Light Bar help

[Hunting183]

I purchased a light bar with a wiring harness and a 48v to 12v reducer. My question is that the light bar rocker switch is always illuminated. I tied it in to the reducer with the wire that is supposed to run only when the key is on. I hooked up the reducer into the green wire that goes to the key switch. Sorry if themis sounds confusing, just trying to figure it out of if tou do not think it will be a problem I will just leave it. I just dont want to drain my batteries, but if its a light for the rocker switch maybe that wont be enough of a draw to do anything? Thanks in advance.

[Hit it like a champ]

I think mine is that way also it will go out when you put it in toe mode

[Mooncarter]

What is powering the rocker switch?

[Hunting183]

I hooked it up to the 12v that is supposed to only have power if the key is on. I am thinking something is messed up giving the reducer power all the time. I soliced into the green wire that runs to the key thinking that would be the one saying when there should be power or not.

[Mooncarter]

If it runs to the key switch wiring it is 48v. Unhook it, unless you have a 48v switch. Even then something is not wired right.

[yawood]

It's hard to help with a specific harness question without seeing the harness however the following basics might help:

If the 48V to 12V reducer has 5 wires coming out of it then two of them are +48V & -48V; two are +12V & -12V and the fifth wire is a trigger wire. The trigger wire uses 48V and is connected to the "cold" side of the key switch (the side that only has power when the key is on). The +48V comes from the +ve of Battery 1 and the -48V comes from the B- of the controller (on a Precedent there is a black cable with a yellow bullet connector for this connection behind the batteries). This is important as the charger will then know to put back what the reducer takes out.

If your reducer has only 4 wires coming from it then two will be +48V & -48V and the other two will be +12V & -12V. In this case, unless you use a relay, the reducer will be on all the time. This is not a huge problem but obviously it pulls power all the time and the reducer runs warm all the time, possibly reducing its life. Do not be tempted to wire the 48V through the on/off switch because the switch is not built to handle the full reducer load.

In both cases any 12V accessories, such as your light bar, have both their +ve and their -ve going back to the reducer. If you have only one accessory you can connect it directly but for more than one accessory it is neater to run the +ves through a fuse box and the negatives all connect to a negative bus bar.

As for the switch they are often different but usually a lit switch will have the following connectors (where Load is the +ve side of the light bar):

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by yawood

It's hard to help with a specific harness question without seeing the harness however the following basics might help:

If the 48V to 12V reducer has 5 wires coming out of it then two of them are +48V & -48V; two are +12V & -12V and the fifth wire is a trigger wire. The trigger wire uses 48V and is connected to the "cold" side of the key switch (the side that only has power when the key is on). The +48V comes from the +ve of Battery 1 and the -48V comes from the B- of the controller (on a Precedent there is a black cable with a yellow bullet connector for this connection behind the batteries). This is important as the charger will then know to put back what the reducer takes out.

If your reducer has only 4 wires coming from it then two will be +48V & -48V and the other two will be +12V & -12V. In this case, unless you use a relay, the reducer will be on all the time. This is not a huge problem but obviously it pulls power all the time and the reducer runs warm all the time, possibly reducing its life. Do not be tempted to wire the 48V through the on/off switch because the switch is not built to handle the full reducer load.

In both cases any 12V accessories, such as your light bar, have both their +ve and their -ve going back to the reducer. If you have only one accessory you can connect it directly but for more than one accessory it is neater to run the +ves through a fuse box and the negatives all connect to a negative bus bar.

As for the switch they are often different but usually a lit switch will have the following connectors (where Load is the +ve side of the light bar):

Well said yawood!

[Hunting183]

Thanks for your help. Do you know what wire is supposed to be cold on a 02 cc ds? I really need to go get a new multimeter.

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by Hunting183

Thanks for your help. Do you know what wire is supposed to be cold on a 02 cc ds? I really need to go get a new multimeter.

If you don't know what is pos.+ and neg.- I will need to see a photo of your reducer. By all means you need a meter to work on something like this.

[Fairtax4me]

What reducer did you buy?

The light switch should only be connected to the 12v side of the reducer. Any diagrams or instructions with the reducer should plainly say which wires are 12V output and which are 48v input.

What light bar did you install? Did they supply a kit with switch and wiring? Can you give us a link to it? I know some of the push button switches supplied in some of those kits, the light stays on all the time. That's just how they made them and there's no way to change it.

Where did you ground your switch? Where did you ground your light bar? You should have run wires from both back to the ground wire for the reducer. You can not ground directly to the frame on these electric carts.