Golf cart batteries

obullfish

obullfish

Carolina Trail Blazers
Joined
Nov 21, 2011
Location
Candler N.C.
Got a 48v Club car with 6 8v batteries. Current batteries are 7 years old and need changed out. Looking for a deal on new batteries and any recommendations. Cheapest I’ve found are at Sam’s club for $106 each for the Duracell brand. Anyone have any experience with them? Next cheapest is the low end interstate at $124 each then their high end for $145 each. Then the Trojan cart batteries at $165 each which is what is in it but I’m not paying that this time around.
 
We put the Duracell ones in my parents RV when the ones that came in it died a few years ago, Sam's was the cheapest we could find then too. Batteries are still doing their job, granted the usage is a little different than being in a golf cart.

Duane
 
If you can find someone with a batteries plus business account, a contractor friend of mine says he saves over 30% when he buys from them.

If you are going lead acid batteries, I would basically buy the best cost/warranty ratio you can afford. I have run interstate, duracell, duralast, kirkland (rebranded interstate, before they moved production), and a bunch of rebranded generic batteries. They are all about the same (I was running them in a 72v battery bank for various battery powered vehicles).

I would go with AGM though, can you swap out your (6) 8v for (4) 12v (might save you some cash).

Hands down whether real world personal usage, or reading up from people who test batteries, Trojan was always the gold standard.
 
shelby27604 said:
If you can find someone with a batteries plus business account, a contractor friend of mine says he saves over 30% when he buys from them.

If you are going lead acid batteries, I would basically buy the best cost/warranty ratio you can afford. I have run interstate, duracell, duralast, kirkland (rebranded interstate, before they moved production), and a bunch of rebranded generic batteries. They are all about the same (I was running them in a 72v battery bank for various battery powered vehicles).

I would go with AGM though, can you swap out your (6) 8v for (4) 12v (might save you some cash).

Hands down whether real world personal usage, or reading up from people who test batteries, Trojan was always the gold standard.
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I’ll do some research on the 12v. In theory 4 12v AGM deep cycle would do the job I think.
 
If you're feeling frisky, look into the options from automotive EV batteries. I know for the Polaris Ranger EV the hot ticket is the Nissan Leaf batteries. Takes it from 700lbs of battery to 200lbs, and increases range.
 
obullfish said:
I’ll do some research on the 12v. In theory 4 12v AGM deep cycle would do the job I think.
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You are in Asheville.
Drive down to greenville and go to batteries specialists on furman hall rd.
Don't call drop in. Tell them what you want...save half with a battery they make in house and profit.
 
If you don't mind buying used battery's.
The local golf cart place normally will sell the batterys from leased carts that are turned in. Most are 2 years old, and they will sell the batterys that test good for a trade in of your core batterys and a few bucks .

I don't know if all cart places do this.
 
obullfish said:
I’ll do some research on the 12v. In theory 4 12v AGM deep cycle would do the job I think.
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My club car has 4 12V batteries. Not sure if its different years or models or what.

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Ron said:
You are in Asheville.
Drive down to greenville and go to batteries specialists on furman hall rd.
Don't call drop in. Tell them what you want...save half with a battery they make in house and profit.
Click to expand...
They keep 8v batteries on the shelf? My place at the lake is pretty close to Greenville if I go down through the watershed. I’ll definitely stop by and hopefully save some money.
 
Dad has been running the Sams Duracell Batteries for a few years now and has no issues. It gets stored every winter too with a trickle and works perfect every spring when it comes out of the barn.
 
My cart place sells a cheaper line of batteries. Continental, they are 105 each. I've bought some through advance auto before. #GC8 Make 6 different online orders.. 20% off each one. Making them about 108 each.
I like the quietness of the 48v. Now we have a gas cart, so much better.

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obullfish said:
They keep 8v batteries on the shelf? My place at the lake is pretty close to Greenville if I go down through the watershed. I’ll definitely stop by and hopefully save some money.
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Maybe worth a call to make sure they are in stock.
These are old school radio shack type guys...service a bunch of heavy industrial stuff, oddball industrial NiCad....make replacement tool batteries in house and golf cart batteries, power wheels you name it.

