Electric Golf Trolley Maintenance

So what can go wrong with your trolley I hear you ask?

Well a short list would include starting and stopping, not completing the round, maybe quitting all together! So how to identify possible problems early and save you more cost of repair on major electrical components.

Intermittent Faults.

If you find your trolley has an intermittent fault this can normally be cause buy a break down of one or more electrical components, example the roller switch fitted in the handle to control speed is a carbon track potentiometer which over time will wear. This wear will make or break your trolleys electrical circuit causing a starting or stopping action and you should change this part straight away do not continue to keep playing with your trolley which could result in a controller fault.

In addition you may have worn or low brushes in the motor, you will normally find symptoms of your trolley not starting at all, if you give it a shake or kick (not recommended) the trolley will start and run for some time then stop again. Unfortunately most trolleys today have the brushes built inside and can be an expert job to change but you should change them before more damage can occur.

Other less known starting and stopping issues can come from wiring or the safety on/off switch. This will take some more sorting out a process of working through your cart bit by bit until you find the weak area you may even want to do away with some of the plugs and solder some of the wire together. Again I would recommend expert advice in this area.

Battery Faults.

Battery’s cause some fake trolleys faults, for example you may find your trolley runs along fine for 9 holes then all of a sudden stops. You turn off your cart then back on to find your trolley working again. The first thing you think about is ahhh I have a trolley fault but in fact you may have a low battery voltage issue.

‘The Tech Bit’ Modern carts are designed to cut out the circuit board at 9.7 volts giving that your 12 volt battery starts at about 13.8 ish volts and drops under load over the round to 10 ish volts you have no problem if you battery is old then it may drop below 9.7volts were your cart will stop. Turning off the cart re-sets the cart and allows the battery voltage to recover, so the cart will start again making it look like a trolley fault!!!!

If this is happening then its a good idea to have you battery tested using only lead acid battery test equipment never ever ‘drop test’ your battery.

If you do not have a tester or cannot get the use of one then best to borrow an already good battery from a friend or Professional.

This brings me to my next part the borrowed battery. Almost all of the carts now that I see about 70% say have the Anderson Torberry Connections fitted to the battery and cart for attachment and removal. The biggest problem with these connections is that they can fit black to red and v’v. If you reverse the poles then you will for sure blow the controller (unless polarity protected). How can this happen I hear you ask, well its simple the Anderson Connectors can switch sides when putting them together so red on right and black on left and other supplier red on left and black on right. If you borrow a battery with opposite connections and plug into your cart then BANG controller is gone and this can be expensive about £60 to replace in my workshops.