When you charge your cart, your charger is putting out 1700 watts. It must be one heck of a solar panel that can fit in the roof of a golf cart that puts out that kind of power.

battery chargers do not output a constant rate, they out in several stages thru their built in controller.

for example Bulk, Absorption, Equalize-Finish, and Float-Maintenance.

I have a hard time staying away from sparky threads
 

After reading this thread, I figured I would share a recent run. My 8-6v pack of T105s turned four years old in February 2014 (2002 Club Car DS). I suppose age is not as important as hours of usage, but age is only reference I have. I am away for 3 months per year. Does this mean they are really three years old? I am not sure, but anyway…

Yesterday my wife and I took fully loaded cart up to Lopez, played 18 holes, ate lunch and drove home (about 24 miles). IMO golf course miles are much harder miles. When I arrived home I unpacked cart allowing the pack to rest for about 10 minutes. I then took the voltage and had 48.8 volts. In addition every battery’s open circuit voltage was within .02. That is a pretty good resting voltage for this pack after that day and IMO a successful capacity test. There is no doubt in my mind I could have whipped over to Brownwood or Spanish Springs, but the pack would have been discharged way past where I like to take it. So we hopped into the other 2002 Club Car :)

For sure this pack is showing its age, on the way home, I hit the go pedal hard coming out of tunnels as a test and the gauge would get down into the red. I have never researched what the voltage is at that red line. I should have hooked up my multi-meter and spun around the block, but too lazy :icon_bored:

I am not trying to preach or pretending to be some kind of an expert, so if this comes across that way I apologize. IMO, never ever let your pack run down to dead. This is very bad for the batteries and it is as important to maintenance as checking the water.

I suggest any electric cart owner get a volt meter installed on the dash and understand what the pack voltage means, especially the open circuit voltage when the cart is stopped. This will make sure you always get home, unless you have some unpredictable failure.

For me personally, I try to never let the pack get below 48.4 volts measured at rest. This number is referred to as 50% state of charge (SOC)

Battery manufacturers state that you should never allow the resting voltage of the pack to get below 46.63 volts. This is 20% SOC.

Click on this link to see how the same pack preformed (no golf) two years ago. It even has a pretty graph....

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...80-post13.html