BATTERY JUNCTION TERMINAL KIT

i got a bunch of parts from a friend of mine the other day. in the pile was a box that he said was a 12 volt conversion that keeps your truck 24 volts but gives you a 12 volt poit to use for civilian stuff.
i opened it up today to inspect it and read the directions and the blueprint it came with calls it a battery junction terminal kit. it is designed for an M151. the directions do not say that it will make a 12 volt point or anything like that. i want to adapt this kit to my M35a2.
my question is this; will this kit make a 12 volt point? or did my buddy not know what he was talkin about? if its not a 12 volt point what is the junction kits purpose?

What kind of parts are in the kit? If it is "center tapping" off the dual batteries, it is not best for running 12v accessories because you are only pulling power from the first battery and not the second; but your alternator is putting back in the power through both batteries. The theory is that you will undercharge the battery that you are pulling juice from, and overcharging the second battery because it is in series. It MAY not be a problem if you are running something of very small current, but its not the best method.

The best way to do it is to get a 24v to 12v converter. Maybe that is what is in your kit, I dunno. If you are looking for one of these, m35products.com sells them for a good price. They weren't listed on the website, but they do sell them. If interested, write them for price.

this one is nothing electronic, its a post that has an insulated mout fot screwin to the battery box. it has a lenght of cable approximately 1 foot long, and some mounting hardware. both batteries hook into the insulated post

Sounds like it may be just center tapping the middle battery?

What are you planning to run from it? If you think you may be using a few amps, you would be best to get a 24/12 converter.

im planning on running some back up lights. nothing huge, the ones i have are sealed beam farm tractor lights, they are approx 5 inches. im gonna have 2 of them under the truck, both run with relays. also i would like to place one more of the same light in the bed to illuminate it so i can see what im doin when i gotta get in there in the dark. the only other thing i might add is a cb, but thats a maybe. i dont want some hokey lookin civilian antenna hangin off my truck. i dont really even want the lights on there but i need them, i do alot of offroad recovery with my truck around my area and its mostly at night.

Big Mike!

Try Northern Tool and Equipment Co.!

www.northerntool.com

24 volt lights, 5-1/2 X 5-1/2 X 4 inches

$29.99 each plus shipping

part # 163466-1501

Great for back-up lights!

thanks longhunter, that may be what i end up doing.

what was the point of the junction kit for? if i have a valid reason to install it i will. otherwise i may endup just selling it.
also, a buddy of mine said i could run 12 volt lights on a 24 volt system if i wired them in series. is this true? i dont want to try it and cause a fire, that would suck.

You can run two 12v lights in series off of 24 volts just fine. The only problem is that if one light burns out, neither one will work.

Just wanted to clarify the series hookup of lights. You can only do this if both lights are the same. In other words, using an extreme case to make a point, you wouldn't want to hook up a 12v 100 watt offroad light in series with, say, a 12v dome light. Each light must pull the same amount of current or you would burn out the smaller of the two.

Ohm's law explains this concept. In a series circuit, the total circuit voltage is divided proportionally across all resistances in the circuit. So if you have 24 volts, and two resistors (lights, in this case) of equal resistance in series, then each "resistor" will drop (use) 1/2 the total voltage, which would be 12v. If you had 3 resistors of equal resistance, then each one would receive 8v.

But if you had 2 total resistors, one resistor of 2 ohms and another of 4 ohms, then the 2 ohm resistor would drop (use) 8v and the 4 ohm resistor would drop (use) 16v.