New LED lighting for half the price

[4shorts]

Well today the last part of my LED lights order showed up from LEDstores. I ordered the 20" single row for our new BX25D I'll soon be starting on. I also ordered four 3" lights for the beast. I have to say I'm very pleased with the quality of these lights. The single light bar even came with a wiring harness that had it's own built in relay and I was really impressed with that. I will admit my purchase didn't go very smooth. The first order had two of the four lights missing when I received them but LEDstores worked that issue out fast enough and then the LED light bar showed up that was the wrong size with no mounting hardware in it but again LEDstores straightened that out and I'm happy to report that I now have all the lighting In hand to do our new tractor.
Even after the issues I had purchasing these lights I'd do business again with LEDstores. If there's an issue they will do their very best to fix things up so you can't beat that. Thanks again LEDstores. I'll be back :thumbsup:

 

[Lloyd_E]

4shorts,

I see a glow from the East. Are you testing them now?

lloyd

 

[jinman]

JINMAN
How do you make the connection to the 36 volt (or other voltage) of the golf cart--
i.e. how do you reduce the 36 volts (or other) to match the required voltage of the light>

Arkaybee, in my case, the cart had a 12 volt outlet installed for a cell phone or other 12 volt device. I just tapped off that outlet for power to my light. The outlet was a factory installation, but is just tapped off of one of the 12 volt cart batteries. To be sure you have 12 volts, run both a positive and negative wire to the light. Normally, only the last battery in the line is grounded to the chassis, so you have to provide a dedicated ground when you are tapping the 12 volts.

Since my cart is 48 volt, I have 4 x 12 volt batteries. That makes tapping 12 volts simple. If you have a 36 volt cart, you probably have 6 x 6 volt batteries. In that case, find any two batteries hooked in series and tap one wire to postive on the first battery and negative to the second battery. Use a voltmeter to verify you have 12 volts and then just crimp some terminals onto some 18 gage wire (red/black is good for ID). Put an inline fuse in one wire near the battery. This will ensure the battery is protected if the wire to the light ever becomes chafed. The power socket on my cart came with a 10 amp fuse already protecting that circuit.

When you run your light, you will drain only the batteries where the light is attached, but these LED lights have such low draw that it should never be an issue unless you forget and leave the light on for a week. My 18 watt light pulls 1-1/2 amp. A 150 ah cart battery could run that light for 100 hours before discharging the battery. That's one of the nicest things about LED lights. They use only a tiny current draw for exceptional lighting.

 

[Beltman60]

What you need for a 36 volt to 12 volt is a voltage regular
they are about $60 on ebay
if you try to go off of just one set of batteries the resistance when charging will make that bank of batteries weak and will fail prematurely
I did this with some small led's (2x .02 amp draw)in my battery room and after about 3 months that set of batteries were weak to the point I had to take them off-line
rather pay $60 instead of the price of a new set of batteries

 

[Arkaybee]

Thanks Jinman
"When you run your light, you will drain only the batteries where the light is attached, but these LED lights have such low draw that it should never be an issue unless you forget and leave the light on for a week. My 18 watt light pulls 1-1/2 amp. A 150 ah cart battery could run that light for 100 hours before discharging the battery. That's one of the nicest things about LED lights. They use only a tiny current draw for exceptional lighting."

Now it seems I have some troubling information from Beltman60 thanks Beltman60:

What you need for a 36 volt to 12 volt is a voltage regular
they are about $60 on ebay
if you try to go off of just one set of batteries the resistance when charging will make that bank of batteries weak and will fail prematurely
I did this with some small led's (2x .02 amp draw)in my battery room and after about 3 months that set of batteries were weak to the point I had to take them off-line
rather pay $60 instead of the price of a new set of batteries

Beltman60 Thanks for responding to my question. I mean no indictment of your
explanation--just asking a question.

Jinman since your golf cart came from the factory with that type hookup I am inclined to believe that installation will be suitable but I wonder about the risk to the batteries after reading
Beltman60's recommendation. Do I run a risk to the batteries in my installation in a 36V (6 X 6V batteries) system?

 

[Beltman60]

all I know is it cost me a $220. battery
I have now 3 24 volt to 12 volt regulators and for the last 2 years have not had any problems

 

[4shorts]

4shorts,

I see a glow from the East. Are you testing them now?

lloyd

Sorry about Lloyd. I knew I shouldn't have turned them all on the same time :laughing:

Paul

 

[dex3361]

Well today the last part of my LED lights order showed up from LEDstores. I ordered the 20" single row for our new BX25D I'll soon be starting on. I also ordered four 3" lights for the beast. I have to say I'm very pleased with the quality of these lights. The single light bar even came with a wiring harness that had it's own built in relay and I was really impressed with that. I will admit my purchase didn't go very smooth. The first order had two of the four lights missing when I received them but LEDstores worked that issue out fast enough and then the LED light bar showed up that was the wrong size with no mounting hardware in it but again LEDstores straightened that out and I'm happy to report that I now have all the lighting In hand to do our new tractor.
Even after the issues I had purchasing these lights I'd do business again with LEDstores. If there's an issue they will do their very best to fix things up so you can't beat that. Thanks again LEDstores. I'll be back :thumbsup:

What is the wattage of the light bar and the smaller lights?

 

[jinman]

if you try to go off of just one set of batteries the resistance when charging will make that bank of batteries weak and will fail prematurely
I did this with some small led's (2x .02 amp draw)in my battery room and after about 3 months that set of batteries were weak to the point I had to take them off-line
rather pay $60 instead of the price of a new set of batteries

I'm not going to argue with you over what happened to your batteries, but I will tell you that tapping from a single battery is the way the factory OEM power outlet works on my Yamaha YDRE cart. I will also tell you that my measured voltages on my battery monitor I built for this cart also show that none of the batteries are the same voltage level.

When the charger charges, it has no way of knowing about individual batteries. It looks at the batteries as a single load and applies charge current based on total charge level (voltage). A single battery will only have the effect of changing the resistance of the entire charging string. It will not see any charging current difference to the other batteries since current is the same through each component of a series circuit. However a single battery with high internal resistance can limit total current through the chain. Batteries with lower voltage will also have lower resistance, but the only difference in a series circuit is voltage drop across each battery. Even in perfectly matched sets, this will vary as the batteries age. In my recent round of battery problems. I found one battery that had very high internal resistance due to being defective. It slowed charging time for all the batteries by limiting the maximum current that could be applied to the string. When a healthy deep cycle battery discharges, it's internal resistance decreases (that's why charging current starts out high).

So, I'm going to disagree with Beltman60 on the danger of tapping a single battery in the string for an LED light. I believe his DC-to-DC power supply would drain a cart's batteries due to efficiency losses while providing 12 vdc probably more than a 18 watt LED light turn on occasionally as needed. If you have some other batteries in the cart other than 12 or 6 volt, you have to use a power supply, but Beltman60 and I have different opinions of the nature of healthy golf cart batteries and chargers. He has his reasons and I have mine. By all means, do what feels best for you and gives you the most confidence in the outcome.:thumbsup:

EDIT: Arkaybee, if you are going to install headlights/tailights and use your lights most every time you use the cart. I'll certainly change my suggestion. My comments above are based on a single light with only occasional use.

 

[Arkaybee]

EDIT: Arkaybee, if you are going to install headlights/tailights and use your lights most every time you use the cart. I'll certainly change my suggestion. My comments above are based on a single light with only occasional use.

Jinman Thanks. I plan to have a single light with only occasional use.

Arkaybee