12V light kit on 36 volt '02 club car

golferman2

I have a generic 12 volt headlight kit and I need to know the best way to wire it into my 36 volt system. How do I ground properly and which 2 batteries should I connect to? Also, do I make a "harness" to connect to the 2 batteries, ie 2 positive wires to 2 positive posts tied to the 1 power wire to power the lights? Does the ground connect to the negative battery terminal? help please!! Thanks

BGW

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum

shadowman

all you need is a power wire to a switch and a neg wire to switch............than run wires for lights to switch...........get a voltage meter and find 2 battteries that give you 12 volts and use pos on one battery and neg on the other battery..........don,t ground anything to frame or anywhere other than a battery.......................................

rmarcusy

I use a set of aligator clips so I can rotate them on a pair of the batteries,think of your having 3 pairs of 12 volt batteries,,, if you use you lights a lot and just use the same two batteries,, those batteries will suffer.
If you only use your lights for 5 to 15 mins a couple of times a month,,, don't worry about it and hook them to any two of the 6 volts to get your 12 volts needed.

golferman2

Thanks Shadowman. However, this setup will draw 2 batteries down more than the other 4 batteries. Is there any way to avoid this or am I stuck with having to alternate the two batteries used for the lights every so often to try and keep battery usage equalized?

I realize I could use a converter, but I was trying to do this as cheaply as possible, as the cart is only used around our neighborhood, so the lights will only be used for short runs of less than a quarter of a mile a couple of times a week.

Appreciate your thoughts and help.

golferman2

Thanks for the info!

I just replied to Shadowman asking this very question. This helps a lot, as we would not be using the lights very often or for long periods of time. Just short runs around the neighborhood.

Thank you!

golferman2

Whoops! I just realized the switch, supplied with kit, only has 2 terminals which "break" the power source. There is no ground wire or ground connection point on the switch. Would I just run the ground from the lights to the battery?

shadowman

yes just run your grounds to battery.......and yes if your not gonna use a voltage reducer you,ll want to swap which 2 batteries your using every few months...............even if you use regular ring terminals it only takes a minute..................................

sonicj

could use 48V bulbs, or 24v bulbs in series/parallel.

yes. you can put the switch inline on either the positive or neg lead; whichever
is convenient
-sj

Attached Images

switch_basic.jpg (22.0 KB, 0 views)

golferman2

Thanks everyone, for the help. Problem solved. Friend from Motorola just brought over a power converter he rebuilt and we hooked it up and everything works great, without having to worry about moving power connections around, etc. Best part is he gave me the converter for free!!!

mtrepanier

Do I need to switch the battery every month even if I'm using LED light, since they aren't asking for a lot of power.

Can run the light on a 9volt battery too.