Want 12 volt for radio ect.

[nhdiesel]

I can't tell you that...I don't know what the extra wires would be for. I saw some others advertised that had the extra wires as well. The 10a one I have (pictured in my earlier post) only has 2 in, 2 out. Hopefully someone with more experience than I will chime in.

Jim

 

[steelandcanvas]

Why does this converter have 3 wires in and 3 wires out? I've been following this thread, and this looks like the way to go.

I wrote the eBayer asking them what that 3rd wire is for. I'll post back when I get a response.

 

[JTugwell]

they are probably remote wires. like on an amplifier. i just bought a converter yesterday, and thats what they are on mine.

 

[Hammer]

Ok, general question about all of these setups.
I read where they can charge a battery as well, but how well do they actually perform this task?
- would like to have a decent charging setup for my extra 12V batteries.

 

[nhdiesel]

I would think they would charge a battery fine, but keep in mind the amperage of the converters. I'd put a circuit breaker in between, lets say a 40a breaker for a 45a converter. The battery won't charge all that quickly, depending on the converter. Although at 40a, it would be a decently quick charge. Even 5a will charge a battery over time...look at a regular battery charger. If you wanted the same converter to double as a charger as well as still provide power for other things- radio, etc. then you would probably want to limit the charging circuit to maybe 20 amps, leaving 25 to run other things.

Just shooting from the hip here...someone will have to chime in if I'm off the mark on something.

Jim

 

[Hammer]

Yeah, I wouldn't care about it charging the battery all that quickly. It would be used for 12v stuff in the cab, and for hauling the occasional civi trailer.
Good point about the circuit breaker.
I would be drawing all power from the battery, and just using the converter to charge/maintain the battery.
If that third wire is a remote, then it would seem easy to wire that into the ignition setup so it would only come on when the ignition is on, so the thing wouldn't be drawing on the system when the ignition is off.

 

[nhdiesel]

That would make sense. And I see no problem at all using one of these just to maintain a charge on a battery. Consider that one of the ones I posted has a 45a output, not all that long ago there were alternators that put out less amperage!

Jim