Adding lights

[musselmark]

I am thinking of adding an a 50 watt 11" LED light bar to the front of my 2010 Vector and wiring it in with a relay so it comes on with the high beams. Will this overload the electrical system? I have one on my quad and it is great.

 

[blueironranger]

You should have enough to spare, I've got a pair of 18w led floods in the front of my Phazer with no ill effects. The Vector engine was also used in touring sleds with extra hand warmers. I wouldn't be using other accessories though while running it. I just wired mine up to a switch and mainly use it for Off-Trail excursions, the floods work great for that and throw enough light for ~40mph speed

 

[4strokeluvr111]

50 watts is quite a bit IMO. You might want to run a trickle charger on it after you are done riding for a day.

Reason I say this is last Saturday it never got above 0F where i was riding. I have a heated seat and a heated vest and was running them on setting 3 out of 5 pretty much all day. Was running the hand and thumb warmers on middle or higher all day too. The sled sat outside overnight and the temp dropped to -19F. The next morning the sled turned 1X and that was it. This was my 14 LTX that is on it's 2nd season. I jumped it with my 05 Vector (which started fine) that doesn't have all the extras my 14 does.

So I know that I was putting a load on the battery but I never thought that it wouldn't start the next day. I will carry a trickle charger with my on all trips from now on.

 

[THKSNOW]

If you're still running the stock headlight you (at 5ow each), you could convert to HID's (at 35w each) and then have the "room" for about any accessory you want to add (and have real headlights that are 20x brighter). Changing to HIDs I run two 10w driving lights, 7" Garmin, at least 300 LEDs, hot grips & electric shield with NO problems. The 10w driving lights is plenty, each of them produce 900 lumens.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

You can add just about anything you want to the electrical system. The question is how long will the battery last?

 

[musselmark]

I just checked my service manual and the normal charging output is 14.0 volts, 38.5 amps at less than 5000rpm (539 watts). Are those little 10 watt leds really that good, I was also thinking of doing that but with 40 watt 6" rectangle led spot lights on each side.

 

[THKSNOW]

You can add just about anything you want to the electrical system. The question is how long will the battery last?

The (gel) battery in my last sled was over 4 years old with the same lights etc.; over 12,000 miles. Sold it to my son and he's running it with same battery.

 

[THKSNOW]

Those little 10w lights are actually as bright or brighter then my HIDs.

Check superbrightleds.com

 

[steiner]

The battery can suffer when you overload the system but it only suffers because the stator can not keep up with the demand. I would be hesitant to load up another 50 watts if running the stock headlights.
With a HID kit you may not need that extra 50w light.
I added 10w Solo lights like THKSNOW has with my HID's. They work great. I have mine turned to the side slightly so they shine into the corners.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

The (gel) battery in my last sled was over 4 years old with the same lights etc.; over 12,000 miles. Sold it to my son and he's running it with same battery.

If you sit down and put a pen to it you're really not pulling that many watts. Plus it sounds as if you have a battery that can handle the load.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

The battery can suffer when you overload the system but it only suffers because the stator can not keep up with the demand. I would be hesitant to load up another 50 watts if running the stock headlights.
With a HID kit you may not need that extra 50w light.
I added 10w Solo lights like THKSNOW has with my HID's. They work great. I have mine turned to the side slightly so they shine into the corners.

I changed to 50W HID's, run a seat heater and a vest heater, Garmin GPS, 60'ish LED's, handle and thumb warmers and like my post stated, my <2 year old stock Yamaha battery didn't start the sled the next day when it was -12F. Next season I WILL be going to a larger battery.

I like the idea of those 10W lights you guys have!

 

[blueironranger]

I will say I've had good luck with the Chinese Light bars, I'm not a huge fan of buying Chinese knock offs but I have a pair of Rigid Duallys and 18w Chinese knockoffs I put on my sled are just as bright for 10% of the price. I also have a set on my wheeler and they have taken a beating this past summer and a few drownings and work perfectly. Recently though some of the lights have been coming with knockoff CREE leds which are no where near as bright or efficient as genuine Cree and you have to look very close at the individual led to see the differences. Look for lights advertised with Cree XBD chips, I haven't seen those chips copied yet.

 

[BrapYamylife]

I run a phone charger, rsi heated grips an 8" 36watt light bar with holgen high beams and 8k hid low beams along with a heated shield cord on my phazer. No bad effects yet and the light bar is the best light on the trail. My bar was 20 bucks off amazon hooked up directly to the highbeams

 

[yooper1]

I have some on my 2011 Apex. I mounted them on the reflector mounts. No drilling etc..

 

[musselmark]

Do you find those little lights effective?