My 6 volt T105 batteries turned two years old and I wanted to share some range testing I did
prior to my experience with a Battery Minder (future posts). If you enjoy long winded posts filled with dry boring data on batteries, you have come to the right place
. I have sprinkled in pictures to distract the reader. My batteries were installed on 2/17/2010. I have had no issues with the pack, they have been maintained to the best of my ability. The one gray mark on their history was the first summer where I left them for four months with no charging. I may have gotten away with that as they were new and strong and did not discharge at a very high rate. That will not happen again.
Skip to the bottom to see the mileage results. As you can see the pack is as pretty as ever:
The annual cleaning and inspection revealed no issues. There was no evidence of acid anywhere on the case or trays. All connections were disconnected, cleaned, connected and sprayed for corrosion. For my
fill it and go friends…. stop rolling your eyes, I really do enjoy doing this bit of work on a beautiful day.
As a birthday gift I decided to reward the pack with a Battery Minder. It will be used mostly as a battery tender during my absence. I am not looking at the Battery Minder for the ability to de-sulfate the batteries. If I get some of that it will be a bonus. Before I try out the Battery Minder, I decided to do some tests to see assess the condition of the batteries.
This cart is a 2002 Club CAR DS which I bought from my neighbor for $1000. They had had enough with electric carts and battery issues and bought a Yamaha Gas cart from The Villages. They have had to replace the battery in their gas cart three times since they bought it. You cannot make this stuff up
. With some help I converted the frame in my Club Car to hold two additional batteries and installed 8 T105s in February of 2010.
My test runs:
- Front window was down as it was hot, but this would decrease wind resistance and increase range.
- Only weight in cart was a husky man, lab assistant Caly, and possibly a couple of beverages with enough ice to keep them cold.
- All driving was on tar paths or roads.
- All mileage was not continuous. I stopped for periods of 15-30 minutes at various places to visit and take voltages of the pack.
- Voltages were measured after the pack rested for 15-30 minutes post arrival at a destination. (Future post will have details of voltages for the truly curious)
- The distance was measured with the cart speedometer and a GPS app on my Blackberry, I used the lower number.
Off we go (one of us prefers anonymity)
I will add a couple of more posts on this thread with details of the road test for the voltage junkies and my thoughts on the Battery Minder as I use it.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Someone named Alan
Caveat reader: Alan is no expert, just sharing my experiences as I go with my electric carts.
In the second run, I ran my pack voltage much lower than I would ever recommend as I wanted to see if any battery would show signs of stress. You should NEVER EVER take the pack below 46.6 volts. I usually will never take a pack to less than 48.4 volts
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Test run one:
42+ miles, ending voltage was
48.6 volts (~55% SOC)
Test run two:
63+ miles, ending voltage was
47.6 volts (~37% SOC) (last run of 9.5 miles had lights on)
I was extremely pleased with these numbers. I also plotted them while watching tv one evening and was surprised to learn something which I will share if I figure out how to post it.