Electric Shuttle Vehicles and Golf Carts Maintenance Guide
Driving your new electric vehicles, such as golf carts, sightseeing cars, or shuttle buses, feel thrilling. But, you need to follow set rules to ensure the driver’s and the cart’s safety and extended lifespan. Observing the correct operation and practices makes it easy to claim your warranty in case of a mishap.
Before you embark on the electric cart operation, take note of the following:
- A new cart requires servicing when it clocks 2000-2500 kilometers. Also, you should offer routine maintenance afterward, at least three times for every 5000km.
- Lubricate your electric carts when needed; always refer to the user manual for recommended lube. Also, the manual shows lubricating.
- When charging your cart batteries, use only original certified chargers. Substandard and uncertified chargers can affect battery life, performance, and safety.
- Charge your cart batteries regularly. Charging and maintaining batteries should be as per instruction.
- Â As you drive the carts, avoid instant acceleration and launching to ensure maximum safety. Remember to connect to certified chargers and parts replacement with genuine parts to prevent malfunction.
- Always keep the load to recommended capacity; avoid overloading as much as you can. Additionally, avoid instant braking to prevent injuries or damage to your carts. Check tire pressure daily and inflate to recommended tire pressure.
- Keep your electric carts in their original state without modifications or additional parts. Avoid adding auxiliaries like amour plates springs and extra electronics, which may compromise cart stability. Modifications and secondary parts lead to loss of warranty cover.
- Always be conscious when driving. Especially, be careful when driving in rain or snow. Avoid huge splashes that can cause motor damage denting your warranty claim.
- Never leave your stuff on an unoccupied electric cart. The dealer won’t be responsible for any loss or theft.
Sightseeing Cars & Golf Carts Battery Care
- Be sure to keep your electric vehicles and carts batteries used and new ones safe away from kids.
- Correct usage of a battery is mandatory. Avoid using golf carts and sightseeing cars batteries for unintended purposes as you risk damages, fire, and explosion. Also, you might experience a shorter lifespan.
- Avoid disassembling and dismantling batteries. Also, subjecting batteries to strong impacts or throwing them may cause fire and explosion.
- Shield your electric vehicles batteries from excessive heat and spills to maintain longevity.
- Never short-circuit your batteries; avoid short-circuiting at all costs to maximize lifespan and performance.
- For golf carts and sightseeing cars with over 45V battery packs, always wear protective gear like gloves. Handling such current barehanded can result in injuries due to electric shock
- Be sure to take all precautionary steps when servicing your golf carts and sightseeing vehicles. Especially when dealing with battery, keep your face away at a safe distance to avoid injuries.
- Battery cells have plates that absorb sulfuric acid. Any form of mechanical damage can cause leakages. Also, it ensures you don’t contact acid since it can cause serious bodily harm. If acid comes into contact with the body, rinse with a lot of water and see a doctor immediately.
- Be vigilant in the battery’s operation environment. Usually, they work well in a temperature range of -20-+55 ℃. Any temperature outside the range will affect the battery negatively. For best performance, batteries need +5-+35℃ operating temperature.
Sightseeing Cars & Golf Carts Battery Maintenance
- Your electric cart battery surfaces, connectors, and bolts should be clean and dry always. In case of leakage, clean immediately with clean water using absorbing material like cotton.
- While cleaning the battery surface, avoid water getting inside the batteries. Allowing water inside will neutralize electrolytes, causing malfunctioning and can cause permanent damage.
- At any time, avoid loose connections at the battery terminals. Keep the connectors, nuts, and bolts tight to prevent sparks that might lead to fire hazards.
- Connecting extra items on the electric cart’s batteries is strictly prohibited. Adding additional connections can cause short-circuiting, leading to fire or damage to the battery. Also, avoid wrong connections to prevent short-circuiting.
- Ensure you charge batteries daily regardless of mileage or time of usage. After use, charge batteries immediately for a duration of fewer than 24 hours. Overcharging can lead to compromised battery life.
- Regularly test the electrolyte density to ensure the best battery performance. Especially, check the level daily to notice any fluctuation and make a correction using water or sulfuric acid. Typically, the electrolyte density is .280 ± 0.005 at 25 °C. Using a battery hydrometer, measure the density to know whether to add sulfuric acid or distilled water. Ensure the sulfuric acid you are using has 1.400 for your Lead-Acid batteries. After correcting electrolyte density, charge the battery for about 1 hour to balance the electrolyte.
- For an extended lifespan, avoid any impurity from getting into the battery. Solid objects, water, and other contaminants should be away from the batteries. Moreover, for the prolonged storage of the carts, ensure you charge batteries fully. It’s ideal for keeping recharging cart batteries after every two weeks for extended storage. Especially during winter, the rate of discharge is a bit high. Ensure to charge battery charging lasts for 9 hours.
- Batteries have a limited life shelf. However, most electric carts batteries last for 1-1.5 years with proper care. When the charge holding capacity drops, consider replacing batteries. The important thing is to replace batteries with genuine and certified ones. Also, use a similar brand with the same capacity and voltage. The voltage difference among the batteries should be less than 0.1 volts.