My advice about stopping in...in my experience they are the type that if you call you get a list price "by the book" in person ...everything seems to be a bit of a deal...

They also will make custom cables for about any application
 
obullfish said:
I’ll do some research on the 12v. In theory 4 12v AGM deep cycle would do the job I think.
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I like 12V batteries, just because in a pinch, I can find a replacement anywhere. In theory, your 8v bank of batteries might have a great Ah rating.....but in practice I have found that a comparable volume of batteries will give you comparable performance.

12V also have the added benefit of being something you can charge and check individually with an standard automobile type battery charger. I ran multi-bank genesis chargers on mine and was always able to see when one had gone bad, or was taking longer to charge, this let me pull it out of the pack before it's low voltage lead to controller or overheating issues.
 
4-12 volt batteries will have less run time over 6-8 volt. I have personally experimented with several set ups. When I converted our 99 club car from 36v (6-6volt bank)to 48v I added 2 more 6 volt batteries under the rear seat and that was the best runtime we ever got out of it. I get our cart batteries from battery tree and they are usually around $550 for 6 US batteries.
 
Ron said:
Maybe worth a call to make sure they are in stock.
These are old school radio shack type guys...service a bunch of heavy industrial stuff, oddball industrial NiCad....make replacement tool batteries in house and golf cart batteries, power wheels you name it.

My advice about stopping in...in my experience they are the type that if you call you get a list price "by the book" in person ...everything seems to be a bit of a deal...

They also will make custom cables for about any application
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Called them up they are more expensive than local to me. Thanks for the heads up though. Think I’m going to try the Duracell since they are the cheapest and same 1 year warranty as the high end batteries. Hopefully before they die I’ll have no use for a cart.
 
Could you put a couple of extra 12v batteries in parallel to gain run time? I mean I know you could but I wonder how beneficial it would be.
 
Infamous1 said:
Could you put a couple of extra 12v batteries in parallel to gain run time? I mean I know you could but I wonder how beneficial it would be.
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Seems like its just a matter of math. By definition you are adding capacity Whether reality matches the math depends on the characteristics of the battery you add.
 
jeepinmatt said:
If you're feeling frisky, look into the options from automotive EV batteries. I know for the Polaris Ranger EV the hot ticket is the Nissan Leaf batteries. Takes it from 700lbs of battery to 200lbs, and increases range.
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but wouldn't you still have to transform it to 48v output?
 
Done some research on converting to 4 -12v batteries and talked to a couple people at the lake that have done the conversions and from what I’m hearing it’s not worth it. Gonna call Battery Tree Monday and check prices but it’s probably not worth my time and fuel to drive that far.
 
obullfish said:
Done some research on converting to 4 -12v batteries and talked to a couple people at the lake that have done the conversions and from what I’m hearing it’s not worth it. Gonna call Battery Tree Monday and check prices but it’s probably not worth my time and fuel to drive that far.
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I would be interested in hearing some of the draw backs.....I don't know much about golf carts specifically, but I used 48v setups on vehicles that were moving between 2-3 tons of people and machine at a decent clip and run times were 4-6 hours depending on the guy behind the wheel. If the Amp-Hour rating is comparable between the 8v and 12v batteries, then the run time should be the same. If you already have a 48v charger, all you need is a lead from the (-) and (+) ends of your battery pack with an anderson quick connect, and you are ready to charge.....but I still like bank chargers to monitor each battery. I would definitely recommend going to AGM whatever you finally go with.
 
obullfish said:
Unless you know of a AGM cheaper than $150 each ain’t no way in hell thats happening. Everything I’m seeing is around $300 for them.
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occasionally Advance will have a sale on their Platinum series for like $150, I nabbed one last winter. Those are AGMs.
 
RatLabGuy said:
but wouldn't you still have to transform it to 48v output?
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I think they are like 52 volts or something. They are close enough that the 48v controllers work fine. Only issue is converting the charger.
 
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