CB radio installation

[starmac]

How does a guy wire a 12 volt cb up in a piece of equipment that is 24 volt?

[snowstorm]

24 to 12 converter.  About 50 bucks.  Most marine supply stores have them. Look up hamliton marine. I know they are on the wrong ocean

[starmac]

We used to hook them up on loaders and such working around the rock crushers without the converters, occasionally one would get hooked up wrong and get smoked, but if they worked they worked well.
We have bought a couple of converters to use one on the log shovel this year, and for some reason they are not holding up. The previous owner had one in it without a converter that worked for the 3 years that I hauled for him.
He has since retired and moved out, I did talk to him for an hour or so yesterday, but it didn't even cross my mind to ask him.

[barbender]

I don't remember how, but you can tap into the system between the 12 volt batteries and pull 12 volts. I believe you just tap into the positive of the first battery. I have to do this myself in my forwarder because I am getting so much noise on my CB I can hardly use it. It us currently (no pun intended😂) powered off of the 12 volt secondary circuit the machine has for the radio, chargers, etc. But when I am crankin' some foot stompin' ol' honky tonk, the bass starts feeding static through my CB- in time😂.
  Whatever the proper method, you can also tap in that way to jump a 24 volt machine, well not so much jump, but charge the batteries one at a time. You'll know when you hook up the jumpers if you did it right😲 Just ask one of our young operators- working by himself on a fine -30°F January morning, he killed the battery on his machine trying to start it. So he hooked his pickup up to jump it. He did it wrong, and smoked a big 100 amp fuse in his pickup (I didn't even know pickups had this fuse).  Now these young guys, some of them come right out of high school, they've never got to spend a day pullin cable or running saw, they sit in these nice CTL machines and they don't really think about how to dress. So this young man was out there in a wind jacket and shoes,  and realizes he has two dead units and no warm clothes😲🤔 Our lowboy guy went and rescued him (thankfully he had cell signal) and chewed him out real good. Now, even if he wants to dress like an idiot, he still has carharts and boots etc. in his pickup.

[barbender]

https://www.google.com/search?q=getting+12+volts+from+a+24+volt+system&client=ms-android-att-us&prmd=vsin&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQwMXc6_3XAhWmzIMKHQa_CUUQ_AUIEygD&biw=360&bih=560&dpr=3#imgrc=VRzGIEzKjMxSOM:

The only problem with doing this, which I have experienced personally, is you will be wired outside of your machine's master switch. I was running another guy's machine once, and he had a 12 volt oven in his cab. I unknowingly bumped the switch and turned it on, and it drained the batteries because it was wired this way.

[starmac]

I used to jump construction equipment on a daily basis, the problem is I have slept since then and CRS has kicked in.

[lopet]

I unknowingly bumped the switch and turned it on, and it drained the batteries because it was wired this way.

How can you drain a battery when the engine is running full throttle all day long and generating power ? Am I missing something ?

[John Mc]

I unknowingly bumped the switch and turned it on, and it drained the batteries because it was wired this way.

How can you drain a battery when the engine is running full throttle all day long and generating power ? Am I missing something ?

I would assume that since he bumped it without knowing, he shut down the machine and walked away.

[John Mc]

Go on amazon and search for "24v to 12v dc converter". You'll find a bunch of them. Make sure the amperage rating is enough to run all of the 12 volt stuff you want to hook up. I'm guessing 10A is enough to run a CB, but it's been a lot of years since I've wired one up (though I think some people run theirs plugged into a cigarette lighter, which often has a 10 Amp fuse on the circuit). You can find 10 amp models for $15-$20, and 30 Amp models for about $30.

[barbender]

Yep, it went dead overnight, even though I shut off the master. Now one thing I'm reading, is that you must be very careful with this method, is that it creates an unbalanced load. If you are drawing 1 amp off the 12 volt, it won't recharge and will overcharge the other battery by the same amount. I don't totally understand, but I saw multiple comments on this on other sites. It wouldn't be a big deal for a CB, but anything drawing a lot of power (like my friends oven) will wreck your batteries. BTW, I got to replace the batteries in his machine.

