New Cart Owner - Need help

[Dennis8483]

Just picked up an older 36v EZGO Textron with a gamble on the battery condition. Voltage when fully charged seems to settle around 38 V. Each battery tests at 6.3 V, dropping to 6.1 V under load. Batteries were new as of April '23, but unsure of off-season charge/storage.

Golf cart is unable to go up moderate slopes at all and system voltage drops to as low as 29 V while going up the slightest uphill slopes.

Questions: are my batteries junk? Do I have a bigger issue like a power controller? Where's my first step to troubleshooting this problem?

[cybercart]

First off, congrats on picking up a cart! Secondly, welcome to the forum! I would start off with a simple battery load test detailed here in post number #2

[Michael Eddie]

Maybe not complete JUNK, but definitely testing a 50% state of charge. You typically measure around 37.8 to 38.4 volts for the whole pack under no load conditions. Each individual battery would show a voltage of around 6.3 to 6.4 volts, and around 6.0v at 50% charge. You don't want to go under a 50% state of charge because consistently deep discharging can significantly shorten the lifespan of good liquid lead acid batteries. If your batteries frequently test at or below the 50% threshold, it potentially indicates the early signs of battery failure.

Questions: are my batteries junk?