Stereo hook up

[Zcook11]

I just got a kenwood marine stereo and 2 Infiniti 6.5" marine speakers that I am going to put on my 2007 precedent. My cart has 4/12 volt batteries. I read somewhere that if you had 6/8 volt batteries you had to use a voltage reducer. Is this the case with the setup I have? My batteries test out at 50 volt total and each one separate are around 12.6 to 12.9. Any info on installing this would be helpful, any input at all. Thanks.

[TahoeDawgZ71]

I recommend using a voltage reducer no matter what kind of setup you have. A Kenwood (as with 99% of all other car stereos) includes a yellow memory wire that must be hooked up to a constant hot wire at all times. Over the life span of your batteries this memory wire, even though it is a very low draw, will cause battery problems. Golf car batteries must be kept as closely synchronized with one another as possible or else you are prone to failure. For example, if one battery is weaker than the other three, and you plug it in to charge, you are going to charge the other three batteries far before the charger is ready to turn off. It will continue to charge waiting for the other battery to "catch up" and you will in turn, destroy your other three batteries in the process.

[SaltLifeCC]

You can run a fused feed from one of your 12v batteries to power the radio but I don't recommend it - and most here will most likely agree with me. When I first started adding accessories, I had my lights and radio wired to the 4th battery in the pack. It kills the battery quicker, weakens it overall sooner, and then causes the whole pack to get weaker quicker than it should, over time. I also had problems with my lights dimming and/or my radio cutting off when I hit the accel pedal. PITA.

There are 2 good options, no matter how many batteries you have, and what voltage they each are. You can get a voltage reducer, which will draw your 12v from the entire pack evenly, or you can stash an extra 12v battery somewhere on the cart and wire directly to that. The big argument against the second option is that you have an extra battery to charge. That is true but you can make it fairly convenient to do and that battery most likely doesn't need to be recharged as often as the cart does. I went with the spare battery. I mounted in the bagwell underneath my passenger seat (dead space anyway). I bought a battery tender which came with detachable ends that can be left attached to the battery. When I plug my cart in, I just plug the tender into the detachable plug on the spare battery and let them go. It takes a few more seconds and is a little extra expense, but you aren't drawing power off the cart to run accessories. Reading horror stories about voltage reducers burning down carts kind of helped my decision as well.

[Zcook11]

Ok. Do you know what type of store carries voltage reducers? I found some online but they are in china!! Don't really want to wait 20 days to get one in. I am going to explore the option of the extra battery as well. It's just added expense on top of getting the battery I will have to get a charger too. Thanks for the info.

[SaltLifeCC]

You can always start with some of the site sponsors for reducers. Don't skimp on those either. Get one that has some way of switching it off or be sure to wire in an on/off switch. For me, I needed a charger anyway, and had been wanting a tender, to keep things like my lawn mower, ATV, and RV batteries fresh when not being used much. So, I didn't consider it an extra cart expense really. It came with 2 detachable ends - one with battery post ring mounts and the other with gator-clips. I installed the battery post ones on the cart and leave it there and the gator-clips I just clamp onto whatever other battery I want to keep fresh and just switch between the two.

[Zcook11]

Ok thanks. I looked at your stereo and speaker setup. I have a radio dash coming in. Not real sure if I want it now because I really like all of the storage space. Does that stereo mount you have rattle around and shake a lot? I saw those and almost got one but was not sure how strong and or flimsy it was.

[erict]

My first choice would be a separate battery in the bag well area to run the stereo. That way you can leave you battery pack to do the job it's meant to do, run the cart...

[SaltLifeCC]

Originally Posted by Zcook11

Does that stereo mount you have rattle around and shake a lot?

Not at all. I rarely play CD's but have never had one skip. But shaking and rattling wouldn't be acceptable to me. That's why I shy'd away from those overhead mounting setups. Since I couldn't use very long screws to install the stereo mount, I made sure I use some that were as thick as would fit through the holes. So far, so good.

You have to be careful with my speaker mounting location. I don't think anyone believed they would fit but I was convinced I could make it work. But I do remember considering Infinity speakers because I have always had good luck with them. But I found some Polk marine speakers that were for a shallower mount. I shoehorned them in there and couldn't be happier with them.

[Zcook11]

Yea I don't like the overhead ones either. I have ridden in some carts where that thing sounded like crickets in the roof! I ordered the one that covers the dash and the speakers are on the side. I haven't completely made my mind up on it yet. I like where u have ur speakers but I was reluctant to cut holes in the kick panel. I got those 6.5" speakers so if I did I would probably have to get some spacers from the looks of the room in the battery compartment. How did you run your power and speaker wires to keep them from showing. Sorry I am asking you all these questions. I just got he cart last week and it's my first one. Just want everything to look good.

[SaltLifeCC]

Dude, if people didn't ask questions, this forum would be useless. It's cool. On the precedent, there is a channel under the floorboard that you can run the wires through - just remove the floormat. I already had my stuff wired to power behind the dash and that was prewired to feed off the 12v leading from battery 4 (that's what the blue wire dangling off that battery is for). So, I only had to run speaker wires back. I think David (TahoeDawg) helped me rewire my 12v source such that my spare battery feeds into the battery bay where all the wiring is and hooks into and replaces the 12v source that was coming off battery 4.

I must admit, though, that the reason I mounted my radio and speakers like I did was because, at the time, I couldn't find a Precedent dash that had a spot for speakers - 6.5" speakers anyway. If they have them now, that's cool. If they had had them then, I probably would have gone with the dash kit. I waited until I was almost positive that the speakers would fit before I cut the holes for them. If you haven't found it already, I have a thread around here somewhere on what I did. I did have to take a roto tool to the battery bay wall in a couple of small places to make room for the speaker magnets but it was nothing that affects the integrity of the battery bay structure.