moggers considering 12volts gadgets installation on their 24v set up must see this simple and cheap way of doing it.
12volts on a 24volt Unimog
12 Volt tap on a 24volt systemLots of folks buy expensive 24volt to 12 volt converters to power their 12 volt goodies in a 24volt truck. This is the simple way that I do it without the converter.
Make sure your tap is on the 12volt positive (+) of the battery that grounds to the frame of the vehicle. (make sure you tap the right battery!) I attached a 10 gauge wire and ran it up front. Notice the FUSE in the black plastic fuse holder.
I installed a fancy 12 volt fuse box, right now I only have a GPS powered by it but I have 4 fuses and will be adding my CB and HAM radio soon.
Caution!YOU MUST NOT USE YOUR BATTERY CUT OFF SWITCH, doing so will blow the battery fuse on your 12 volt tap (good thing we put that fuse in there!!),
I disabled my battery switch so this wont happen.
(I would rather have 12volts than a battery cuttoff anyway)To be fair, I must mention alot of folks don't like doing this, I have done it on several unimogs and a 24v military Humvee without any problems. I only advise running electronics that have a small current draw, no fog lights, no electric winches and such. They might work but I'm not giving you any guarantees. The small stuff I run works great and I have been doing this for years without any problems at all, in fact these are the same batteries I put in my Unimog after I first got it a few years ago and they are still fine. Some folks say one battery will be overcharged by hooking up this way but since both batteries are charged equally I really don't see how it could cause any problems, specially with such small current draw and specially since I use the electronics only while the truck is running.
I say BULL, it works great!
