger is plugged in


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## chadf (Jan 23, 2016)

Voltmeter TP !
 Voltmeter !


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## T.P. (Jan 24, 2016)

chadf said:


> Voltmeter TP !
> Voltmeter !



I'll get one from the shop tomorrow and report back!


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## chadf (Jan 24, 2016)

T.P. said:


> I'll get one from the shop tomorrow and report back!



Might have to pull each battery, charge seperate, then replace and see if charger kicks on then....

Need to know your battery specs first. After u get the meter.


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## K80Shooter (Jan 24, 2016)

T.P. said:


> I'll get one from the shop tomorrow and report back!



If you need help just shoot me a pm, I'm not that far away.


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## southernman13 (Jan 24, 2016)

*Charge*



chadf said:


> Might have to pull each battery, charge seperate, then replace and see if charger kicks on then....
> 
> Need to know your battery specs first. After u get the meter.



U don't need to disconect or pull batteries to do this. We would plug in the cart charger then add an external charger directly to the batteries. If they're 6 volt batteries and you have a 12V charger just hook to two batteries making 12V even while hooked up it won't make any difference. I had upwards of 300 electric carts in my rental fleet and they would be dead for various reasons. We would (jump start chargers) in this way on a daily bases.


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## mattech (Jan 24, 2016)

My brother had a cart a couple years ago. He was complaining about the exact same thing. When I got there I realized that he was only charging one battery. When ran in series you need to connect to the positive to the beginning of the series battery and negative to the last battery on the series.


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## T-N-T (Jan 24, 2016)

mattech said:


> My brother had a cart a couple years ago. He was complaining about the exact same thing. When I got there I realized that he was only charging one battery. When ran in series you need to connect to the positive to the beginning of the series battery and negative to the last battery on the series.


Yeah, I am now wondering if the new batteries are hooked up right?


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## chadf (Jan 25, 2016)

southernman13 said:


> U don't need to disconect or pull batteries to do this. We would plug in the cart charger then add an external charger directly to the batteries. If they're 6 volt batteries and you have a 12V charger just hook to two batteries making 12V even while hooked up it won't make any difference. I had upwards of 300 electric carts in my rental fleet and they would be dead for various reasons. We would (jump start chargers) in this way on a daily bases.



You have experience doing this test, in my experience walking someone through a test, I've found to explain the best, fail proof way for them to do the test. I'll be glad to let you walk him through it. That's why we're here.


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## jaybirdius (Jan 25, 2016)

I would remove every battery connection, clean and reassemble them one at a time. One bad connection on batteries wired in series can cause problems. When you have a connection loose on each battery, it will be possible to test the battery individually. I see more connection issues than anything else on vehicles. Poor connections damage starters, alternators and almost everything else on any vehicle.


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## rjcruiser (Jan 25, 2016)

If it does end up being the charger, check out some of the classifieds on the golf cart forums.  I've bought a charger off of there before for around $100 shipped.  Much cheaper than new or local.


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## T.P. (Jan 25, 2016)

When I hook the meter to the charger, I got nothing.


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## southernman13 (Jan 26, 2016)

You get nothing as in when the charger is plugged into the cart and charging you get nothing or when the charger is plugged in and you check for voltage on the charger plug and it's not plugged into the cart? Your charger won't show voltage if your checking it without it being plugged into the cart.  What is the voltage on your battery pack showing without the charge being turned on?


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## T.P. (Jan 26, 2016)

southernman13 said:


> You get nothing as in when the charger is plugged into the cart and charging you get nothing or when the charger is plugged in and you check for voltage on the charger plug and it's not plugged into the cart? Your charger won't show voltage if your checking it without it being plugged into the cart.  What is the voltage on your battery pack showing without the charge being turned on?



Ok, I was checking without it plugged into the cart. What do you mean, voltage on the battery pack? How do I check that?


