[idiggplants]

Hello everyone! I have a question about the abilities of my 91 trxr300fw's charging system.

Basically the stock lights are pitiful. I do 90% of my riding at night. I have a perfectly good set of floodlights from the local hardware store that I want to mount on it. I am concerned about overtaxing the alternator/regulator however. So I hooked them up & did a test with the multimeter.

Quad off the battery reads 12.6v.
Quad on lights off 13.7.
Quad on stock lights on 13.4.
Quad on aftermarket lights on 13.4.
Quad on all lights on, 12.9.

I never plan on having both stock & aftermarket lights on. Their will be a double throw double pole switch that only allows one or the other to be on.

But even still, I'm showing a charge coming to the battery with everything on. & nearly the same charge between stock & aftermarket.

But, I'm still concerned. Mostly because I'm not an electrician, & don't really know what I'm talking about. Haha. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with amps as well. Something I know very little about.

So what do you think? Are there other tests I can run? Is it no good for sure? Am I in the clear?

Also, what size fuse should I get to run inline for these lights?

Thanks so much!

 

[Pain]

What wattage are the new lights? What wattage are the old lights?

 

[idiggplants]

Ohh, I'm sorry. They are 55 watts each. There are 2.

 

[Pain]

What wattage are the old lights?

 

[idiggplants]

the stockers? sorry, im really not sure. not even sure how id find out, but ill look around in my haynes manual when i get a sec.

i know one thing though, they are MUCH dimmer. but the aftermarket ones are are halogen. the stockers are incandescent.

 

[Pain]

15amp fuse.

Get a battery tender because I doubt your charging system is capable of supplying those new lights so you're going to be draining the battery. New lights will pull 10 amps.

You should use HID instead.

 

[Helmut]

I agree with Pain. I've tried to run 55 watt halogen bulbs in a Fourtrax 300 before and they will eventually drain the battery. The stock headlights are only 25 watts.

I know what you mean about the lights being too dim, that's why I tried to run 55 watt halogen bulbs.

 

[idiggplants]

That's a little surprising. I'd figure that If I'm not getting enough charge with the lights on then the voltage across the terminals wouldn't read so high. Maybe someone can explain what I'm missing there. And I do have a tender but I'm more worried that if its not charging the battery I'm also over-taxing the alternator.


Thanks for the fuse rating.

Do hids pull less draw? I'd love em. But these lights were 15 bucks. Hids are a touch more

Thanks a lot guys for your replies. I appreciate the info very much.

Ohh, & I just wanted to point out that it is a 91 & not a 92 as the title states. Shouldn't make a difference tho I suppose.

 

[Pain]

It's the magic of electrons why you are getting those higher readings, but you still run the risk of draining your battery and there is a risk even if slight that you could damage the charging system.

HID's are generally rated to say something like [supplies the equivalent light as a XX watt halogen] and it will also give you a real wattage rating. So, it might say 35Watts. Equivalent to 50 watt halogen. That means it pulls 35watts.

 

[Helmut]

That's a little surprising. I'd figure that If I'm not getting enough charge with the lights on then the voltage across the terminals wouldn't read so high. Maybe someone can explain what I'm missing there.

I really don't know how to explain that, but I've tried it and it drained the battery. If you take short rides and then keep the battery tender on the battery when not riding, it might be OK. But on long rides at night with the lights continuously on, the lights would start getting dimmer. The longer I rode, the dimmer they would get.

You probably checked the battery voltage with the ATV at idle. I have a feeling that when you get up to cruising speed the charging output might drop off some. That's the only thing that I can think of. Whatever the cause, they wouldn't work for me.

 

[idiggplants]

thanks guys.

here are the lights i got...

12 Volt Halogen Vehicle Work Light

ill have to keep an eye on em.

im pretty sure you can get different wattage halogen bulbs that have the same socket. ill see if i can get 35 watters. sure they would still be brighter than stock. or maybe just run one.

thanks again.

 

[Helmut]

Those use H3 bulbs. You should be able to get 35 watt H3 bulbs and those would probably work fine and be a lot brighter than the stock lights, since the stock lights are only 25 watts and aren't halogen.

 

[idiggplants]

Sweet. I think that's exactly what I'll do. I have a long weekend trip coming up so I may stick with the 55's & see how the charging system holds up. Maybe I'll get lucky. If not, I'll switch to the 35's.

 

[Pain]

It's difficult to say exactly what might be happening electrically without looking at it with some test equiptment, more than just a volt meter. But, because the battery while charged will sort of mask any load effects to the charging system, it would start to put more and more stress on the system as the battery discharged.

If you ran those same tests with a discharged battery you'd of course get much different results.

Another thing I've suggested before to someone with a similar requirement is to use a second battery for the extra lights. Charge it every night and then when it dies you'd still have your stock lights to use to get you home and the new lights wouldn't be on the stock system causing you problems.

 

[idiggplants]

Thanks! Do you know of any other tests I can do to it? I have a decent multimeter. I don't like lacking confidence. The battery dies, the battery dies. I can kick it over quite easy. The alternator goes & I lose spark
& a way home!

 

[Pain]

Yes, but you don't have the equiptment to do it, and I wouldn't be able to tell you off the top of my head how to do it without putting pen to paper and figuring it all out.

You're much better off to just find the specs of the charging system and then stick to it. It is probably 5 amps, or something like that. 50 watts will be just below 5 amps, so with the stock lights turned on then the machine won't be charging the battery. Draw any more than 5 amps and you are pulling current from the battery.

 

[idiggplants]

going to get some 35 watt bulbs this evening and then mount the lights. also going to look for some replacement for the a3603 bulbs. which are complete junk. i know there arent other options that have the same base, but im going to attempt to find a way to fab something up.

ideally id like to find some 25 watt halogen bulbs or even new housings that fit in the same spot.

 

[Helmut]

I don't remember if those old 350X 3-wheeler bulbs have the same base or not, but if they do, those bulbs would be a great replacement bulb. Those bulbs were extremely bright. The reflector and lens could have had a lot to do with the brightness, though, but they were a higher wattage. High beam was 36.5 watts and low beam was 35 watts.

 

[idiggplants]

yeah, ill look into that option. im not concerned with the plug setup, i can rig something up there, im more concerned with the base. we shall see. i think the 35w bulbs in the flood lights should do the trick. the 55 watters were waaay more than enough.

 

[Helmut]

The Yamaha Warrior 350, Raptor 660, Grizzly 600, and Grizzly 660 all have 30 watt bulbs with the same base as the Fourtrax 300, but that's only 5 watts more than the stock bulbs.