[Living a Fantasy]

As I understand it, the purpose of a voltage reducer for a golf cart is to even out or balance battery usage. The marketing materials state that usually a golf cart's accessories are on two of your batteries. These two wear down quicker than the others. How does a voltage reducer work and does it really make that much of a difference for the additional cost? What are the benefits?

[jaringg]

If you have an electric cart with 48 or 36 volts, the converter (which produces 12 volts) would be used to power your lights or whatever other 12 v accessories you have.

[KBusch]

The first thing you have to do is be realistic about how you use your lights. If you plan on using your lights for more than an hour at a time, you need a voltage reducer. If you just use your lights to get you home from the course, say 10-15 minutes, then you dont need one. The key here though is to be realistic about how you use them.
If you do get one the next thing to make sure of is one with the proper amp rating, I cant count how many times I see the radio goes off when the lights are turned on, thats due to a small reducer. Quality of reducer also has a lot to do with it. A $90 dollar 48 to 12 volt reducer will work......for a little while, but dont be surprised if your buying another one in a year.
If you dont have a reducer, and do run your lights for too long, dont let your repair facility convince you that you have to buy 2 new batteries or tell you that you have 2 failed batteries. Many times they can be recovered and not need replaced.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I can only tell you my experience. My golf cart came with my house. It is a 2002, 48 Volt Club Car and it has been modified. It has a custom front end and I believe that they lights and some other accessories have been added after market.
I began having some problems with one of tail lights / directional lights. I took it to the Villages Golf Cart Man. Big mistake.
I was told that among other things the entire cart was wired with speaker wire and the the headlights were running extremely hot. According to them the whole cart needed to be rewired and the headlights needed to be replaced.
Since they didn't know of any headlights that would fit my cart, they were going to have to "fabricate" some to make the headlights that they stock, fit. It was going to cost about $500.
I got a second opinion. It seems that the only speaker wire in the cart was to the charge gauge and that was not affecting anything. The headlights, which were perfectly fine were meant to run on 12 volts and the were wired to all six batteries. I had a choice of having them rewired to one of the batteries, which would wear down that one battery before the others. A battery pack is only as strong as it's weakest battery. Or have a 48 - 12 voltage reducer installed to run the lights.
I had
Todd Casey of Todd Casey Golf Cart Repair install the reducer and the cart is now fine.
When these batteries are worn out. I intend to have the cart converted to 8 six volt batteries.

[Biker Dog]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

When these batteries are worn out. I intend to have the cart converted to 8 six volt batteries.

Smart move. Allot more distance per charge

[kbace6]

Originally Posted by Living a Fantasy

As I understand it, the purpose of a voltage reducer for a golf cart is to even out or balance battery usage. The marketing materials state that usually a golf cart's accessories are on two of your batteries. These two wear down quicker than the others. How does a voltage reducer work and does it really make that much of a difference for the additional cost? What are the benefits?

A voltage reducer (aka a DC to DC converter) is IMHO essential. Even if you do not use your headlights very often or use a radio, you still have brake lights and directionals. Not to mention any other parasitic load. If you have all of those accessories on one 12v battery or two 6v batteries it/they WILL run down and wear out faster than the others thus causing an imbalance with your pack. Then plug into your charger and a big mess in time will likely be the result.

I don't mean to be unsympathetic to the costs involved, but I would never drive or own an electric cart WITHOUT a DC to DC converter. It is just an accident waiting to happen, not to mention the throwing of $$$ out the window when you have to buy all new batteries.

Good luck with your cart.