Sat nav if i buy one for a car which is 12 volt can i use it in a lorry which are 24 volt?

Answer 1

Depends what truck you are driving,some rigs already have 12volt ciggy lighters,otherwise you will have to fit a voltage dropper to convert 24v to 12v.Most electrical stores sell them.

Answer 2

Check to see if the power requirement for your unit specifies 12 volts, Negative Ground. Then see if the lorry is negative ground by looking to see which terminal of the battery connects to the frame of the vehicle, if it is a negative terminal connecting to the frame, this is negative ground. If a positive battery terminal connects to the frame, this is positive ground.

If the lorry uses two 12v batteries and is negative ground, you could connect to the positive terminal of the battery which has the negative terminal grounded to get 12v power for the sat nav but the disadvantage to doing this is that the batteries will eventually become unbalanced. This is the "cheap, quick and dirty" way to do it and if the sat nav doesn't draw much power and isn't left on whe you don't need it the batteries probably won't get out of balance enough to cause a problem for a long time.

The Proper way to do it is to buy a voltage converter that takes 24v from the batteries and reduces it to 12v to power the sat nav. You will need to know the maximum amperage required by the sat nav (this info should be found in the owners manual or could be easily measured with a meter) and buy a converter rated for this amount or more. These units should be available from a repair shop but I'm sure you could find one online.

Since the sat nav probably doesn't use much power, another option may be to just get a 12v rechargeable battery (I would suggest a gel-cell type which will not spill acid if tipped) that you could pull out and charge when it runs low.

Answer 3

The only way this would work is if you had two 12 volt battaries wired in series. This would equal 24 volts.

One 12 volt battery will not begin to turn over a 24 volt starter. Even if you push started the vehicle, the alternator / generator (24 volt) would fry / cook the 12 volt battery to death.

Answer 4

Just one thing, with buying a car sat nav it wont take into account things lorrys cant pass, eg low or weak bridges, roads with weight restrictions etc. Dont know about the voltage thing, just something you need to consider.

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

I use my Tom Tom one in both my private car 12v system and my works semi-tractor DAF 85 420 24v system.

Answer 7

buy a tom tom and get a cheap inverter.
you can plug anything into the inverter without the need for any cigarette socket connections. i do it all the time.

Answer 8

Only if its designed to accept both 12v and 24v inputs. Obviously