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This guide overviews voltage reducer installation on 48V Yamaha golf cars.
Guide illustrates using a model G19 Yamaha golf car. Remember 48V Yamaha golf
cars use six 8V batteries in series. Guide is for heavy duty voltage reducers
that use six batteries in series: 48V 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.
48V to 12V voltage reducers are used for twelve volt accessories such as lights, horn and power port and radio. A 12V power port can be used to operate a small fan or cell phone charger. You must use a heavy duty 48V to 12V reducer for radios on a golf car. Economy reducers, ones that only use two batteries, 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. Heavy duty voltage reducers provide a constant 12V when the car is at rest and whenever you step on the "go" pedal. If you use an economy reducer your radio will cut out every time you start to move your car. Simply you must use a heavy duty voltage reducer if you intend to install a radio or MP3/CD player.
The heavy duty reducer looks like the following
Lift up and remove the seat cushion. Pictured below as viewed from the front of a G19 model Yamaha golf car.
48V to 12V voltage reducers are used for twelve volt accessories such as lights, horn and power port and radio. A 12V power port can be used to operate a small fan or cell phone charger. You must use a heavy duty 48V to 12V reducer for radios on a golf car. Economy reducers, ones that only use two batteries, 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. Heavy duty voltage reducers provide a constant 12V when the car is at rest and whenever you step on the "go" pedal. If you use an economy reducer your radio will cut out every time you start to move your car. Simply you must use a heavy duty voltage reducer if you intend to install a radio or MP3/CD player.
The heavy duty reducer looks like the following
Lift up and remove the seat cushion. Pictured below as viewed from the front of a G19 model Yamaha golf car.
Batteries are best viewed as an illustration.
Illustrated are batteries numbered one through six. Battery numbers one through
six are used for the heavy duty voltage reducers.
Remember all of your batteries in series makes
48V. So from the positive terminal on battery number one to the negative
terminal of battery number six makes 48V. This reducer has a variable input
range 24V to 48V. In this instance it takes 48V in and puts out 12V.
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 voltage reducer.
Here is a close up view of the reducer's terminals. Each terminal has a bolt and nut along with a heat shrink tube.
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 voltage reducer.
Here is a close up view of the reducer's terminals. Each terminal has a bolt and nut along with a heat shrink tube.
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 previous photo and illustration.
Power flows from hot to ground so in general these are the reducer's terminal connections.
Use the previous photo and illustration.
Power flows from hot to ground so in general these are the reducer's terminal connections.
- B+ terminal on reducer attaches to the positive terminal on battery number 6
- B- terminal on reducer attaches to the negative terminal on battery number 1
- +12V terminal on reducer attaches to accessory hot
- -12V terminal on reducer attaches to accessory ground
A simple example is if you are going to install
lights with this reducer most light kits have a red positive "hot" wire and a
black negative "ground" wire. The red wire for the lights would attach to the
+12V terminal on the reducer. The black wire would attach to the reducer's -12V
terminal.
If you are going to attach several different accessories you might want to consider installing a fuse block. The purpose of a fuse block is to make several different circuits: lights, horn, power port and radio. Each one can have its own centrally located fuse on the block. See our future guides for installing a fuse block and its advantages.
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.
If you are going to attach several different accessories you might want to consider installing a fuse block. The purpose of a fuse block is to make several different circuits: lights, horn, power port and radio. Each one can have its own centrally located fuse on the block. See our future guides for installing a fuse block and its advantages.
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 fuse block
- 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 09/21/09)
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