Cheapest way to add lights?

[Wax]

Originally Posted by kgsc

Close but no.. I believe Dave was thinking 4 12 volt lights in series. 2 head lights, 2 tail lights and yes it would start with battery pack + to + first light then - first light to + second light to - to + 3rd to - to + 4th to - on the battery back. String in series with a fuse and a switch. The down side is if you lose a bulb, they all go out.

Ahh yes that makes sense, 4 12V lights. I completely get it now. Why wouldn't more people do that? I'm pretty new to this electric cart stuff, but never heard of anybody doing that instead of a reducer; but I've heard of people running 12V stuff off one battery which just seems terrible for that battery.

So now I'll revert back to another thing I've been working on. I actually made a winch mount and had a HF 2000lb winch all set up to go (I had another post asking questions about that too). I stopped and changed my mind, because once I did an aux battery and everything I'll have almost $200 into my winch setup that I don't really need, it just looked cool! Could I wire my 12V winch, 2 headlights, and 1 tail light in series off the battery pack? The issue I see with that is the winch can draw around 100A at max load, so I couldn't exactly put a small inline fuse somewhere in there like I would with just the lights, it would just blow all the time.

What if I wired the winch last thing before going back to the battery with the fuse/breaker that came with it, and then wired a smaller 15A or 20A fuse before the lights? I'm not sure if I'm breaking laws of physics or not there, and I'm pretty sure I would have to have 2 switches in series, i.e. the lights would always have to be turned on to use the winch...the opposite of that (winch first) obviously couldn't work.

I also don't want to hurt my cart or batteries doing this stuff; I feel safer sticking with a manual lift for my plow and going with battery powered lights since I don't know much about this. I think that if I were to start adding the real lights and winch and all that, I would be much better off just spending the $100 for a deep cycle aux battery to protect my cart batteries.

[Dave Box]

I'm afraid that the winch idea will not work. As the winch powered up it would try to pull 100 Amps through the lights bulbs and as you can imagine they will just act like fuses and pop immediately.

As for why more people don't wire 4 bulbs in series to give a 48 volt load, it is not the most elegant solution (but it is cheap which is what you asked). Just like those old fashioned Christmas lights when one blows the whole string is out which might be a little awkward if you are in the woods during a new moon.

Dave

[kgsc]

The series idea you have with the winch and lights is a no. The bulbs would act like a fuse and poof. And now that I say that, I'm not sure if the head light/tail light setup would work either because the front are close to 5 amps each and the rears are I think 2 each.. No go I believe. I'm thinking reducer

Ah, Dave beat me to it

[SpoiledRotten]

Originally Posted by Wax

What do you think is the cheapest way to add lights to my 48V Club Car DS?

Duct tape a flash light to your top frame!

[Wax]

Yeah, I'm not feeling the series setup. I literally think I'm going to go with a couple of these Bell bicycle lights for $7 each at walmart for now, they will mount right to the top bar of the brush guard. See how they go...worst case scenario I put them on our bikes! That way I have some cheap lights, mostly for use when I plow the drive. If I stick with my manual snow plow handle and use these lights I'll only have $110 into the whole plow/light setup. Much better than the $300-400 I was going to do with the light kit, winch, reducer/aux battery, etc. I already have the bracket and everything made for the winch (I used steel I had so it was free), so if I ever want to add it I'll just add the aux battery and do the real light kit, maybe even with a reducer for just the lights.

This cart will be a slow work in progress so the wife doesn't notice the money I put into it! I eventually would like to lift it a few inches and do mods to it to make it a capable off road machine/hunting buggy.