48volt 97 club car ds lighting issue

[Shooter111]

So I just finally finished putting together golf car after receiving my plumb quick motor. I installed a 20amp 240watts voltage reducer and wired an led bar. When testing cart it illuminated great as it should. Then today I wired my to tail lights and the tail lights light up good but my led bar barely lights up. Checked the leads and only getting close to 8 volts at the wires. Before installing any light I checked the wires and front and back I was getting 12 plus volts. Is my voltage reducer not strong enough to run that small amount of light ? Or can there be another problem ?

[DaveMJ]

My LED headlights, tail lights and 2 18 watt driving lights pull about 3 amps form my reducer. So I think your reducer rating should be fine.

Can you measure the output of the reducer when you have all the lights on? (unless that's the 8 volts you mentioned).

Are the tail lights LED also?

[Shooter111]

No tail lights are not led. And yes I get 8 volts when everything is on. But like I said before wiring any kind of light I checked all wires and was getting 12 plus volts.

[DaveMJ]

Just to be clear are you saying the 8 volts was measured directly across the output of the reducer? If so you may have a defective reducer.

If the reducer output is 12 volts but you only see 8 at the lights you likely have a wiring issue.

[Shooter111]

No when I install reducer I checked all leads and they gave me 12 plus volts which I believe it’s correct. First thing I installed was the led bar and worked perfect. Then when I wired tail lights the tail light seem to light up correctly but the led bar is super dim. With everything wired up together it’s when I’m getting 8 volts on the leads.

[DaveMJ]

Originally Posted by Shooter111

No when I install reducer I checked all leads and they gave me 12 plus volts which I believe it’s correct. First thing I installed was the led bar and worked perfect. Then when I wired tail lights the tail light seem to light up correctly but the led bar is super dim. With everything wired up together it’s when I’m getting 8 volts on the leads.

When tracking down issues like this you have to be very methodical, otherwise you'll waste time and money. I asked you to measure the output voltage of the reducer, in your responses you mention "the leads" so I'm wondering if we are on the same page.

What I'd like you to do is leave the LED bar connected and temporarily disconnect the tail lights. Connect your multimeter directly to the output wires of the reducer before any fuses, switches, etc.. Note voltage with:

1 - Lights off.
2 - LED bar only on.
3 - LED bar and tail lights on.

We'll figure out next steps once we have the above info.

A few other questions to help understand your installation:

1 - is your reducer 48 volt to 12 volt? or 16 volt to 12 volt?
2 - do your tail lights and LED bar have separate fuses, or do they share?
3 - what is the rating (watts) of the LED bar?
4 - was any of the lighting wiring existing?
5 - can you sketch out your wiring diagram?

FYI - I had a strange similar situation at the weekend - I was messing with my fuse block trying to find a good location for a new one with more fuses. Later that day I noticed my LED head lights were dim, I found I only had 6 volts at the lights, but 12 volt out of the reducer. On the power side of the head light fuse I had 12 volts, on the load side I only had 6 volts. It turned out that crud build up in the fuse was giving a poor connection after I'd been messing about. I cleaned the fuse and contacts and all was well - new fuse block went in yesterday.