24v and 12v lighting on your MCI

Fredward · September 26, 2007, 10:50:36 AM

Those of you who want to be able to use 12volt exterior lights for tail, stop, signal, marker and towed/trailer purposes check with Craig Shepard (aka gumpy; brewmaster; vintner; etc. etc). He designed a simple relay system that takes your 24 volt signals in and puts out 12 volts for all of those uses. We put one in my MC-5 last week and it solved a lot of problems for me.

The boy just doesn't have enough to do. He even did all the dirty work back in the engine compartment. Although I think I heard him mutter something about never crawling inside the engine compartment of a -5 again........ $:-\$

Fred

Jerry32 · September 26, 2007, 11:35:52 AM

Yes I built one of his curcuits and put it in the rear junction box and it works great. Tried it on my car which also has relays insted of diodes and worked perfect. Jerry

Coops6 · September 26, 2007, 05:22:17 PM

Fred,

Sounds like something I would be interested in. How were you lighting your toad before you converted to 12v?

BTW this is Chris, we met in Spearfish, SD this summer. My wife still holds you partialy responsible for the purchase of our MC8.

Of course you could see I had the bug before we met!

Coop

Fredward · September 26, 2007, 08:19:33 PM

Hi Chris!
You don't want to know how it was done before. (Must not have shown you that during the tour) When I bought it there were variable resistors installed on each circuit and wires running everywhere. Impossible to trouble shoot and the grounds were messed up as well. Now I've got a neat, easy to troubleshoot, reliable way to power all the taillights including those in the rear cap. And the toad circuit as well.

The rest of our trip to Grand Tetons was fantastic. How's school? REally nice to hear from you. BTW last night my wife said she's really starting to enjoy the "bus thing"
Fred

gumpy · September 26, 2007, 09:22:01 PM

Allow me....

By the way, note the little white tag on the terminal strip at the top of the fans....

It says 110V on it

gumpy · September 26, 2007, 09:23:34 PM

Left side...

gumpy · September 26, 2007, 09:24:17 PM

Right side...

Coops6 · September 27, 2007, 05:06:46 AM

Grumpy,

This sounds like a great solution for getting lights to 12v. How do I get my hands that set up?

Fred,

School is going great, I have great staff and great kids. That gives me more time to work on the bus! We are headed to the bus roundup in Carthage, MO in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to tour some more buses. It was great to get to take a look at yours.
Glad to hear you wife is enjoying it. Vicki loves using it, just doesn't love me working on it every spare minute of the day! She is not real happy with the spending endless amounts of money on it either.

Coop

Stan · September 27, 2007, 05:26:32 AM

All conversions should have a 12 volt tap off the batteries up to the front electrical panel (preferably from an equalizer). At that point it is easy to disconnect the exterior light circuit breakers off the 24 volt buss and connect them to the 12 volt source. No more 24 volt bulbs or flashers to look for, simple wiring to 12 volt headlights and easy hook-up for a tow car or trailer.

gumpy · September 27, 2007, 05:56:35 AM

Quote from: Coops6 on September 27, 2007, 05:06:46 AM
This sounds like a great solution for getting lights to 12v. How do I get my hands that set up?

I sent you a PM with info.

You can see the details and schematic of the converter at http://www.gumpydog.com/bus/MC9_WIP/Electrical/Tail_Light_Converter/tail_light_converter.htm.

For an MC8, these converters work well. If there's nothing already there, they will fit right inside the
rear junction box on the exterior wall and are then protected from the elements. Connection is simply
some short jumpers to the terminals in the j-box. You need to run a larger wire for the 12v feed, but
that's pretty easy.

Coops6 · September 27, 2007, 06:33:49 AM

Grumpy,

Thanks again for the info. I am a newbie looking for any information I can get. The pictures of the setup on your website are great. I especially like the Jelly Belly bag in the background. Is that required for assembly?

Coop

tekebird · September 27, 2007, 06:42:20 AM

how does this system account for the need of larger wire required for 12v vs 24v.

Stan · September 27, 2007, 07:49:46 AM

tekebird: Like almost everything on a bus, the wiring is over engineered. Check the current draw versus the existing wire size and I think you will find the wire size is more than adequate to change from 24 volts to 12 volts. As a further check, compare the wire sizes on a bus to the wire sizes on a current model car.

If you really want to reduce current, when you take out the 24 volt bulbs, put in LED replacements.

Fredward · September 28, 2007, 06:54:19 PM

Craig,
Thanks for sharing those "before" photos of my rig. By the way, did you want me to save those resistors for you? Very compact; don't you think? Wait till you see how nice it looks back there now.

Chris can you send me picts of your rig? Is that the one you were talking about buying when we met in Spearfish?

Fred

gumpy · September 28, 2007, 09:48:39 PM

Quote from: Fredward on September 28, 2007, 06:54:19 PM
By the way, did you want me to save those resistors for you? Very compact; don't you think?

I think I'll pass. They're just too small for my projects.

Though, I could have used one today. I let the smoke out of some components on a new wine cooler someone gave me. Well, some of the smoke was already gone when I got it. I just let more out of it
to ensure it was not ever going to work again. I think the company is going to send me a new control
board for it.