JP - I agree, removing the voltage protection is not a good idea. The dc-dc converters seem to be a good idea, but I've had mixed success with some of them cutting out sooner than expected (low battery conditions), some that stop regulating if amperage gets too high (like on a power cycle), and others that can handle both low battery and high amperage but are too inefficient (fans, etc).
I came up with a solution for my problem for now.
I use West Mountain Radio Rigrunners (
http://www.powerwerx.com/west-mountain- ... -4005.html ) to distribute my voltage and protect my devices on solar installs. Makes for a nice clean, easy-to maintain and troubleshoot install. They go up to 38 volt, even though they don't say that in the descriptions.
I bought some radio shack 276-1143 diodes - 200V 3 amp (
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062578 ). I crimped a red Anderson powerpole connector (
http://www.powerwerx.com/anderson-power ... -sets.html ) on each end of the diode after shortening the diode leads a little bit. Then I put that inline between my Rigrunner positive terminal and the cable that feeds my Mikrotik device. I label the end that goes to the Rigrunner - the side of the diode without the white stripe - with yellow tape so I don't end up putting it in backwards later.
I use one for each device. Drops the voltage around .6 - .8 volts, enough to give me the margin I need on my radios. On routerboards that are very close by and don't have a voltage drop due to ethernet cable length, I put two of these devices in line to drop it 1.2v. I'm cleaning out the local radioshacks and building a bunch of these for future use.
Total cost - about $2.75/device.
I still do hope that Mikrotik just makes it easy in the future and engineers for 30+ volts.
Randy