Battery Cable Temperature
 

Last week my wife and 4 year old were going to go on a cart ride. I was setting in the recliner watching golf and my little girl came in and said mommy said the golf cart battery is dead. I knew this was not true but did not know what was going on. Went out and sure enough there was no power to cart. Pulled seat up and was not happy at what I saw. The negitive post on one battery had melted down to where there was a hole in the battery. The threated post was just sitting there with no lead holding it in place. I had to tell them no ride tonight.

Monday afternoon took battery to a battery only shop and they said scrap it and get a new one. Checked voltage on battery and it was still good. Did some research and found the link below where Rabbitreborn does repair and thought I would give it a try.

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...-repair-2.html

Only problem was hole in battery. Got the parts from lowe's to do the post repair and went o Auto Zone and bought the red high temperature silicone they sell.

Drilled a 3/16 inch hole in center of battery post deep enough to screw the hanger bolt down so that the bolt threads are the only thing showing. Put two nuts on it and drove it in with my dewalt 1/4 impact driver. Then I filled the whole in battery with a lot of the high temp silicone. Took about 3 or 4 days to dry all the way through.

Works great now only thing I can figure is that I had a bad wire, one end was discolored and hard to bend. I replaced the wire with a new one.

I have 4 gauge wires, Alltrax 400 amp controller, stock motor, 2009 Trojan T105 Batteries.

My question is after driving it last night i felt all the wires and they were really hot. What temperature should the wires \ battery post be? I have access to a laser temp gun. Any help to keep this from happening would be greatly appreciated. Was thinking about going to a 2 gauge cable set.

Thanks to Rabbitreborn for the repair idea!

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

The cables should be at ambient temperature. Anything higher indicates resistance, which means energy is being lost as heat instead of motion.

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

Any ideas Gornoman. Battery connections are tight, will check motor and controller tonight. Do you think this could be a motor issue. That is the only piece of the puzzle that is not less then 3 years old. Need help.

Battery bought in 2009
Cables bought in 2009
Controller bought June 2012

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

What kind of 4g cables are we talking about?

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

Look like these but for a PDS EZGO. Can't find exact one. Supposed to be welding cable, crimped ends and shrink wraped. I only bought the ones for batteries when I bought them because I was using stock controller and had bought new batteries. Old wires that came on cart for batteries looked pretty bad. Do you think it could be wires. I bought the Alltrax controller back in June. Motor wires are stock 6 gauge I am guessing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Club-Car-DS-...item1c2aacd3b1

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

Too tight maybe?
As you can see in your photo, the stud is merely a hex-head bolt embedded in soft lead.
Trojan's tightness spec on that type terminal is only 95 - 105 lb/in, which is less than 9 ft/lb.

I use a screwdriver handled 1/4" drive to tighten battery stud bolts so I don't forget and accidentally over-tighten.


What do you cable ends look like?
My original ones looked okay, but were the lugs were the open ended type and corrosion got into the wire strands.

I run a stock (300A) controller and my tires are about the same height as yours (18.7") and my 2Ga cables with soldered-on, closed end lugs with the gap between lug and insulation sealed airtight, feel cool to the touch on a hot day.

What PDS mode do you run in?
Regen braking can pump a lot of amps through the cables.

Also, check for mechanical drag. (Stuck brakes, dry bearings, etc)
That will cause the motor to draw high amps.

Added: Those are open ended lugs on the cables pictured.

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

JohnnieB,

So to tight can cause overheating. Everything I have read said "make sure connections are tight, check and recheck". I tighten them as tight as I can get them.

Cable ends look good, all except the one that had overheaded and melted. I replaced that one.

In software for alltrax 400 I think regen is at 50%. Didnt want to turn totally off because my wife and kids ride on it and we have couple big hills in neighborhood. Cart can get pretty fast without it.

Should I look at better 2 gauge cables since I upgraded to the alltrax.

Had no problems until I changed out stock controller for alltrax.

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

Yep. Tightening too tight can loosen the stud embedded in the lead post, which in turn allows corrosion to form around the stud and inside the post where it isn't visible.

Take a look at your picture showing the stud and melted post. Notice that the threads and hex-head are discolored.
The melting point of lead (Pb) is 621.5°F, which probably isn't high enough to discolor the Stainless Steel stud, so what's seen is probably evidence of corrosion.

Problem is; Being that loose (~9 ft/lb), the cables don't have to vibrate much to loosen the nuts, so you need to check them for proper tightness every few weeks. I check mine when I check the water level in the batteries, which is about every month.

In all honesty, I have no idea how tight the nuts on my battery cables actually are, but I'm pretty sure they aren't more than 20 ft/lb or so.

-----------------

You mentioned in your first post, that other cables were getting hot. I'd take a close look at the other battery studs. Wiggle them to see if any others are loose.

-----------------

I'm an efficiency nut, so I went with 2Ga cables, but with tall hills and regen braking, I think they would be a good idea.

I run in Mild Hill PDS mode nearly all the time because I like the regen braking. :mrgreen:

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

Run a short distance then see if you can tell whether the cables are hotter at the lugs. Copper's a pretty good conductor of heat, so I guess it's possible for the whole cable to eventually get hot, but I'd start with the lugs.

Do you keep the battery terminals and lugs clean and protected? Have they ever gotten green before? Could have corrosion under the heat shrink.

Re: Battery Cable Temperature
 

don't know what side of spartanburg you are on ..but here is the boys i use for cable ends ... they have everything that you need ... to make new cables or buy all ready made ones.. the lugs i use are DEKA05330 2 gage lugs @.66 cents each
(Battery Sspecialists Inc) on Furman Hall Road ... they sell me my us 145 batterys for 126.95 each .. have not found anybody else for that price.... just remember the cables are only as good as the lugs that feed them...