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This write up is specifically for the Quadzilla / LT500. If your looking for more light then the OEM 55/60 watt light throws, then read on.
First I want to give thanks to Kennerz (from the old site) as it was a lot of hard work to figure out how to get 12volt DC lighting to this old quad.
This post is for riders that want to switch to HID or LED technology for lighting their quads. I night ride in the dunes a lot, so I wanted better lighting for the slow tight turns when night riding at Glamis. No more head light dimming when the engine rev's fall.
Original OEM wiring diagram (2015 - updated):
12 volt mod (2015 - updated):
Here I was using an HID headlight (w/Relay), and 2 LED cube lights. I've changed my current lighting now, but the concept is the same. Using this wiring digram will give you tail light (and LED whip light) power using the OEM low beam switch and headlight(s) using the hi beam.
The general concept is that you can't float the ground on the LT500 the same way you do for a Banshee. Our stator's operate quite a bit differently. One AC wire off the stator grounds to the engine and the other AC wire comes out in the wiring loom feeding the lighting system.
Simple instructions:- IMPORTANT - (11/2015 UPDATE) Make sure the R/R is isolated from the frame when you mount it. I mounted mine to the side of the radiator.
- Out of the stator wiring loom, you take the yellow/red tracer wire and instead of wiring that to the OEM regulator/headlight switch, you wire it to the new R/R (rectifier/regulator). I've been using the Ricky Stator R/R with no issues for about 2 years now. The other AC input to the R/R is the chassy ground.
- You can remove the AC rectifier as the R/R has replaced its function.
- The red and black wires from the R/R go to a battery (DC power).
- Next tie the (+) red battery wire to the headlight input power wire yellow/red tracer wire to the switch. This provides a 12 volt DC (+) power to the switch. The grey wire out of the switch has power in both low and hi beam positions. Run this to your (+) for the tail light (and light whip in my case).
- The white wire out of the switch (low beam + ) was run to my LED cubes (which I later removed).
- The yellow wire out of the switch (hi beam + ) goes to your headlight(s) ..... Or if your running an HID, this wire goes to the trigger of the relay.
- Cut the black/white tracer wire that feeds your tail light up by the fuel tank. Run a black wire from your battery (-) to that cut wire.
- Run a black wire from the battery (-) to the negative side of your headlight(s) ..... Or if your running an HID, this wire goes to the (-) trigger for the relay.
- If your running a relay for HID lighting, you will need a (+) red wire for the power on of the relay.
Now the reason I have my tail/whip lights on the low-beam setting is for when parked on a dune during a night ride. It gives visibility to my quad with out much of a drain on my battery. -
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Great Info, THANK YOU !
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Great info. X2
Where's the pic of your machine?
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Great info. X2
Haven't taken an updated picture lately. I'll add one to my signature.
Where's the pic of your machine? -
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So, what kind of battery and does the system charge the battery when running? Or just for a few hours, then charge battery?
Read this many years ago and need new lights!!Good info. -
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nice info
for led light bars do you need the battery since they need less "juice" to run than comparable power halogen bulbs? i slap a 6" on my 200x honda and it lights up well. i also added a 12" to my yamaha tri z and its a big difference from the oem light bulbs. neither runs a battery, i just made connectors that matched the oem connections. had el diablo make a aluminum bracket that mounts to the triple tree and bolted the light bar down.
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I am running a full size motorcycle/atv battery. One battery model is YTX7L-BS. This is a 7AH battery. As long as you run a lower draw then the charging system, this modification should last a good long time without taxing the lighting coils. OEM lighting coils put out around 80 watts max. My LED light pulls 43watts, LED tail light pulls 3watts, and the LED Whip light pulls 5watts. Figure around 50watts total draw with my system.
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do you have any pics of some night shots with your light on?
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We now need a good hook up on LED lighting now to make this set up more available for other members.
