I have newer batteries about 9 months old, but the scooter only goes half the distance it used to. It seems to be using high amperage and not sure why. Please help me with this is i do not have money to take it in and the new batteries were like 250 each

Worn out batteries will behave just like this. New Batteries must be broke in. I know no one probably told you this before. They do make money on selling batteries. For the first 20 charges, do not let the power level go below half way before recharging! no matter how little you use the scooter charge it every time you use it or once a month. Batteries used out side in the winter will not have the capacity of warm batteries when the batteries are at 0 degrees Fahrenheit the capacity will be only 40% of warm ones. to get the best results charge warm batteries.

I’m happy to assist further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/bill_bcbb89783b08c489

you'll need new batteries plan on replacing them at 1-1/2 to 2 years

Take your batteries out, and take them down to .a battery shop. Have the battery load tested, Reading the voltage under no load conditions will not tell you much, normally the batteries voltage gives you its state of charge. These batteries will show a full charge at no load, as soon as you put any load at all on the voltage drops off and you don't have much in amperage output. The amperage is what is important when you right down to it. When load testing your battery they will use an instrument that they punch in the cranking amps. The instrument will look for the voltage drop off at a load of what ever amp value you punched into the instrument. The instrument will give you a pass\fail indication for the cranking amps value the technician punched into the keypad. There can be a problem when load testing batteries. The technician doesn't key in a amperage value, This is what happened to me. The instrument when no value is entered will use a default value, Say the default amperage is usually set at around 200 Cranking amps. My technician was either rushed or just being lazy. He set the load tester to use the default values, my battery passed with the tester set up the way it was. My battery is a 35 amp\hr battery and puts out 480 cranking amps In actuality my batteries weren't putting out nearly that much. It would put out 265 cranking amps for about 2 seconds then die. He told me the batteries were good. When i brought the batteries back to him
i didn't let him take them into thee back room. THIS TIME HE DID THE CHECKS OUT IN PLAIN SIGHT OF ME. I asked to do a comparison between my batteries and new ones. We had to retest a number of time in order to find the upper limit of the new batteries. As it turned out my batteries were bad and all my problems disappeared with my old batteries. NOTE, scooters use deep cycle batteries only Glass mate batteries if you want to take your scooter on a flight.

Now if you had your batteries load tested and you know their good, its got to be the charger thats malfunctioning. Check the charger connection points make sure there tight. One connector should go to the negative battery terminal, the other connector should go too the positive terminal and read +24v. Make sure the connections are solid. Hope this helps

Yes you can overcharge a battery, it all depends on the charger your using. Most chargers are single stage chargers. Most scooters come with a single stage charger. My scooter has a built in single stage charger What this type of charger does is output a constant 24v @ 4amps.The problem is batteries amperage requirements decrease as the battery charges. An overcharge will occur when the battery is charged. It requires very little amperage to maintain a charge on a fully charged battery. A single stage charger like mine will output 4amps regardless of the state of charge of the battery. Batteries bring charged with single stage chargers loose their electrolyte. What happens is overcharged batteries break down the electrolyte into oxygen and hydrogen. So overcharging will cause a battery to "boil-out" its electrolyte. Batteries don't work without electrolyte. In the old days there were only single stage chargers. That was the state of the art back then. So to cope with the constant overcharging batteries had refill ports where you could replenish the electrolyte using distilled water.

Scooter batteries are far and away different from the lead acid of the 1970's. Scooter batteries are sealed, they are deep cycle, they use a glass mat soaked in gelled electrolyte. These glass mat batteries optimize the electrolyte used so they can use allot less of it. These newer batteries have a lot more power in a lot smaller package but they have a draw back, they must be charged properly. You can absolutely can not charge these batteries with a single stage charger. Actually you can charge with this device but you will loosed electrolyte each time you charge.

I use a three stage charger 24v @ 5amp. This charger s different from a single stage. Its what they term a "smart charger" it monitors the state of charge of the battery. As the battery charges it turns down the amperage. When the battery is fully charged the amperage is turned low enough were the charge is maintained. The entire charging process is designed to preserve electrolyte. In short this type charger will not overcharge the battery.

