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This guide overviews voltage reducer installation on 48V Club Car golf cars.
Guide illustrates using a 48V Club Car golf car. Remember 48V Club Car golf
cars use six 8V batteries in series. Guide is for economy voltage reducers that
use two batteries in series: 16V of input reduced to 12V output. 12 volt
accessories cannot use one 8V battery its not enough, and two or more 8V
batteries in series is way too much. Yes this is a very complex subject and
does require some prior experience in 12VDC systems.
16V to 12V voltage reducers are used for twelve volt accessories such as lights, horn and power port. A 12V power port can be used to operate a small fan or cell phone charger. 16V to 12V voltage reducers are the most economical way to obtain 12V power in a 48V system; however, they do have one limitation. Economy reducers are not suitable for radios. The simple explanation is 12V radios are very sensitive to voltage drops. Economy reducers do not provide constant twelve volts needed by radios. Simply put do not put one of these reducers in your golf car if you ever intend to install a radio or MP3/CD player.
Economy reducer looks like the following
Pictured
below as viewed from the drivers side of a Club Car golf car. Lift up and
remove the seat cushion.
Batteries
are best viewed as an illustration. Illustrated are batteries numbered one
through six. Battery numbers one and two are used for the economy voltage
reducers.
Remember all of your batteries in
series makes 48V. So from the positive terminal on battery number six to the
negative terminal of battery number one makes 48V. This reducer only can take
16V to 18V as an input so you must only use batteries two and one.
A note about 12VDC power and golf cars. In DC power "hot" refers to the positive terminal, "ground" refers to the negative terminal. Wires do have color coding but its very inconsistent in golf car parts. Red usually is hot and black is usually ground. If you have prior experience with 12VDC wiring on automobiles remember that you never frame ground any accessory on a golf car. If you do not know what frame ground is thats a good thing. If you correctly follow this guide nothing will be grounded to the frame so lets forget about frame grounding and move on. All accessories must be grounded back to the battery power supply pack.
16V to 12V voltage reducers are used for twelve volt accessories such as lights, horn and power port. A 12V power port can be used to operate a small fan or cell phone charger. 16V to 12V voltage reducers are the most economical way to obtain 12V power in a 48V system; however, they do have one limitation. Economy reducers are not suitable for radios. The simple explanation is 12V radios are very sensitive to voltage drops. Economy reducers do not provide constant twelve volts needed by radios. Simply put do not put one of these reducers in your golf car if you ever intend to install a radio or MP3/CD player.
Economy reducer looks like the following
A note about 12VDC power and golf cars. In DC power "hot" refers to the positive terminal, "ground" refers to the negative terminal. Wires do have color coding but its very inconsistent in golf car parts. Red usually is hot and black is usually ground. If you have prior experience with 12VDC wiring on automobiles remember that you never frame ground any accessory on a golf car. If you do not know what frame ground is thats a good thing. If you correctly follow this guide nothing will be grounded to the frame so lets forget about frame grounding and move on. All accessories must be grounded back to the battery power supply pack.
SAFETY FIRST - one battery
interconnect cable must be disconnected on one terminal before installing
reducer. Battery circuit must be broken before installing
reducer.
Use the two previous illustrations. Power flows
from hot to ground. Illustrated with the letter A positive terminal on battery
number 2 in is your input power. Loop terminal on the economy voltage reducer A
attaches to the positive terminal A on battery number 2. Economy voltage
reducer drops the voltage from 16V down to 12V. Output side of the voltage
reducer has two female spade terminals. If you are only using lights use
electrical tape to mask off the unused connector. One connector remaining you
now have a hot 12V power supply. Power supply attaches to the hot side of your
accessory. Ground side of your accessory must attach to the negative terminal
of battery number 1.
This guide is very general for 12V accessories used on 48V electric Club Car golf cars. As time permits more product specific guides will be written. This guide is the base of information needed to install lights, horn or power port. In the future look for the following guides. As time permits these will become clickable links to product specific guides.
Future related 12VDC guides topics to be available will include:
This guide is very general for 12V accessories used on 48V electric Club Car golf cars. As time permits more product specific guides will be written. This guide is the base of information needed to install lights, horn or power port. In the future look for the following guides. As time permits these will become clickable links to product specific guides.
Future related 12VDC guides topics to be available will include:
- how to install a horn on your golf car
- how to install a power port on your golf car
- how to install a turn signal on your golf car
- how to install a warning strobe on your golf car
- how to install a chrome head lights and tail light kit on your Club Car golf
car
- how to install head lights and tail lights on your Club Car golf
car
- how to install head lights and tail lights on your Yamaha G2 G9 golf
car
- how to install head lights and tail lights on your Yamaha G14 G16 golf car
- how to install head lights and tail lights on your Yamaha G19 G21 golf car
- how to install head lights and tail lights on your EZ-GO golf car
- how to install universal head lights and tail
lights
Guide created: 03/31/08 (updated 10/01/08)
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