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I am running a full size motorcycle/atv battery. One battery model is YTX7L-BS. This is a 7AH battery. As long as you run a lower draw then the charging system, this modification should last a good long time without taxing the lighting coils. OEM lighting coils put out around 80 watts max. My LED light pulls 43watts, LED tail light pulls 3watts, and the LED Whip light pulls 5watts. Figure around 50watts total draw with my system.
I've got the RS 120Watt coils, will the LED run off the AC system?
I assume I need to at least convert to DC to run the LED like you have even if I don't run a battery?
Thanks -
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great info. i will be doing this for sure
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is there a way to wire it to just charge a battery.
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I am running a full size motorcycle/atv battery. One battery model is YTX7L-BS. This is a 7AH battery. As long as you run a lower draw then the charging system, this modification should last a good long time without taxing the lighting coils. OEM lighting coils put out around 80 watts max. My LED light pulls 43watts, LED tail light pulls 3watts, and the LED Whip light pulls 5watts. Figure around 50watts total draw with my system.
I've got the RS 120Watt coils, will the LED run off the AC system?
I assume I need to at least convert to DC to run the LED like you have even if I don't run a battery?
Thanks
Good question. Yes, from what I've heard/read the LED's don't like AC power. Direct DC? It might work. Once I get my engine running again I can check (pulled the battery for another quad since mine is down.)is there a way to wire it to just charge a battery.
To just charge a battery, you would take the yellow/red tracer wire from the stator and the frame ground for the other RR input. Then just run the Red+ and Black- wires to the battery. This would charge the battery with no lighting.
I'm not sure of the impact if you wanted to splice into the stator yellow/red tracer wire. I would think that as long as your battery was not dead and wanting lots of amps/watts, then it should work. This would let you charge a DC 12 volt battery and still run your lighting off of AC.
What? Do you want to have a portable battery charger when riding?
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i am putting a fan on my 500 for the dunes. will run the stock lights off it also
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Many of the LED lightbars run AC current just fine, in fact, there is a company selling LED lightbars specifically designed to run on low wattage AC current from a quad, complete with handlebar mounts and everything (check out http://www.bajadesigns.com to find ATV specific LED lightbars).
I say many and not all because those LED's are expensive....and I'd hate to say that all of them work with AC power and then hear about someone frying their $600 lightbar because of that generalization.
Here's what I posted about it on the old website in reference to LED advantages:
*links don't work anymore, sorry. Might try lazerstar's main website and navigate on your own though*
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-they don't need to be warmed up, instant on (HID's spike during warmup, LED's don't)
-they don't need any cool down time to restart (some HID don't need cool down time, but some do or they won't restart at all)
-they don't need a battery
-they require less electricity to run (keep in mind you have to charge the battery AND run the lights on any HID setup)
-they're as easy to install as a standard halogen light
-they have a better pattern
-no charging system or rectifier is needed, use existing wiring
A single LED housing can be set up to provide multiple patterns (flood/driving/spot all in one).
Or, mount a flood light on the frame and a spot/driving light on the handlebars.
http://www.lazerstar.net/blog/?p=243/
http://www.lazerstar.net/application...-led-light-bar
A stock stator won't be enough to power HID lights, you'll have to go with bigger lighting coils (I think Ricky Stator is your only option at 130W, $40)
100W of LED light is going to be like two 55W HID's, and I don't think it's possible for a 130W charging system to run two 55W HID's.
That would equate to ten 10W LED's, or 33 3W LED's.
For 3W LED's, you can use these two together:
http://www.lazerstar.net/brands/lx-l...1054_1059_1089
http://www.lazerstar.net/brands/lx-l...1054_1059_1089
Or, you might actually get by with 40 LED's (120W), but that'll bring it real close to the 130W limit:
http://www.lazerstar.net/brands/lx-l...1054_1059_1089
For 10W LED's:
100W total: http://www.lazerstar.net/brands/lx-l...1054_1059_1088
120W total: http://www.lazerstar.net/brands/lx-l...1054_1059_1088
Or, use 2-3 of these:
http://www.lazerstar.net/brands/lx-l...1054_1059_1088
Only downside is that they're currently ridiculously expensive, give it a few years and they'll be just as cheap as HID's.
