It appears older Ranchers do not have brake lights from the factory.
Has anyone here added a brake light to their rancher? If so, did you use a banjo switch or replace the brake lever on the handle bar with one that has a switch?
I’m thinking about doing this on the 97 300 I’m working on. I have a 500 Foreman master cylinder and brake lever, which has two microswitches built into it. I have one rigged up so it will start in gear, and thought about rigging up the other as a brake light
I believe i'm going to do a separate brake light. It will only function as a brake light, and obviously be brighter than the running light in the rear.
My 02 also does not have a brake light. I've been considering using a stand alone switch like dirt bikes used to have. Just a switch mounted somewhere to the rear brake lever.
I finally got around to installing a brake lamp on my 01 Rancher 350 FE ES.
Here are some pics. The most important part was the brake lever switch which is (Part # 35340-HR0-305) I installed the lamp on the rear flip down storage door. You'll also need a screw to mount the switch. (Part # 93893-04020-07) The screw will be a little long, but cut it back with a hack saw if you need to. This switch mounts on the bottom of the hydraulic lever, or the top of the non hydraulic lever. If you mount it on the non hydraulic lever, youll need another part. It's a square block looking washer that places the switch at the right height. Honda calls it a collar. ( Part # 35345-HF1-830)
I didn't use a relay. Just an inline fuse holder and the switch with some 18ga wire. No need for a relay on such a low current application in my opinion. It's wired as switched hot.
I actually got my 1157 bulb sockets in the mail yesterday (slow boat from china, but were only about .50 each).
I was going to try putting a new bulb socket for a dual filament bulb in the stock taillight housing. If that works I could hook up the factory tail light wire and ground wire, and then just run a hot wire from switch to the third wire (brake light) on the socket.
Jeep .... Is something like this what your aiming for ? I think i got this image here in the forums... Can't tell ya what honda model this came off of... I think maybe it's an ex model.. As you can see the guy added two more lights . Looks like wedge type bulbs ... I don't believe there's enough room for those big 1157 bulbs... But ya get the idea.
Yep. I wondered if an 1157 might be too big, but for .50 each I figured I'd get a couple of sockets and see. If it won't fit (and I have a feeling you're right, and the bulb will be too big) then I might look for smaller bulbs and drill on either side of the tail light bulb and add them in.
Is it the same oem light housing as goldfishcb ? Posted ? If so.... Looks like it might work, however... The depth of tho housing maybe to shallow ? But .... I bet wedge bulbs would work... And if you go with superbright (brand) led wedge bulbs they put off good bright light. I'll post up a pic of the wedge bulb i use if you want me to.
Looks like a better idea than what I did. I thought about adding a bulb with the extra filament and just have to add power from switch. That would be the even cleaner option. Let us know how it works out!
Here's what I threw together this morning. The "push and turn" light sockets didn't hold the bulbs very tight, and the plastic housing on the tail light was too thick for the "turn and lock" tab on the socket to hold the socket and bulb in place, so I simply used superglue to both hold the bulb in the socket, and the socket into the tail light housing. Will require snapping everything loose IF I ever need to replace a bulb, but the sockets were only a buck or so, and it will be easy enough to pop them loose from the housing.
Turned our really well.
Now I have to wire them in. I'm thinking I might run the power wire for the LED's to the key'd power wire I have the winch contactor plugged into, and run a ground from handlebar switch back to the lights. That way I don't have a hot wire running all the way to the back of the machine. What you think @retro?
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