Wiring 12V Accessories Directly to Single 12V (Advisable or Not)?

[DB Cooper]

I just got a 2016 RXV. I'll get my signature updated shortly. It has the factory light kit in it which the builder said attaches directly into the 48V harness.

I'm looking to add some LED under lights, and while there is no 12V step-down reducer, I was wondering if it's advisable to just hard wire directly to a 12V battery.

Concerns might be battery balancing, but these are such load amperage lights. Not sure if routine charging would be able to balance that easily or not. Obviously if I was doing a stereo or something with more amperage, I'd want to go with a 12V reducer, but just wondering if trivial low amperage accessories hard-wired directly to 12V batteries would cause any issue?

[DB Cooper]

Bit the bullet and got a 12V reducer, just felt like over time I'll probably have enough accessories and don't want to redo it later. It does seem like it's fairly standard practice to hook directly to batteries for lower amp devices.

[Nsmustang55ol]

Personally I used a separate 12volt battery. I don’t mind plugging my 12v tender in when I park it. Right now all we have are the lights plugged into it, which I added after I got the cart because it didn’t have them. Wife wants a stereo so I figured why pull off the 48v pack. I want my 48v strictly for the motor. The battery I use is off of my Polaris RZR, figures if it could drive 8 8” wetsound speakers with an amp, lights, whip sticks for a while and still crank the Rzr it’ll be good for golf cart acc. Lol

[coosa]

The folks on here who really know batteries always say to buy a reducer or add the extra 12 volt battery. But I am a cheapskate and I have always just hooked accessories into the battery pack, and I have never failed to get less than 7 years out of a pack. I will add that I am somewhat fanatical about keeping a close watch on the individual batteries and I will charge one separately if it ever gets much below the rest. My winch is the only accessory I've used that required additional charging, but I use it only 3 or 4 times a year.

I added LED lights to one of my carts and found that they used such a tiny amount of power that it was hard for me to believe it could be much of a problem. I don't use the lights often and I have never had to do any additional charging because of them. If you use your accessories often and they pull a lot of power, and you don't wanna be bothered with checking individual batteries, then it's probably a bad idea.

[Rookie1957]

i use the ground post from the 1st or second battery in series and ground my 12 volt system. Talyor Dunn has done it for years

[DB Cooper]

As stated, I went with the reducer, $35 on Amazon. Going to put a kill switch on the 48V side so it doesn't constantly drain. Putting a terminal bus bar inside the dash with a single home run to the reducer in the battery compartment. I'll try to document the setup, should be working on it this weekend.

[Getter-Done]

I just put a 12v reducer on mine this week.
I need to put a switch on it to isolate it also.
Looking forward to your info.

[kernal]

Originally Posted by DB Cooper

As stated, I went with the reducer, $35 on Amazon. Going to put a kill switch on the 48V side so it doesn't constantly drain. Putting a terminal bus bar inside the dash with a single home run to the reducer in the battery compartment. I'll try to document the setup, should be working on it this weekend.

Remember on a RXV don't connect anything to the key switch wires or even probe them with a meter. Result can be blown controller and multiple sensors.

A converter with trigger wire can be wired such that it will come on with the key but the trigger wire should go to the solenoid. Instructions are on here somewhere.

[Left Coast Kiteboarding]

Originally Posted by kernal

A converter with trigger wire can be wired such that it will come on with the key but the trigger wire should go to the solenoid. Instructions are on here somewhere.

That ^^^. I don't know the RXV, but you can probably grab a key on hot from the solenoid. Use a 48v relay to switch the power to the reducer.

[DB Cooper]

Originally Posted by kernal

Remember on a RXV don't connect anything to the key switch wires or even probe them with a meter. Result can be blown controller and multiple sensors.

A converter with trigger wire can be wired such that it will come on with the key but the trigger wire should go to the solenoid. Instructions are on here somewhere.

Wow, thank you for that. Almost dodged a bullet. I had planned to wire some dash switches into the ignition! Fortunately, I changed plans earlier this week and decided I’d put everything on the reducer and I’m putting a toggle switch on the 48V supply line. This way I can have the accessories on independent of the ignition, good for accessory usage/lighting while parked. I’m putting the kill switch behind the seat bench on that plastic piece so it’ll be somewhat hidden, preventing the neighbor kids from flipping the front switches which they were doing all day yesterday.

Anyways, thanks so much! The project may be next weekend now since I needed piggy back spades and they arrive late Sunday now.