Do I need a voltage reducer guys?

dece1416

2008.5 CC Precedent IQ with 4 12 volt batteries.

Do I need to buy a voltage reducer to hook up the light kit I just bought. I got the LGT-306E with the bucket harness. The instructions do not state I need a reducer. I called the store where it was bought and the gentleman told me to just make sure that only 12 volts goes to the lights; said to put a meter on it to measure before you turn the lights on. Not too sure how to measure this. I do have a multimeter, but I'm thinking I need one that will measure the volts at the connection. Or don't I need to worry about any of this? If I follow the directions will it be fine?

Anybody hook these lights up WITHOUT a reducer? Am I good without one? How should I test the volts before I turn on lights? Thanks guys.

BGW

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scottyb

2 things.
It's too easy to accidentally supply 2 much voltage to your lights and blow the bulbs in a nano-second. So get your tester out and check your power supply (where you tapped into the battery pack for the 12v) or your source.
You can easily connect to 2 6v batteries and have 12v for all your lights and accessories. (or in your case 1 of the 4 12v batteries) The problem is this drains those 2 batteries down further than the other 4.
The problem is in the recharge cycle. Now we have 2 batteries at say 5.5v and 4 batteries at 6.0v all getting a charge together.
Connected as they are in series, they are all given an equal charge . (Note some engineers will debate this until the cows come home but this is the accepted industry standard and I don't care to argue it again, thank you)
The 4 not drawn down by the accessories will reach a full charge before the 2 lower ones used to supply 12v power. The 4 will will continue to charge while they wait for the 2 to catch up.... The charger only looks at total voltage, not individual batteries so you over charge 4 and 2 are still a bit under...... over time this process shortens the useful life of the entire pack.
2 better options are one, get an auxiliary 12v and a separate 12v charge system. Monitor and recharge as needed. Or two, install a DC reducer. a reducer draws evenly from the whole pack and eliminates any uneven discharge.
I hope this helps

dece1416

Really good info scotty b! Thank you. If I went with the cheap option of just hooking the power up to just one of my 12 volts, can I just charge that battery individually with a separate charger to attempt to charge it back up to the others? I saw that battery minder makes a good charger according to some reviews. Is this an optioin? If not, I think the reducer seems like the way to go.
I won't be using the lights alot at all. Its a short run to and from the club house in my neighborhood; lights wouldn't be on long. Really appreciate your response..

SpoiledRotten

I just bought a dedicated "accessory" battery for mine so I could keep using my pack for what they were intended to do... keep my cart rolling.

Scotty's argument makes too much sense for me not to follow it and those batteries aren't cheap.

dece1416

Yes i agree, good point for sure. What type of battery did you go with and where did you put it? Can I get away with a smaller motorcycle battery or no?

SpoiledRotten

You may "get away" with it, but I don't think you'll be happy with it. I went to Walmart and got a Deep Cycle from the automotive department. The last one, I used for 4 years. 90.00 for four years is not bad in my book.

I put it in the blank space under the driver side. I've got everything from horn to headlights hooked to it. I also use a trickle style batter charger on it to charge and maintain it when it's sitting in the carport.

Stevec3201

If you are only using the lights for a short period of time, nothing bad is gonna happen to your batteries anytime soon. People run lights on Precedents with 4 12 volt batteries all the time. However, with that said: I would plan on getting a decent converter with a switch (Scotty's is very nice) as soon as you have the time and energy to install it as the longer you wait, the more damage you are gonna inflict on your pack. Plus, a converter is good for other options down the road, like a stereo, 12v acc outlet, whatever...Good luck! BTW, I have a converter and love it!

ArmyVetSgtAdkins

I agree you definitely need to either get a reducer or a auxiliary battery as ScottB said you don't want to harm your pack in anyway and in my case I added a separate deep cycle 12v battery to run all my accessories I have like lights, leds, horn, stereo, auxiliary power outlet and dome light Some say its a hassle to have to charge a separate battery but it only takes a extra 10 seconds to hook up a separate charger to my 12v battery and whenever I charge the cart I charge my separate battery..

UncleJerm76

My 2¢....
When I bought my cart it had a full light kit hooked up to a couple of the 6V in my battery bank. I hated how as I ran the cart up steep hills or under heavy load the lights dimmed a little bit. Those two batteries became the weakest of my whole pack — Now maybe that was just coincidence, but I bought a voltage reducer to make sure it didn't happen again and I bought the biggest one I could find. Here I am several months later and I am looking at winches. Today I hate that I went the reducer route because I cant hook up a winch to it. It just isn't rated to handle that load. It was expensive too - much more than a simple external deep-cycle would have been.

If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely just go with an auxiliary Deep-Cycle 12v aux battery in a weather-proof case instead of using the voltage reducer. For me Pros just far outweigh the Cons with an Aux battery and the extra step of charging it is a non-issue IMO. I would like the freedom of not worrying about future upgrades that might require more amps than the reducer can hold.

Volt_Ampere

I would recommend getting a reducer. It will put an even load on your battery pack. I do not like running 12 V stuff off of part of the battery pack because it unevnly loads the pack. Running lights with a reducer will not shorten your run time significantly.