paralleling batteries to run accessories

[mkbrower]

I have just recently purchased an 07 precedent and I am wanting to install a radio along with other accrssories. I have read all the different ways to power 12V items, some good, some bad. There are some pretty intellegent people on this forum and thought I would run this by to see if there is anything I overlooked.

The golf cart batteries are in series to produce 48V. What would happen if you hooked up the batteries in parallel keeping the parallel grounds seperate from the series ground. So basically you would have two separate electrical systems each with a supply and return.

That way you would have 12V drawing from all 4 batteries.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Mark

[shadowman]

welcome to BGW.....my thoughts are it won,t work otherwise this would have been done a very long time ago......as you said there are some purty smart members here and you can bet someone has tried it at some point..........................................

[mkbrower]

Hi again! I have researched and talked with several electricians and can't find any reason why 12 volt batteries wired in parallel would be a detriment to the batteries or any accessory being powered by batteries wired this way.

That being said, I know of no one who has had sucess or failure configuring thier carts with this type of electrical system. As of now I am in uncharted territory.

Tomorrow I will wire my lights and radio this way unless someone chimes in with a reason not too.

Mark

[rib33024]

There was another thread about this, and I can't find it, but if I remember right, if your batteries are hooked up in series to run your cart, and you try to wire them in parallel at the same time to run 12v there is a short, you can't do both at the same time, But I could be wrong, god knows

[gaminde]

Yes you can do this, so you either listen to the radio or drive but not both at the same time

[mkbrower]

Originally Posted by rib33024

There was another thread about this, and I can't find it, but if I remember right, if your batteries are hooked up in series to run your cart, and you try to wire them in parallel at the same time to run 12v there is a short, you can't do both at the same time, But I could be wrong, god knows

Yea, I went out to do some voltage checks and your memory is excellent. With two batteries in parallel, there is 12 volts between the two legs. If I hooked the two together, a short is what I have.

I know that some batteries can be wired both ways at the same time. Laptops and dry cells come to mind. Not sure why the same principal does not apply to cart batteries.

Oh well

Thanks to all who responded!

Mark

[gaminde]

You can do that like laptops you can take 4 batteries wire two in parallel and then two more in parallel then the two sets of parallel can be hooked in series this will give you twice the voltage of one battery and four times the current if you want to add batteries you could do this

[mkbrower]

Originally Posted by gaminde

You can do that like laptops you can take 4 batteries wire two in parallel and then two more in parallel then the two sets of parallel can be hooked in series this will give you twice the voltage of one battery and four times the current if you want to add batteries you could do this

Something else for me to think about.

When I re-connected the batteries after my failed experiment, there was a large spark when I connected the negative wire back to the battery. What could be drawing so much current when you first connect the batteries and is this normal. It seemed after the initial draw, something reset/turned off.

Mark

[gaminde]

ALWAYS ALWAYS put the run tow switch in tow when playing with the batteries. don't know what you have on it if the run sw was in run it could have of been the caps in the controller ????

[rib33024]

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