[snowstorm]

Are any of you using vhf. Instead of a cb?I know your not supposed  to but a lot do.  I run then . They cost about. The same with 5 times the power. Talking vhf Marine.

[starmac]

Actually it is a vhf that I want to hook up.

I know I can buy a converter, but I also know one is not needed to run a radio.

[Magicman]

Most (if not all) units now have a floating ground instead of a chassis ground.  Connect your hot lead to your key controlled +24v and connect the radio ground wire to the strap between the two 12v batteries.

If the radio is chassis grounded, then the radio chassis must be isolated from the equipment frame.  Still run the radio ground to the strap between the two 12v batteries.

[barbender]

Thanks, MM👍🏼

[1270d]

If you haven't bought a radio yet consider buying a 24 v unit.    All of ours machines are 24 but also have 12v circuits.   That's how our radios are tied in.   

[barbender]

I'm tied into my 12v circuit, but I'm getting a lot of interference, to the point of the CB being unusable. A 24v would be a simpler option, if they are priced reasonably.

[1270d]

I bought a radio with an ANL switch.   It eliminates almost all of the noise.   Turn that feature off and yes, pretty much unusable.   I have noticed the thing that interfere s most is when my working lights are on.

[John Mc]

I bought a radio with an ANL switch.   It eliminates almost all of the noise.   Turn that feature off and yes, pretty much unusable.   I have noticed the thing that interfere s most is when my working lights are on.

What kind of lights do you have? HID, by any chance?

[1270d]

They are LED

[barbender]

My radio has the ANL switch, it helps some but not enough.

[Ianab]

Most LED lamps have a switch mode voltage regulator built in so they stay at the same brightness even if the input voltage varies. Some even run off 12-24v with no switch or wiring change.  A poorly designed power supply will create high frequency electrical noise. Same with HIDs that have a high frequency inverter to step UP the voltage.

[DDW_OR]

How does a guy wire a 12 volt cb up in a piece of equipment that is 24 volt?

to convert 24v to 12v, search Ebay for a LM2596S
it will do 3 amps and you can get 5 for $4.09 with free shipping.

I have 17 years of experience in electronic component level repair

[DDW_OR]

How does a guy wire a 12 volt cb up in a piece of equipment that is 24 volt?

to convert 24v to 12v, search Ebay for a LM2596S
it will do 3 amps and you can get 5 for $4.09 with free shipping.

I have 17 years of experience in electronic component level repair

put an on/off switch before the LM2596S. that way you do not drain the battery

..... getting so much noise on my CB I can hardly use it........

add a large capacitor in parallel to the CB power wires.
a large capacitor, 100uF, will act like a storage tank for the voltage to reduce the noise

if that does not work then add smaller capacitor,10nF , in parallel 
keep the capacitors as close to the CB connection as possible


 

[John Mc]

Most LED lamps have a switch mode voltage regulator built in so they stay at the same brightness even if the input voltage varies. Some even run off 12-24v with no switch or wiring change.  A poorly designed power supply will create high frequency electrical noise. Same with HIDs that have a high frequency inverter to step UP the voltage.

We replaced the lights in our garage (including those in the garage door opener) with LED lights. Our remote control opener stopped working. You had to be standing right at the door to get it to work. I didn't make the connection originally, but it was interference from the lights. Replaced with LED lights designed for low RF interference, and the remote started working again.

[woodmaker]

I have wired up radios ( not cb) in payloaders for years,(plowing snow can get really boring in the middle of the night) the same way as DDW- OR  suggested,except I have never used the resistor. It seems to work fine,but my use is only for 8-12 hrs at a time,as often as it snows,not every day.

[DDW_OR]

I have wired up radios ( not cb) in payloaders for years,(plowing snow can get really boring in the middle of the night) the same way as DDW- OR  suggested,except I have never used the resistor. It seems to work fine,but my use is only for 8-12 hrs at a time,as often as it snows,not every day.

FYI, a resistor symbol looks like saw teeth _/\/\/\/\/\_

what i used where Capacitors -][-
hard to do with the keyboard