My Icon Accessory Set-up

[thelandposse]

Originally Posted by holemania

landposse,
i am considering to purchase an icon i60l cart...i test drove one at dealer yesterday.
i had a discussion about adding under-carriage LED lights and sound bar and was told they install voltage reducer but only run it off 2 8v batteries. i would much rather install a 48v-12v reducer connected to the entire battery bank.
did you install a separate 48v-12v voltage reducer?
or did you utilize the manufacturer 48v-12v reducer (maybe the 12v aux output).
i think the reducer already installed is only rated at 15amps.
thanks for any feedback!
Dave

What ATrain said. I guess all depends on what you are wanting to wire up. I doubt I'm running above 10 amps with all my stuff switched on. For me, I didn't see any reason to add a reducer.

I will tell you that my dealer wanted to install a reducer as well. The idea of me using a fuse tap seemed hard for them to accept or recommend. Once I told them that I only needed a power source to run a bunch of LED type lights they suddenly agreed that there was no need to add another reducer.

What I'm trying to say here is that an electrician is programmed to do things one way. While I'm sure their way of doing things is the best technique, there are other ways to wire up a golf cart that work just as well.

[ATrain]

Originally Posted by holemania

[...] and was told they install voltage reducer but only run it off 2 8v batteries. [...]
Dave

There is something important here I didn't point out.

First, this just sounds absurd/nonsense because if it's running on 2 8v batteries, is it just a 16v to 12v reducer? Wtf is that?

Second, they may have said 2 6v batteries (6+6=12v), but at that point it's not a reducer. It's just...12v. So are they going to just install a fuse panel?

Third, MOST IMPORTANTLY, that I didn't even catch/realize when I read this. This is incorrect, will shorten the life of your batteries, and will cause other problems.

Hooking anything directly to a subset of batteries and not the entire pack will weaken that set of batteries over time compared to the rest of the pack. You definitely do NOT want to do this. It'll cause all sorts of issues I don't have time to go into, unless you're cool with just buying a batteries.

You always want to hook to the entire pack and then reduce that so it'll cause even wear. You can get away with small accessories/lights, but anything substantial is a bad idea.

Fourth, if they hook something directly to a subset of batteries, it's most likely not key-switched. So you turn off your cart, but forget to turn off the radio? Draining the batteries. Now if the radio is pulling a lot of amps, you'll damage the 2 batteries while the other batteries collectively equalize/drain. Just not what you want to do. The factory reducer is key-switched, so anything you connect to it will turn off when you turn your cart key off.

[holemania]

thanks atrain,
i may have spoken incorrectly re: the manufacturer reducer...i think i saw on the wiring diagram that it is "fused" at 15amps

[holemania]

Originally Posted by ATrain

There is something important here I didn't point out.

First, this just sounds absurd/nonsense because if it's running on 2 8v batteries, is it just a 16v to 12v reducer? Wtf is that?

Second, they may have said 2 6v batteries (6+6=12v), but at that point it's not a reducer. It's just...12v. So are they going to just install a fuse panel?

Third, MOST IMPORTANTLY, that I didn't even catch/realize when I read this. This is incorrect, will shorten the life of your batteries, and will cause other problems.

Hooking anything directly to a subset of batteries and not the entire pack will weaken that set of batteries over time compared to the rest of the pack. You definitely do NOT want to do this. It'll cause all sorts of issues I don't have time to go into, unless you're cool with just buying a batteries.

You always want to hook to the entire pack and then reduce that so it'll cause even wear. You can get away with small accessories/lights, but anything substantial is a bad idea.

Fourth, if they hook something directly to a subset of batteries, it's most likely not key-switched. So you turn off your cart, but forget to turn off the radio? Draining the batteries. Now if the radio is pulling a lot of amps, you'll damage the 2 batteries while the other batteries collectively equalize/drain. Just not what you want to do. The factory reducer is key-switched, so anything you connect to it will turn off when you turn your cart key off.

thanks atrain, i agree with all that. i think i'm a lot better off just to order the cart stockthe way it comes and then add any sound bar or under-carriage LED's myself by tying into the existing 12vdc