Precedent 48v with 12v batteries

[travis_slim]

I will start off by apologizing because this could get a little long as I have been doing a lot of research and on these different questions and have not come to a real solid conclusion so I am reaching out to the members who have already done these projects. I have found a lot of info on Precedent’s with 6 8volt battery carts but not 4 12 volt battery carts.

So I have a 2007 Precedent with 4 12v batteries. I would like to add a deluxe head light kit and a radio to the cart but seem to be somewhat lost on powering these accessories. I know I can buy a voltage reducer or convertor to come off the batteries and make 12 volts. But what is interesting is on my cart I have two pigtails on two different batteries. When I put my voltage meter on the pigtails they show 12 volts….. Now what is so interesting to me is that this is two separate 12 volts batteries. I have attached a few pictures of it. Does anybody know if this 12 volts is pulling off of all 4 batteries or just the two, and if so how? If I can use this to run my lights off of it that would be great and if it can also run my radio that would be even better.

The other question I have is when I watch videos of the light kits being installed they install the voltage reducer under the dash with a wiring harness that plugs into the factory harness. If for some reason I use a voltage reducer or convertor that does not have that factory harness how to you power up the lights? Here is one of the videos I have watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IUy0c99Qf0

So I the other question I am curious about is what antenna is everybody using on their cart? I am looking at buying a kit on eBay to install my radio and speakers but not sure of a good clean way to hide the antenna.
Below is the list of items I plan on installing. Feel free to give suggestion or opinions on them. Or even suggest purchasing something else.

Radio Kit:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Club-Car-Pre...-/200650261253

Deluxe Light Kit:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Club-Car-200...item51c66be85e

MadJax Voltage Convertor (Only if I need it)

http://www.amazon.com/Amp-Golf-Cart-Voltage-Reducer/dp/B00DRFFLDG

http://www.amazon.com/Amp-Golf-Cart-Voltage-Reducer/dp/B00DRFFLDG

I really appreciate the help.

[eaglesdad1]

Originally Posted by travis_slim

I will start off by apologizing because this could get a little long as I have been doing a lot of research and on these different questions and have not come to a real solid conclusion so I am reaching out to the members who have already done these projects. I have found a lot of info on Precedent’s with 6 8volt battery carts but not 4 12 volt battery carts.

So I have a 2007 Precedent with 4 12v batteries. I would like to add a deluxe head light kit and a radio to the cart but seem to be somewhat lost on powering these accessories. I know I can buy a voltage reducer or convertor to come off the batteries and make 12 volts. But what is interesting is on my cart I have two pigtails on two different batteries. When I put my voltage meter on the pigtails they show 12 volts….. Now what is so interesting to me is that this is two separate 12 volts batteries. I have attached a few pictures of it. Does anybody know if this 12 volts is pulling off of all 4 batteries or just the two, and if so how? If I can use this to run my lights off of it that would be great and if it can also run my radio that would be even better.

The other question I have is when I watch videos of the light kits being installed they install the voltage reducer under the dash with a wiring harness that plugs into the factory harness. If for some reason I use a voltage reducer or convertor that does not have that factory harness how to you power up the lights? Here is one of the videos I have watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IUy0c99Qf0

So I the other question I am curious about is what antenna is everybody using on their cart? I am looking at buying a kit on eBay to install my radio and speakers but not sure of a good clean way to hide the antenna.
Below is the list of items I plan on installing. Feel free to give suggestion or opinions on them. Or even suggest purchasing something else.

Radio Kit:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Club-Car-Pre...-/200650261253

Deluxe Light Kit:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Club-Car-200...item51c66be85e

MadJax Voltage Convertor (Only if I need it)
http://www.amazon.com/Amp-Golf-Cart-.../dp/B00DRFFLDG

I really appreciate the help.

Travis, First off Welcome to the site ! Now (1)The 4-12 set up does not do well with add on's , I started out by placing a 12V in the bagwell and have now moved it over the rearend. some guys find a good lawn mower or scooter battery and place them in the dash, But I like the way I have mine now and it was not hard to do.Then you can run everything off of it and not have to worry about your pack batteries. (2) Buy a nice dash with radio and speaker cutouts. Check our site sponsors they have good deals and great service after the sale too ! Hope this helps .... Ken

[theboss20]

Using a voltage reducer allows the entire battery pack to supply to your accessories and draw down the pack equally instead of pulling power off one battery. It is hard to equalize batteries run in series. The only reason people change to 6v or 8v batteries is for longer run times. Search the Internet for hidden radio antennas and I think you will find some options.

