24v power source at alternator for IBIS Light bar?

[vmaxmike]

Engine block should do, one rule on the HMMWV is not to use the body for a ground

Agreed on that, I've run a grounding kit on mine and could pick up at that point on the body. Just cleaner looking than a ton of redundant wires.

 

[Mogman]

Agreed on that, I've run a grounding kit on mine and could pick up at that point on the body. Just cleaner looking than a ton of redundant wires.

Well I will hold that against you, the "grounding kit" is completely unnecessary and IMHO is borderline to a scam, everything in a HMMWV has a return wire and as long as the few original ground points are checks there will be no issues, in fact some of those points are disturbed while installing the kit leaving some to believe the kit actually helped when in fact they stumbled across the problem while installing it, in fact creating "ground loops" can be dangerous.

 

[vmaxmike]

Well I will hold that against you, the "grounding kit" is completely unnecessary and IMHO is borderline to a scam, everything in a HMMWV has a return wire and as long as the few original ground points are checks there will be no issues, in fact some of those points are disturbed while installing the kit leaving some to believe the kit actually helped when in fact they stumbled across the problem while installing it, in fact creating "ground loops" can be dangerous.

OK, I'm listening... I put it in the category of "can't hurt"......

Please elaborate on "grounding loops can be dangerous"


M.

 

[Mogman]

OK just as an example you run a 10ga wire from the battery neg terminal to the engine or body and then the #2 odd cable between the neg battery terminal and the block fails, could be the shunt connections or the connection at the block etc.
You jump in and hit the starter, now all the starter current , hundreds of amps at 24V is going through a 10ga wire, the entire length of that wire instantly lights up like a bolt of lightning and is hotter than the sun (a slight exaggeration) and melts everything it touches, be it other wires, fuel lines etc., oh yes at this point it the length of the wire is growing exponentially so there is no predicting where it will go and what it will melt.

 

[Mogman]

In fact I have seen this many times and even I am not immune.
A couple months ago I was mig welding a chassis on my lift.
I had failed to make sure the ground lead from the welder was well connected.
The welding current found a "ground loop" in the form of the #12 ground wire from the lift back to the breaker box, then from the breaker box to the welder through its ground wire.
This was all inside a 2" steel conduit carrying all 7 of the circuits from the breaker box to my shop and I stood there rather dumbfounded as there was one explosion after another inside the conduit as one circuit shorted after another until all 7 breakers were tripped and all the wire in that conduit was melted.
This lead to 6 hours of pulling new cable, thank God it was all inside steel conduit or it could have started a fire.

 

[vmaxmike]

Interesting, in that scenario you're correct things are going to get sporty real fast.

 

[vmaxmike]

In fact I have seen this many times and even I am not immune.
A couple months ago I was mig welding a chassis on my lift.
I had failed to make sure the ground lead from the welder was well connected.
The welding current found a "ground loop" in the form of the #12 ground wire from the lift back to the breaker box, then from the breaker box to the welder through its ground wire.
This was all inside a 2" steel conduit carrying all 7 of the circuits from the breaker box to my shop and I stood there rather dumbfounded as there was one explosion after another inside the conduit as one circuit shorted after another until all 7 breakers were tripped and all the wire in that conduit was melted.
This lead to 6 hours of pulling new cable, thank God it was all inside steel conduit or it could have started a fire.

That's a hard lesson learned, glad it wasn't worse. I had a good friend that had a shop fire a short time ago, not a pretty thing.

 

[Retiredwarhorses]

These light kits were not designed for trucks with 60amp Gens….you would Be best served upgrading to a 200amp.
Also, I would be very careful with that Pulsetek box, they are dumped for a reason many many moons ago.
I’ve seen the solar panal over charge the batteries and cause battery to explode…seems the unit can and will overcharge to 36volts.

 

[vmaxmike]

These light kits were not designed for trucks with 60amp Gens….you would Be best served upgrading to a 200amp.
Also, I would be very careful with that Pulsetek box, they are dumped for a reason many many moons ago.
I’ve seen the solar panal over charge the batteries and cause battery to explode…seems the unit can and will overcharge to 36volts.

Thanks that good to know, I'm only using the Pulse box it self not the solar panel I wired a NOCO Gen5X2 battery Maintainer into the system for storage charging.


I was wondering about the stock 60amp , the light bar I've got only has 4 HIDs and the two IRs. I'm planning on putting three switches in and won't likely have them all on at once. Frankly the will seldom be used. The rated draw for the four HID's together is 7.2 amps so it not huge, I would expect that the system has that much extra compacity, especially since I've swapped the stock headlights for LED's