best 6 to 12 converter

OLD AS I

OLD AS I

Senior Member
Am maintaining my 6 volt positive ground system however I'd like to be able to have 12 volt available for an accessory in the future, what's the best converter and is there one that will convert and have the 12 volt system negative ground ?
There must be the same topic on here somewhere but I never get anywhere when I do a search
 
As long as you keep te accesories isolated from chassi ground polarity isn´t a big issue.
Remember that with a conversion you will have twice the current draw from the car plus losses in the converter.
So if the 12v unit says 2Amps it will draw 4A minimum from the 6V system.
What i want to say is big audiosystems or other high current draws are not realistic for 2 reasons converters are expensive and generators won´t handle it.
 
I bought one from Amazon, I don't remember the brand, and hooked it up, through a switch, to the cigar lighter in my pickup so the wife can charge her phone and we can run our old Garmen when we travel. Works great for what we need.
 
Inverters are available but, as mentioned, you do have to run both a power wire and a ground wire from this source to the load device to keep it an isolated circuit. Used to run 12-volt DC to 115-volt AC inverters on field trucks back when I worked the seismograph trail.

The little 12-volt maintenance free alarm & trailer brake batteries only cost about 16 bucks and hold a pretty good charge. I use two of those to power my old rotor balance machine to get the 24-volt then I use the same batteries back on the trailer brakes when I go pick stuff up.
 
I have a ' vintage ' picnic basket in my trunk. Inside the picnic basket lives a 12 volt RV battery. I have a Sony 12 volt CD player in the glove box. Yes, I do have to recharge the ' picnic basket ' battery once or twice a summer, but if I need 12 volts, I have it ! every thing else is original 6 volt. May be an alternative for your 12 volt need.
 
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