votage reducer - what the...?

MDLNB

'97 CC DS 48 volt

I am in the process of cleaning up my old "rat cart" and making a few inexpensive tweaks. I noticed that it has one of those 16 volt to 12 voltage reducers, so I have ordered a 48 volt to 12 volt 30 amp replacement. However, I noticed that the one I have now has two leads coming out it, one from each end. One lead goes to a really bad looking terminal block and the other lead goes to the controller. I have a bundle of red wires (lights) going to the second battery(pos+) in the series. It seems to me that those red wires are getting 16 volts, and not even utilizing the reducer. Am I correct in that assumption? And why would one lead from the reducer be connected to the controller? At least it looks like it is when I stick my head down into the battery compartment and follow it back in the relative darkness. ?

BGW

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mrgolf

The voltage reducer has one end to pack neg. might be on B- at the controller. The other end should be neg for your lights. The reduction is done on the neg wire, so to speak.

You should find a neg block somewhere. Just add a pos. block and connect your new reducer output to your neg. block and your new pos. block.

MDLNB

Thank you. Seems like a strange way to be hooked up, through the controller. These electric carts are not as simple as I imagined.

The new reducer has an extra switch wire. It appears that some folks double it up with the positive battery hookup. I wonder if the reducer draws on the batteries more, when hooked up like that, and not necessarily being used.

mrgolf

Hook the switch wire to the cold side of the key switch. That way when key is off reducer is off.

MDLNB

That makes sense....

IronOtter

I actually just purchased a new reducer also but need to install it. I understand how to attach the reducer to the pack (with fuse etc) but what I am wondering is how I attach all of the accessories to the reducer. I bought this cart used and know squat about electrical wiring which you can probably tell... SO the way my cart is set up now, it had a few red wires running directly off of one battery (I have six total for a 48v cart). I assume the rest of the accessories (LED lights, radio, etc) are already plumbed to a ground bar somewhere but I'm not entirely positive what is running where in the rats nest.... SO my question is, can I hook up the voltage reducer and just plug the accessories into the positive out wire only or do I need to find all of the negatives and attach those to the reducer for it to work? Secondly, do I need install a separate fuse block and ground block with the reducer? I ask because I have a DS series cart and it already has lights running to a fuse block so I don't necessarily want to install a bunch of unnecessary stuff. Sorry for the completely lost question. I really am that incompetent.

MDLNB

Sounds to me like you already have a voltage reducer in your cart. I am removing one that is already in the cart to replace it with a better one. The one I currently have is a 16 volt to 12 volt reducer. My lighting system wires are attached to the positive post of the second battery.
Regarding your accessory wires, I bought a marine terminal block and plan to mount that in the battery compartment and run the reducer to it and all my positive wires to the lights, etc to the screw posts of the terminal block.

IronOtter

It's going to be a pain tracing down all this wiring. I have a half of a mind to just pull it all out and start from scratch. The way it's set up now there are about four accessories running off of the positive battery directly behind my set. The negatives seem to be on a ground block/bar near that area but I don't really see another fuse box (aside from the stock fuse compartment on the club car ds's).

MDLNB

Sounds exactly like mine. I have about 4 or 5 red wires connected to the positive post of the second battery. The ground block has the wire coming from the 16 to 12 volt reducer and the other wire from the reducer seems to go to the controller. Yesterday, I ran a switch wire back from the key switch and plan to install a marine wire terminal block for the 12 volt accessories. Once I get that done and find a spot for the new voltage reducer, I'll disconnect the old reducer and wire up the new one. The hardest part now, is finding somewhere in that cramped battery compartment to install the new voltage reducer.

MDLNB

Ok, voltage reducer installed. Yesterday, I ran a wire from the off position terminal on the key switch back to the battery compartment. Today, I removed the old 16volt to 12 volt reducer which was connected to the B- terminal on the controller and the other end was connect to a simple bayonet type strip in the battery compartment. All the red lines from the lights, etc were connected to the second battery in the 6x8volt battery array. I disconnect them, as well as the last negative post in the battery group. Then I had to make a bracket to mount the reducer on. The wiring was pretty simple. Five wires, two for input hot and ground, two for output 12 volts, and one orange wire to hook up to the key switch. I ran the out put hot wire to the marine terminal block and the output ground to the old bayonet strip that the old reducer was hooked up to. I had read on other posts how many had a spark when they hooked it up to the batteries. I tried to be careful but still had the same spark. Now that I think about it, I wonder if I could have avoided the spark if I had removed the fuse before hooking it up. No matter, because it works.