Some top tips to ensure your buggies have a nice rest during the winter!
Over the winter, it’s easy to park up your fleet and forget about it until Spring. But a little care now can make a big difference when it comes to keeping your buggies reliable, charged, and ready to go as soon as the season starts again.
Keep your buggies on charge.
If possible, we recommend leaving all buggies on charge over the winter months. Modern smart chargers automatically maintain the batteries by switching off once fully charged, then monitoring and topping them up as needed. This helps prevent battery depletion and ensures they’re ready for use in spring.
If your vehicles are left on charge outdoors, take care to protect the IP44 plug at the end of the mains cable. Water ingress can trip your electrics and allow batteries to discharge completely — sometimes to the point where they can no longer be recovered.
Charging and battery maintenance.
If you’re unable to keep buggies on charge continuously:
- Lead-acid batteries should be recharged once a month.
- Lithium batteries should be recharged at least once every three months.
Lead-acid buggies also need their battery water levels topped up regularly, even when not in use. This should be done after charging and no less frequently than once a month.
Check for corrosion.
Winter is a good time to check your battery terminals for corrosion. A build-up can stop the buggy from charging or even driving, but catching it early makes it easy to manage.
If you notice blue, green, or yellow corrosion forming around the terminals, gently clean it with a wire brush and apply a thin coating of multipurpose spray grease.
(Tip: it’s safe to use a wire brush as long as you only touch one terminal at a time.)
Don’t forget the tyres.
Finally, check that your tyres are properly inflated before storage. Tyres left flat for long periods can develop cracks or flat spots, which may cause damage and require replacement come Spring.
A few minutes of maintenance now can save you time, cost, and frustration later. Keep your buggies healthy over the winter — and they’ll be ready to perform when the first tee times return.
