hi my church has a mci charter bus that has electrical problems. it was in a wreck and the whole front side were the electrical box is was damadged. we have the lights hooked up direct to the battery but it seems it is drawing to much power out and killing the batterys. my question is is there some kind of regulator i could hook up for the lights till we can fix the problem.

 

Hello,

I moved the post to its own thread.

Is there a switch for the lights?
Is a relays used for the lights?
Could this relays be defective (always making contact) ?

Greetings,
Bertus

 

When you hooked the headlights up, did you hook the "HIGH BEAMS" up instead of the "low beams"? If so, you would be drawing more current. You would definitely want a switch on the line to turn the lights off during idle and daytime. If you have 2 sets of headlights, both on high beam, you would be using alot of power. You may not have enough to start the bus if not left running long enough to recharge the battery against such a large draw.

You may have additional problems, not just the lights. If you have a short in the area where the box was, you would just be draining the battery to ground.

 

Does the charging system still work?

If not, park the bus until it can be fixed.

The point of low and high beams being turned on at the same time is a good one. Usually, it is just one or the other.