Golf Cart Batteries
Golf cart batteries can be expensive to replace. This makes it important to keep them maintained as best as possible. With the proper maintenance, most golf cart batteries will last for years. Here are a few tips that you can easily incorporate into your routine maintenance schedule to help increase the life of your power source.
Full Charging: Golf cart batteries are built with the intention of being recharged as the power level decreases. Most brands were also built with the added intention of being fully charged when they are plugged into the charger. You might be surprised to know that many owners turn off the charger before the units have had a chance to take a full charge. Why do they do this? Who knows? Impatience probably plays a large part or perhaps the owner simply does not understand what he or she is doing. Regardless, it is important to give your golf cart batteries a full charge when you put them on the machine.
Terminal Power: The vast majority of your power source is kept shielded from the elements. One major exception is the terminal units. These are the plugs that your cables attach to. Because they are often exposed to the elements, especially to moisture, they must be inspected often. Fouled terminals can drain power faster than clean ones. Fouled terminals can also cause slow starting and poor performance. It is important that they be cared for on a regular basis. The only way to know the proper maintenance for your terminal type is to read the owner’s manual. There are different terminal types and each should be maintained according to what the manufacturer requires.
Watch the Box: Your power source has to sit somewhere in the vehicle and what it sits in is called the battery box. Golf cart batteries can cause problems to these boxes in a variety of ways. Depending on the age of your vehicle and the type of material that was used to make the box, your problems can range from minor to severe. Whenever you take your golf cart batteries out of the vehicle, spend a few moments to inspect the box. You want to look for the obvious stuff like cracks, chipped paint, corrosion, etc. But you also want to look for surfaces that are beginning to droop from the weight. As soon as you see any type of problem in the box, get busy fixing it because it is almost certain that these types of problems never get better on their own and only get worse. And, unfortunately, the worse they get the more it usually cost to fix them.
The best advice for maintaining golf cart batteries of all types is to do what the owner’s manual says to do. This maintenance is usually easy to do and requires only a few hand tools. If you begin your maintenance right at the time of purchase and continue to do it on schedule, your vehicle and its power source will last much longer and give you better performance as well.
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