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## imkevdog (Jan 26, 2016)

make sure when he put batteries in he hook up charging connections


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## southernman13 (Jan 26, 2016)

Put volt meter in the CensoredCensoredCensored/neg terminals that also have the smaller wires hooked to them they're the two terminals you have in your picture. Plug the charger into the cart but not into the wall. Hold you meter on the CensoredCensoredCensored/neg terminals and check voltage. Then while keeping your tester on the CensoredCensoredCensored/neg have someone plug charger into the wall check voltage and see if it changes. You can call me 321-228-6684


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## T.P. (Jan 26, 2016)

southernman13 said:


> Put volt meter in the CensoredCensoredCensored/neg terminals that also have the smaller wires hooked to them they're the two terminals you have in your picture. Plug the charger into the cart but not into the wall. Hold you meter on the CensoredCensoredCensored/neg terminals and check voltage. Then while keeping your tester on the CensoredCensoredCensored/neg have someone plug charger into the wall check voltage and see if it changes. You can call me 321-228-6684



Needle doesn't move when plugged in. Bad charger?


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## southernman13 (Jan 26, 2016)

Still need to know battery pack voltage prior to turning on charger


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## T-N-T (Jan 26, 2016)

T.P. said:


> Needle doesn't move when plugged in. Bad charger?



If your batteries have died down too far, the charger will not kick on.  It will not read enough volts to recognize it is plugged in.

If your cart has not been charged in several weeks or months this can happen.  
Modern chargers designed to not put out power unless they know they are hooked to a battery.

Check the volts of each battery.  Make sure they are reading close to the stated volt on the sticker. (8 volts)
If they all read say 6 volts, that will not add up to enough volts to make it kick on.

If the charger came on before but then turned off, My guess is something is a muck, but the charger is not completely useless.  

You might save yourself the headache and take the cart to your local golfcart superstore.  They can hook another charger to it and see if it fires right up. (bad charger)
If their charger wont work either then its the batteries.  Or a wire not connected right.


Establish your batteries are reading close to 8 volts.
IF they are not, you need to "jump start" your charger.
If you cannot jump start it, you can try using a different charger.  (regular car charger)  BUT USE CAUTION with this as your car charger will charge to 12 volts.  If you hook a 12 volt charger to an 8 volt battery, it will over charge and ruin the battery.  So, you will have to be around and check it every so often with the volt meter until it get to 8 volts.  Then move to next battery.  (this will be time consuming as you have multiple batteries to do.)


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## rjcruiser (Jan 26, 2016)

I know this is probably a dumb reply, but have you tried hutting the reset button on the front of the charger?


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## Milkman (Jan 26, 2016)

A friend told me his mother in law has a bad habit of running her cart until it wont move.  

He then has to use a car charger like the folks above are saying.  Yours is probably just dead like they are telling.  Just plug it in every time you park it after you get it running.


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## T.P. (Jan 27, 2016)

southernman13 said:


> Still need to know battery pack voltage prior to turning on charger



I just checked all the batteries. They ranged from less than one volt to 3 volts.


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## T.P. (Jan 27, 2016)

rjcruiser said:


> I know this is probably a dumb reply, but have you tried hutting the reset button on the front of the charger?


I tried that, and nothing.


Milkman said:


> A friend told me his mother in law has a bad habit of running her cart until it wont move.
> 
> He then has to use a car charger like the folks above are saying.  Yours is probably just dead like they are telling.  Just plug it in every time you park it after you get it running.



I tried plugging it in before it was dead, it never would take a charge though. I'm going to hook a charger up to them now and get them each somewhat charged and try the charger again. 

I think I'm going to end up with a bad charger in the end.


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## Milkman (Jan 27, 2016)

You may have said above, but Does that cart have 6 batteries or 8 ?

Never mind, I looked at your image and see that  yours are 8 volt batteries, you must of 6 of them to do the 48 volt.  The same cart shop who did your batteries probably has a used charger if yours is dead.


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## T.P. (Jan 27, 2016)

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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## T-N-T (Jan 27, 2016)

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?



Certainly.


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## mattech (Feb 1, 2016)

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.


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## Eudora (Feb 2, 2016)

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 ......


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## T.P. (Feb 3, 2016)

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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## K80Shooter (Feb 3, 2016)

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.



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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## T.P. (Feb 4, 2016)

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.



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.


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## T-N-T (Feb 4, 2016)

Someone get TP a drank before he explodes.


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## 4HAND (Nov 21, 2016)

So TP, what did you finally find out?


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## cmfireman (Nov 21, 2016)

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.


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## T.P. (May 19, 2017)

4HAND said:


> So TP, what did you finally find out?



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.


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## transfixer (May 19, 2017)

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 .


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## SwampMoss (May 19, 2017)

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


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## southernman13 (May 19, 2017)

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.


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## K80Shooter (May 20, 2017)

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.


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