12 volt truck 24 volt radio

[macibell111]

I have a 12 volt m37 ,and want to run my 24 volt radio,can that be done ,or do I have to do something to it to make it work ,any ideas would be much appreciated..

[397thBG]

What radio set do you have?

[w30bob]

Hi macibell,

You can't do it easily. First problem is you have no way to charge the 24v battery (or pair of 12v batteries in series), as your 12V electrical alternator will only put out 14.4V. I'm not seeing an easy way to use 2 12V batteries in series anyway. Even if you isolated the grounds between the one battery and the ground for the radio, as soon as you turned the radio on you'd be providing a 24V path of power to the engine. I guess the only thing to do would be to install a single 24V battery along side your 12V and use the 24V exclusively for the radio. Then you'd have to charge it when you get home. I have no idea how many amp-hrs a typical Army radio consumes, so the 24V battery might power the radio for days or only hours....depending on power draw. Another alternative might be to have the radio converted to 12V operation.....if that's possible.

regards,
bob

[Monkey Man]

Mac.....
a 12v dc to 24V dc inverter unit will suffice, you can buy them in various amperages, I recommend buying twice what you need, EG. radio draws 5 amps max, buy the 10 amp inverter...

MM

[macibell111]

I have a r68 radio and the inverter sounds like a good idea ,the 24 volt battery sounds like a pain, I dont have the room for another battery and it is just a novelty,but I appreciate the input on this matter,thanks guys....jack

[397thBG]

If you have an RT-68 radio set, get a PP-109 power supply. It is the 12 volt input version for this set. The PP-112 power supply is 24 volt input, The 12volt power supply pulls about 12 amps, the 24 volt pulls around 8 amps. You can get the PP-109 12 volt supply for around $30 plus shipping. A 12 to 24 volt convertor is going to cost more plus it will pull 16 amps to run the radio.