New with lots of questions

[Good Ole JW]

Hi everyone. I'm new from New Harmony, IN. Just bought a 2006 Yamaha G22(48 volt). I recently installed a battery meter. It goes from half charge to none in about 10 minutes of pedal time. It shows full to half-full over three hours of pedal time. Is this normal for some meters?
I also didn't wire it to the ignition switch, so the little led is on all the time. I don't have a small amp meter, but I didn't think it would pull much off of the batteries. What do you think?
This cart also has noise that comes from the motor (under the cart) with the ignition switch off. (short little hums) Is this normal?
It has six 8 volt batteries. The light kit is wired to only one 8 volt battery making them look like candles. I've done some homework and know that I can get a 16 to 12 volt reducer and run the lights off of 2 batteries or pay the big money and get a 48 to 12 reducer. I know this will allow me to add other 12 volt accessories on a larger circuit, but if I just want lights, is the reducer better for my battery life? or does it really matter? Thanks for your input.

[krustybucket]

Sorry bud, I am a gas guy but there are a ton of great battery guys here, can someone help this new member out please? Oh and Welcome to GCF !!

[gaminde]

where do I start hum noise most likely normal you are pulsing the motor with high current.
have no idea what meter your using ?? where you wired it and an led on all the time will draw current cant guess how much, and schematic of how the meter is wired and how it should be wired would be help full.

best would be 48 to 12 volt converter look on my site in my sig under parts there are some for $30.00 or so. This depends on how much your going to use your lights you could hook them to two batteries or in series to three batteries.

[Good Ole JW]

thanks for the quick response guys. i'm using a universal 48 volt state of charge meter that I purchased off of ebay. its instructions showed how to wire it with the 48 volts going to it all the time and also with it wired to the ignition switch to kill power going to it. I took the easy route (led stays on all the time). I know I have it wired properly (i'm getting the 48 volts to it via a multimeter). This schematic (that I can't find) just had me wiring it with two leads. One coming from the negative terminal feeding the negative motor lead and the one from the positive terminal feeding the positive motor lead.

As for the lights I use them for 1-2 hrs at a time. Thanks for the website with the better price. I may just go that route. I am curious about how to wire in series with three batteries though. I know the three 8 volt batteries would get me to 24 volts, but how would I get the 12 volts to each light? Thanks again. There is a wealth of knowledge on this site!

[Good Ole JW]

i installed the 48 to 12 volt converter last night. lights look like flood lights compared to the candles they used to be. thanks gaminde for bringing it to my attention about the more economical converters. I didn't realize that i could get them with smaller amp ratings. I've also gotten a lot more answers to questions just by reading other threads. This forum is great! Thanks again for the help guys.

[gaminde]

Excellent glad I could help thanks for the update