Driving distance
 

I started a thread last week wondering if I had a bad battery. After some voltage meter tests all batteries were fine. Talking to the guy where I got the cart it appears it may be the charger. I have the cheaper one, and he said they had someone else with a similar problem. The charger sometimes not charging all the way. They will take care of it, but I thought for the next couple weeks till I get over there to do something, I was going to keep checking the voltage on the cart. So I kept the voltage meter with the extended leads hooked up to monitor the voltage loss. Which brings me to why I started this thread.

I thought I'd see if my driving distance was about what I should expect with the batteries I have. I have the 4 12 volt setup, and I understand 6 or 8 volt would be better. But the batteries are only 1 year old so I'm not changing anything.

To measure the distance I drove I used Google earth with their measuring device, didn't have a GPS to carry along. In total I drove roughly 4 miles. Only about 1/2 mile was on a gravel road, everything else was either in a bean field or on dirt paths in the woods. There was two fairly steep hills, and one real steep hill, and in each case the climb was probably 200 or 300 yards each time.

I started with a fully charged battery which was 51.3 12 hours after being charged. When all done with the 4 miles and resting for 30 minutes after the driving was over the battery pack sat at 49.4, or about 70%. The temp while I was doing this was in the 60s. My tires are 22-11-10 so I assume the wider tire will cause a greater drain on the batteries then if I ran with a narrower tire.

I guess basically what I'm looking for is this a good travel distance considering I'm using 12 volt batteries and almost all of it was off road with hills.

Re: Driving distance
 

well from what you are saying yes 6 8 volts would be better but your batterys are just a year old.to me several things might come to mind,you said gravel roads and some dirt and hills well that is all drag compared to asphalt,dont know if your carrying passsengers?you should definatly be getting longer distances my batterys are 5 years old and i still go on 10+ mile rides on a reguluar basis,first thing i would do is make sure water level is good and then check what kind of heat your generating after a ride.someone else will chime in and maybe give better advise,ask scottyb he might recomend a heavy duty sylenoid.myself i have done everything to keep heat to a minimum and it seems to work for me good luck:thumbup:

Re: Driving distance
 

I'd say by your own numbers that by 8 miles your DONE as your bats would be down to 40% and you never want to discharge below 50% unless you really need to.... So maybe 7 miles of the mixed stuff is your range....

Re: Driving distance
 

If I just get 6 or 7 miles per charge I can live with it, thought it would be nice if it was farther. If I made two round trips to where I hunt it would probably be around 6 miles, so I could do a morning and evening hunt without charging. And because I'm so close to where I hunt I really don't have a problem putting it back on the charger when I get home in between hunts.

I guess I thought because almost all of my driving would be considered off road, and heavy gravel on a gravel road is as bad if not worse, that would limit the miles I could drive on a charge. Then add to that having 12 volt batteries instead of 6 or 8.

Thanks for the replies.

Edited to add this was just with me on the cart, water level is good on all batteries, and all cables cleaned.

Re: Driving distance
 

you know your batterys might not be all the way broke in yet,heck if your satisfied with what you use your cart for and the distance i wouldnt worry,i think you have a few things that might be effecting your distance,that is not cart related,maybe try to get it on the road and try a trip and see what you get?might give you some idea of the difference of ways you use your cart affect your distance:thumbup: