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Please Help With Genie GS-1930

Rick P

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
7
Location
Arizona
We are going crazy with this thing. We've installed two sets of new batteries and had the charger and lift checked and everything checks OK. The problem we're having is when we have a full charge, the lift will only move about 150 feet before the battery indicator drops to about a 40% charge and the lift will hardly move. We need to get help to push it up onto a tilt trailer. It will also barely lift two people in it with a full charge. It does draw between .5 and 1 amp with everything shut off. The key, and both stop switches. Something seems to be drawing down the batteries very quickly. Any help with where to look would be greatly appreciated. Serial # 26033
 

Delmer

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
8,865
Location
WI
Are these new batteries the right type of batteries? and are you sure they are really discharging 60% in 150 feet? Seems like they would melt if that was the case??? Will it move again if you drive it 150' then let it sit 5 minutes and try again?

Sorry for the questions, I can only go on what you wrote, and it don't make sense from here. Either the batteries are not adequate, or there is a lot of heat being made somewhere..
 

willie59

Administrator
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
13,363
Location
Knoxville TN
Occupation
Service Manager
I agree with Delmer, we need to verify you have the correct batteries first. Second, regardless of what the battery indicator meter says, have you actually put a volt meter on the assumed discharged batteries to see what the voltage actually is? Typically on those machines when voltage drops to, oh, 16 to 18 volts total the motor controller will shut it down entirely to protect the pump motor. You could also have a failing pump motor that is sucking the life out of the batteries during operation.
 

Rick P

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
7
Location
Arizona
Thanks for the suggestions. The batteries are the same ones we use in our JLG lift and it runs without any problems. The guy that checked our charger says they're correct. We didn't put a meter on them, but since the lift didn't have any power to drive it up the trailer in that short of a time, we figured they were low. I was thinking it was a motor or pump as even without it going up and down the batteries go down just driving it around. Is there a way to check them?

Willie My other half has to move to Nashville next week for her job. Going to be a long commute to visit. We were looking for property around Norris Lake a year ago thinking about retiring there. Love it, but where the homes around the lake were was just too remote for us.
 

Delmer

Senior Member
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Jan 3, 2013
Messages
8,865
Location
WI
If the motor or pump is that bad, I'd think it will be getting quite hot with that many amps going through it.

But still put a multimeter on the batteries while you go through the next charge and use cycle.
 

willie59

Administrator
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
13,363
Location
Knoxville TN
Occupation
Service Manager
Willie My other half has to move to Nashville next week for her job. Going to be a long commute to visit. likWe were looking for property around Norris Lake a year ago thinking about retiring there. Love it, but where the homes around the lake were was just too remote for us.

From Arizona to Nashville, yeah, you could say that's a long commute for sure! Norris lake is an excellent area, but yes, it's rough terrain around that lake and mostly remote access. Additionally, like the other lakes in the upper TVA waterways Norris is a winter draw down lake as it's not part of the TVA navigation waterways, Douglas and Cherokee lakes are the same. If you prefer a lake home that has constant water level in this area, those would be Melton Hill, Watts Bar, Fort Loudon, and Telico lake. Fort Loudon is very close to Knoxville, access is not a problem, but it's a highly populated area on both the Knox County side and the Blount County side. If you wish to retire in a less populated area Fort Loudon may not be you best choice. Watts Bar area would be better in that respect. For probably one of the most picturesque lakes in this area you might want to take a look at the Telico Lake area. It's out in the country a bit, fresh clean water coming right out of the Smoky Mountains via the Little Tennessee River, but not that far to drive to Madisonville, Loundon, Maryville or even Knoxville.
 

Rick P

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
7
Location
Arizona
Here's what I found. With a full charge, the batteries have 29V. After it runs about 10 minutes, the batteries go down to 26V. The lift will go up on the trailer in high, but not in low. With the lift going up on the trailer, the voltage would go down to 22.8V. When we were checking the voltage, it would go down to 22.4 volts when the basket was going up and the controller would shut everything off. The voltage on the batteries would be at 24V without anything running. I don't know what the amp draw on the pump motor is as my meter took a lunch. I have a new one on order. We have brand new Trojan T-125 batteries rated at 240 amps.
 

Delmer

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
8,865
Location
WI
Is the motor or any of the cables hot? If you did this in the last hour the motor might still be hot.

26V after ten minutes is fine, how long until they get to 24V? 24V after sitting a minute is a low charge so that doesn't surprise me that it shuts off at that point.

How hard is the motor to get at? It might be easiest to take it apart, or take it to a motor repair shop for an inspection.

Willie will know scissors lifts better than I do. I couldn't tell you anything about what the amp draw of the motor should be. If the wires are getting warm, it's too much...
 

Rick P

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
7
Location
Arizona
Nothing seems to be hot. They went to 24V after we tried to put it on the trailer a couple of times. I forgot to say that the charge meter goes to 50% during this testing. It will go back up after the lift sits for about 10 minutes. The voltage goes back up to 25V. Motor is not hard to get to. Do you know what the amp draw on the motor should be as there is nothing on the motor saying what the amp draw should be?
 

willie59

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Dec 21, 2008
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13,363
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Knoxville TN
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Service Manager
I have to ask this to verify, are the batteries filled will electrolyte to the proper level?

If nothing appears to be getting hot then I still would have to first suspect either the batteries or if the charger is giving the batteries a full complete charge. You might want to give the batteries a full cycle with the charger and then check the electrolyte with a good quality battery hydrometer, that's the best indicator you can get if the batteries are fully charged. Aside from that you'd have to have a carbon pile load tester to check the output capacity of the batteries and they're not cheap, those batteries will just laugh at a typical automotive type load tester.

Are you getting any fault codes on the controller?

If everything check out good, possibly a problem with the U6 motor controller. I've never seen one go bad so I don't know what they do when that happens.

Another thing you might try, since you said you have a JLG with the same batteries, give them a full charge with the JLG then pop them out and put them in the Genie and see how it acts.

BTW, you have a bigger capacity battery (T-125) than what Genie originally sent the unit out with which would have been T-105 batteries, so I don't think the problem is batteries aren't big enough for the machine.
 

Rick P

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
7
Location
Arizona
The batteries are filled.
I'm not getting any codes.
We had T-105 batteries in first and when it didn't work, we decided to try the higher amp T-125's to see if that would help, but it didn't.
I didn't get a chance to fool with it today. Hopefully, I get my meter tomorrow and I can check the amp draw on the motor on Thursday. I'll update after I can check a few more things. Thanks for the help. We have a warehouse that has several Genies and JLG lifts. They seem to be having the same problem with the Genies we do.
 

Rick P

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
7
Location
Arizona
Here's the new info. We had the batteries checked with a carbon pile load tester. At a 200 amp load, they would drop .2v. They're good. With the lift running for about 20 minutes, we had 25 volts at the batteries and the gauge was down at 3 bars which is 50%. We still had 22.5 volts out of the controller to the motor in drive and 15.5 volts going to the motor when we were using the lift. The highest we saw on the amps, when running in high up a very slight hill was 225 amps. Normally it would run at around 125 to 160 amps in high. Using the lift, it would run at around 150 amps to 225 amps just before it got to the top. When the battery voltage dropped to 24.5v, the lift would no longer go up that slight hill in low. The hill raised 12" over about 18'. At that time, we still had 22.5v out of the controller to the motor. Eventually, everything shut down. At that time, we had 24.5v going into the controller and we had about 22v from the joystick going into the controller at the small plug. The controller was slightly warm to the touch and the motor was warm, but not really hot. We jumped across the negative cables at the controller and we could make the lift go up and down from the controls by the key. We're thinking it may be the controller. Do you guys have any other suggestions? Thx
 

willie59

Administrator
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Dec 21, 2008
Messages
13,363
Location
Knoxville TN
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Service Manager
Sure sounds like you have a problem with the U6 motor controller. But again, I've never seen one go bad so I don't know what they do when they crap out. I know one used to be able to contact Genie support and they would help you troubleshoot something like this, but I haven't called them in years, don't know if they still do that or not.
 

Rick P

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
7
Location
Arizona
I think we may have found it. While fooling around with the controller, I found a loose wire at the connections in the wire loom for the low voltage going to the controller. At the plug we would get 24v on one pin and nothing on the other. I tightened up the fast-on connections and now I have a variable 0 to 4 volts on the other pin while moving the joystick. Without recharging the battery after fooling with it Thursday and Friday, it would still show 50% on the battery indicator at the joystick and then go down to 2 bars, but the lift would still operate. It would go up slowly, but it would go up. It would also go up the trailer in high, but still not in low. I'll let it charge up fully now and see what happens. I did find a service manual for it which should arrive by next Friday. We'll see what happens with it this week. The JLG still operates better than the Genie. Thanks for all the help.
 
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