Click here to see the charger i currently use.
http://www.amazon.com/Sealed-Battery-Charger-3-Stage-Fan-Cooled/dp/B0051WHAU0

Take the batteries down to a battery shop and have them load tested. Make absolutely sure they are DEEP CYCLE batteries. My 35a\h batteries put out 480 cranking amps. The battery shop can also test your charger. I have two chargers for my scooter the 4amp charger that came built into the chair, and a really nice three stage 5amp external charger. My scooters batteries have two 50amp quick disconnect connectors. I made up an external harness for the 5amp charger with the same connectors. I can now charge up my batteries out of the scooter. They say my built in charger is a 4amp charger, its slow in comparison to the 5amp charger. Batteries are expensive, regular chargers charge at one rate, full speed and can overcharge a battery. A three stage charger is by far way batter on your batteries. When you start to charge a depleted battery it put out full 5amps but as the battery nears being charged the charger backs off the amperage. When the battery is fully charged the charger goes into float mode and put out just enough amperage to maintain the charge. When i'm not using my scooter i keep the batteries connected to this charger. Deep cycle glass mat batteries don't stay charged very long when just sitting around. In about six months a dead battery will sulfate to the point where it will no longer take a charge. That happened to me once and cost me $200, never again will this happen to me. Battery shops are great places they have the instruments to tell you everything you need to know about the batteries. The batteries are the heart of your scooter unless you know there condition all kinds of strange things can happen. To make sure my batteries were good i have them checked against a known good set of batteries. BTW- Cranking amp is measured by putting a load on battery and increasing that load until the voltage falls off. At the point just before that voltage drop they measure the amperage output, that is you're cranking amps

Well if the scooter wasn't charged regularly while it sat for 3 months then the batteries are probably weak and will need to be replaced. These smaller batteries will not tolerate not being charged regularly and unfortunately one or both batteries has gotten weaker and does not hold a charge like it should when new. Sorry i can't give you a better answer Remember to charge the new batteries before use and if you are not using the scooter regularly (daily) always put up fully charged and charge at least once a week. If you use it daily charge the scooter when you go to bed and unplug when you get up in the morning. If you do this you should get good use out of your batteries. Hope this helps

Sounds like the batteries are dead.
Nine month is reasonable depending on how the batteries are use considering they are lead-acid batteries.

Lead-acid batteries get PERMANENTLY damaged when you drain them all the way. It would be better for the batteries if you only used them half way can charge as soon as possible after each and every run. They like to be kept fully charged at all times.

Hi. When you are looking for good quality batteries, they will have a 1 year warranty on them. If you get offered only a six month warranty, don't buy them. Good batteries weigh more than cheaper batteries, because they have more lead in them.
To get a good distance, you need to fit the biggest batteries that will physically fit in your machine.
Batteries are designed to handle a certain number of "charging cycles". If you run a battery down by approx 75%, you will only get a small number of "charging cycles". If you only use 25% of the batteries capacity, you will get 100's of charging cycles.
Gel batteries seem to be the better choice. Most AGM sealed batteries are designed to be stand-by batteries. They will work fine in your machine but only for light use. I have seen these batteries last for 7 years, but only for light use.
Good luck. Neil.

The voltage is controlled three ways, your manual setting you fine tune setting and the distance you have from the work space on most welders the fine tune only adjusts about 5 volts some newer models goes to ten but lets say 5 so if your running 7018 1/8 inch rod at 105 amps you may have to adjust it with the fine tune knob to half or 3/4 of the way to get the right flow pattern if using this pattern ccccc if your using zig zag so the distance is important it should not be more than twice the wide of the rod depending on what type of welding posting your doing overhead or vertical or flat position. If you need more clarification let me know.

It is pretty common for the meters on the charger to either not work at all, or give an inaccurate reading. They get bounced and dropped, and they aren't that well built to begin with. Basically, just ignore the charger as long as you are getting a full charge out of it, and getting good distance with each charge.