[jjance]

To answer one of your questions. That reducer in the video is for use only with 8v batteries. It's a 16v to 12v reducer. You need a 48 to 12v converter. Those two wires you were measuring were probably an old 12v hookup for some aux. circuit. Are there 2 wires loose that used to connect to them?

[stang99x]

You can wire your lights off one twelve with no issues. I do it all the time. The difference in amps pulled is negligible. I've only used two reducers in my shop, and the were from customers who were hellbent on adding extensive electrical to their cart. (Like radio amps)
You could always convert to 6x8 later. But in the end your headlights will be fine without an $60 reduced (or more)

I use off the shelf little black antennas from Advance auto parts. They are $10and I install them into the box I mount to the roof.

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by stang99x

You can wire your lights off one twelve with no issues. I do it all the time. The difference in amps pulled is negligible. I've only used two reducers in my shop, and the were from customers who were hellbent on adding extensive electrical to their cart. (Like radio amps)
You could always convert to 6x8 later. But in the end your headlights will be fine without an $60 reduced (or more)

I use off the shelf little black antennas from Advance auto parts. They are $10and I install them into the box I mount to the roof.

I call BS.
Or maybe Trojan battery company is not as smart as you are because they say it will shorten the useful life of the whole pack.

[travis_slim]

First off thank you for all of the quick replies so far. I will try to respond to each one of them.

eaglesdad1:
For some reason I am just not crazy about adding an aux battery to my cart. To be honest I don't know why, but that's not to say I won't do it if solves my issues. A couple of questions for you. How did you mount your battery under your cart? Any pictures? And how are you cutting power to your accessories if your not using your key on/off? I have seen one of the site sponsors dash kit with stereo and speakers and I'm not sure If I like everything about it but I will look and see if there are more.

theboss20:
I will search for hidden antenna's, never thought of that description I guess. Thanks!

jjance:
I was sort of assuming that the voltage reducer in the video was reducing 16volts to 12 for a carts with 8volt batteries. Yes the two wires are loose nothing is connected to them. My biggest struggle is they look factory to me because they are attached to the main battery cables. That is not to say that the cables couldn't have been switched out at one point. I just wonder did some of these 48 volt carts with 12 volt batteries some how output 12 volts through a factory convertor? It is so confusing because it is for surely coming across two different batteries, maybe it coming from all four but I don't know. So I have had my cart for 3 months and it was not stock when I bought it. When I bought it had a 6" All Sports Lift Kit and something has been done to the motor I believe because it does not regen when you lift off the gas it just coasts. Also I put on 23" tires and rims on it because they were smaller and looked kind of funny and now it does 20 mph according to my GPS. With all of my research I believe that is faster than a stock cart would go with 23" tires should go. So who knows maybe somebody added a voltage reducer/convertor to the cart but the weird thing is it I am measuring at the pigtails on the battery cables.

stang99x:
Do you have any recommendation on the lights I buy if you have installed many light kits? I don't want to install junk. I am looking for full LED front and rear.

Thanks everyone.

[travis_slim]

After sitting here thinking about it more I figure out why my cart is showing up 12 volt across two batteries. I really am reading only the voltage of the battery with the positive, the negative side is connected to the other battery so I'm just completing the circuit by touching that battery post of the second battery but really its only reading that first battery's voltage. Hope that all makes sense.

So the next question is anybody who has a 48v 12v cart and installed a voltage convertor where did you mount it? I feel like these carts don't' have as much room has the ones with 6 8 volt batteries so looking for some creative ideas.

[theboss20]

The most common converter location is on the crossover frame behind the batteries...most of the time you will find some holes already drilled that will allow you to bolt the converter to this cross piece.

[scooterman]

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...e-reducer.html

If you try to use only one 12v battery for lights and accessories and use them accessories often you will have an in-balance when it comes to charging and that battery will never get fully charged, there is no way for the OBC to account for that battery's extra use. I have a 2008.5 and had to rotate the batteries often to prevent this issue but that isn't the proper fix. The link above shows the location for a precedent with 6 8vs batteries but this location with the distribution block will not fit with the 4 12's but if may give you some ideas on location.