You might find them cheaper elsewhere on the net though...
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Now, if you don't want to bother with AC powered LED's (or you don't have lighting coils etc.) then you still have another option...use a big lipo battery.
A 5,000mah 3S battery will run a 200W lightbar for 15-20min (that's a LOT of light, and not a big battery).
-3 of those batteries will give you about an hour of runtime
-100W lightbar will last 30 min on a single battery
...you can probably do the math past that point.
Grab a few batteries here:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__86__85__LiPo_LiFe_NiMH_Battery-Li_Poly_All_brands_.html
Here's a cheap 5,000mah battery ($25)
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__6501__ZIPPY_Flightmax_5000mAh_3S1P_15C.html
B-grade lipo (cheaper, but won't last as long)
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__18507__B_Grade_5800mAh_3S_25C_Lipoly_Battery.html -
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man.... I Am Not too Sure yet what i am going to run for lights on mine yet, I think maybe 6 SST-90 LED Lights Sould Be Nice!
I Am Going to make a Custom LED Cluster Total Lumens should be 10,000 or so ( I am A Flashaholic And have like 75 flashlights in the house!!! "And i am Afraid of the Dark" 
Also Going to Run a lifepo4 battery -
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LiFe, why?
Only thing the LiFe batteries have going for them now are that they're more resistant to overcharging and neglect, more compact form, and the cell voltage matches up to a 12V (14.4V nominal) charging system.
Lipo's have them beat hands down in all other aspects (charge and discharge rates, less weight, less voltage sag, cheaper, etc.), they're even making them in 18650 sizes to replace the heavy LiFe counterparts.
Lipo's are getting 130C discharge rates now with a 15C charge rate...that means you can theoretically discharge the entire battery in 30 seconds and then recharge it in 4 minutes without harming the battery.
LiFe batteries just can't get close to that.
If you're planning on a charging system then LiFe is the way to go, a normal lipo will catch fire under a 14.4V charge (yeah, I've tried it!).
Another tip...if you have a 3S lipo, the peak voltage is 12.69V, whereas a lead acid car battery is 12.6V.
That means there's no possible way to overcharge a lipo hooked directly up to a lead acid battery so long as the car isn't running.
The current will flow in at max charge rate, and keep in mind that the lead acid isn't pushing the amperage in...the lipo is leeching it out of the lead acid.
Therefore, it will only take in what it can handle until it's fully charged (or right under 1/10V of full charge).
I can fully charge a 4,000mah battery in about 10min...(it runs at 40A until about 75% charge, then it drops rapidly to 10A or less)which would mean that I'd need a lipo charger capable of pushing a minimum of 40A.
The best part about it...I can also hook several batteries up at a time.
My batteries charge up long before I discharge them playing around with RC toys.
Keeping that in mind, if you had 4 batteries (one to run the lights, one as a spare to take with you, two recharging at camp) you'd never have to wait on charging batteries.
Might need to use an isolated spare battery to avoid draining you truck down during an all night ride, or stop for a half hour and let the truck idle without the lipos connected.
That's what I'm planning on doing, soon as I convince myself that an LED lightbar of any size is worth the premium they're asking for it.
What's your plan for the lightbar?
Seems like The XM-L would be a better choice given its efficiency and doesn't need a huge reflector.
Those big chips need big reflectors (I can imagine 6 toilet plunger reflectors all mounted to the handlebars LOL), unless you're going for more of a flood beam which is probably better for a quad anyway.
12 XM-L emitters should give you 10-12,000 lumens, pulling a max of 36A at 2.8V.
You could run something like that for 1/2 hour on a 4,000mah battery
I wonder what the LED lightbar manufacturers are using on their stuff?
