Using my 48v President as a jump start machine. How to convert it to 12v

darkostoj

Hey guys, I have a lot of equipment at work and spend a lot of time swapping batteries, and jump starting when the weather gets cold. A lot of the equipment is older with multiple batteries and big diesel engines. Starting can be a pain a lot of times.

I was thinking about bolting 6 or so car batteries in parallel to the back utility bed of the cart I installed with leads to solve this...but I got to thinking it would be a much cleaner and better install if I was able to use the batteries in the golf cart to do this.

Anybody know how I can convert the 48v to 12v and use the golf cart batteries for jump starting equipment? I was looking at transformers, but I couldn't find one that can handle those kind of amps.

Thanks!

BGW

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Budule

No....just....no....

NoleFan4Ever

No safe way I know of. You are looking at something needing a Parallel setup from a cabled Series setup.....

I would go with your first choice of a parallel pack and use it in my utility cart.

ThreeCW

Golf cart batteries are not designed for starting engines ... just like starting batteries are not designed for powering golf carts. Even if they were compatible, trying to find a high amperage converter would hinder this idea / brain fart () from progressing any further. Very similar amperage limitations have been expressed for running a winch on a golf cart ... most people install dedicated batteries to power the winch.

I like your idea of a number of "starter" batteries in the bed of the golf cart

Fairtax4me

Absolutely doable, don’t need any type of converter, but not a great idea for the health of your cart batteries. Drawing a fairly large amount of energy from one or two batteries in the pack will quickly get the pack out of balance. This will cause overcharging of some batteries, while undercharging others. This will very quickly damage the batteries and render the whole pack useless.

You would be better off to have 1 or 2 large capacity Deep cycle batteries in the back of the cart to use for jump starting.
Yes, deep cycle batteries will start an engine. And they can and will do it multiple times over (more than a standard “starting” battery) IF you use the proper sized battery.

The lead plate structure in a deep cycle battery is different than a starting battery, which allows it to deliver energy over a longer period of time. When comparing batteries of similar Ah capacity the deep cycle will deliver fewer amps when high current is needed. But a larger sized deep cycle battery can and will deliver just as many “starting” amps when used for starting. You just need to upsize the battery by about 25-30%.
A typical golf cart 12V deep cycle battery is already about 30-40% larger capacity than a standard automotive starting battery.
For starting heavy diesel equipment you may need an extra battery on occasion. That depends if they are totally dead or just cold enough that you need that little bit of extra kick to get it to crank a little faster.

yawood

4 or 5 Optima Red Tops in parallel

https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-u...arting-battery

dundeebarnbuggy

You would need a bunch as those are not really a high cca battery. Most larger tractor diesels use a pair of 900-1000 cca as factory. Most heavy equipment is setup on 24v also. Caterpillar used an oil filled battery that work well.

yawood

OK, the Optimas are only 800 cca

Doc

Why not just get one of those battery jumper packs? Much cheaper & much safer. I personally like the smaller capacitor-type...they have not failed me yet.

Fairtax4me

I wonder how many portable booster packs it takes to crank a cold Caterpillar diesel...


At work we have a Caterpillar 955L track loader with a 427 cu.in 4 cylinder turbo diesel. It uses Two 4DLT batteries in parallel. In weather below 32°F the glow plugs have to be run for 3 minutes before attempting to crank the engine over. If it doesn’t start after 15 seconds of cranking, you’re supposed to run the glow plugs for another 3 minutes and then try again.

I don’t know what size engines the OP is working with, but for construction equipment this is a relatively small engine at only 7 liters displacement.
Typical construction equipment Diesel engines are usually in the range of 15-20:1 compression ratio, and can have up to anywhere from 450-750psi compression in each cylinder.
Basically... it takes a LOT of 4$$ to make one turn fast enough to start when it’s cold.