Oh, and if you could figure out how to get 120V power...here's a 3,000 lumen single module complete with heat sink!:
http://www.cree.com/led-components-and-modules/products/modules/non-integrated/lmh2 -
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Wow WTK, you sure provided a lot of information!
I'll continue to use a 7AH motorcycle battery with the RS RR. Been working fine for me now for over 2 years. I don't have to worry about charging batteries or being caught at night with a dead battery. Some of our night rides we'll leave near dark and come back LATE in the night. This is at least 2 hours of ride time. -
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Ride till the sun comes up, and leave before it gets too hot....such is the way of the nocturnal desert rats LOL
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Summer time riding Tex, thats our motto!
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So basically Tex, Your saying we can run a AC LED with no battery, on stock wire set up and get the equivalent of a 55W HIDs as long as we run the RS 130W coils?
What about if we ran a 5,000Mah RC battery and looped it in to the system to charge, could that be done fairly easily?
I don't mind carrying a small battery as long as I don;t have to charge it manually and it does not add a lot of weight.
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Some LED lights are designed to specifically work on AC voltage, so yes. Hook it up to the wires that went to your headlight and you're all set provided you don't exceed the watt capability of your lighting coils.
LED's and HID's are very close to the same efficiency in producing light, so if you have a 55W LED it should light up about the same as a 55W HID (which is several orders of magnitude brighter than the oem headlight). Problem with the HID is that on startup it pulls way more than the rated 55W, hence the need for a battery and charging system that's over-rated for the continuous current draw.
With a 130W coil, you could easily light up a 100W LED lightbar (provided the rs coils really are 130W) without the need for any electrical modifications to the quad other than the coils.
It's ridiculously simple and ridiculously bright, but there's a catch...they're ridiculously expensive.
My suggestion is to keep a battery on the quad, tucked away, with a bypass plug.
You have one for the stator and one for the battery, so if something happens to the stator or you want to run the lights while the quad isn't...the battery will give you some reserve lighting when you switch plugs.
Don't bother with a charging system unless you foresee using the lights often and carrying a spare battery isn't enough.
A charging system is a lot of work, and definitely worth it, but way overkill unless you want to run HID's or light up the camp site. -
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So is there any reason I cant run a regulator/rectifier without a battery?. i dont really want one bouncing around as i will be hammering my zilla through the woods
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It depends on what you're trying to light.
Most HID's require more current starting up than what the stator can handle, even if it's only a 50W HID.
On top of that, the stator doesn't produce a full charge at low RPM, so as soon as you drop down below a certain RPM needed to maintain 50W, the ballast in the HID might be damaged but at the very least it will likely stop working.
For example...you're ripping through the trails and come across a technical section (a washout or tight spot) that you stop for a second to find the best way through...at that point your HID stops working.
However, an LED light doesn't have those problems.
If they draw 50W, that's all they're going to draw regardless.
If they have reduced power (idling) then they'll simply dim.
Either way, a battery is a good idea, even if it's just a small one.
You can find some really small lifepo4 packs that you can literally clamp to the frame and they'll have more capacity than a motorcycle battery. -
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Just burned through all this again and wanted to ask a question.
Anyone that has done this have you ever checked to see what the lighting coils are putting out in volts in dc power after the rectifier? Checked with a volt meter. To see if the lighting coils are charging the battery?
Had a friend wire up something on his 250r for his MSD and he said he floated the stator to the ac/dc regulator and runs a 12V battery. He checked the amperage output when the bike is running and it goes from 12V to 13.6V+/-. From running MSD he is able to check the amperage. Says it on the computer screen.
I am wondering if a battery is even needed to run the LED light bar when the bike is running. I could see using it to make sure the lights dont cut on and off at idle. LED dont need the startup amps like an HID light.
I will be doing this and was just wondering if anyone has checked it.
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