I have an AC 650LE and I absolutely love it except for the headlights. They don't seem that bright compared to other ATVs that I have owned. My buddies 700 EFI's headlights are brighter than mine even when he's behind me. I was at an auto parts store and noticed that the 893 bulb has the same plug as mine and will fit into my headlight with no mods but is 38watts. The stock 880 bulb is only 27watts. I was thinking of replacing all four bulbs with the 893 bulbs. Does anyone have a good reason why I shouldn't do this? AC makes an aftermarket lighting system for there ATVs that adds two 55watt lights and is availiable for the 650. This will add way less power draw than the external lighting that AC sells. Has anyone else done this and how well did it work?

Rich.

 

Wookie;
Only thing I can think of is to make sure the fuse on the headlight circuit can handle the extra current. If not upgrade the fuse to large enough not to blow. Of course you could just put the new bulbs in and turn them on and see if it blows, then keep putting bigger fuses in until it stops. That's the old hot rodder way, then again if you know some basic math you could figure the extra amps required and put that value of fuse in plus 5 to cover the surge when you turn them on.

 

watts = amps x volts
W = A x V


240,000 W / 1,000 = 240 kW

Volt-amps = Sq. root of 3 x voltage (volts) x current (amperes)

watts = amps x volts
A x V = W


MAN school sucks but it is usefull! To bad i can't learn how to spell. or tell the difference between 57 and 41! i need help!

 

You are young grasshopper, just wait until you get old, if you do, and still make stupid mistakes. Sucks worse than you can imagine and you will also find out you don't heal as fast or at all after the stupid physical mistakes.

 

I tried some of those 55watt driving lights from wal mart once, and they sucked. Weak beam, and they were not waterproof by any means. So I just made back up lights out of them. Rigged up a solid mount, and then spent another whopping $19 at wal-mart for a 100 watt 6" spotlight. No problem seeing with that dude on. I've got a shot of it in my yahoo pics from when I still had my AC 500. When I sold it, I put it on my uncle's 454, but my cousin rolled it last month and totalled out the spotlight. So it looks like another $19 to replace that. Amazingly cheap for what it did for lighting things up. I didn't use it all the time or anything, but in a place that I needed unlimited visibility, it was there for me. I'm sure it would drain out your battery if you ran something like that all the time.

 

Andy, I cheched out your pix to see this light setup. Hey, I like it!

One of the things I noticed right off the bat when we got our quads home (brandy new) was that on both of them, the left headlight seems to be aimed up to the sky compared to the one(s) on the right. We don't ride at night so I didn't give it a second thought, but, now that there's this talk about lights I may have to look into at least aiming them correctly. If they're as dim as some say, we'll need all the light we can get, dim or not, aimed toward the front.

 

I've never had any issues on a quad with lights unless I was screaming down a dirt road at night. Then they don't have a very good range for the speed you are going. Thats why I put the big light on the AC, so I could see way up ahead. Wish I had some kind of setup like that on the Grizzly.

 

Thanks guys for the replies. I tried the lights this weekend and didn't have to do a thing but plug in the new 38 watters. The fuse didn't blow and they were much brighter. Someone said that the extra heat that the new larger bulbs would generate might cause the headlight housings to melt but I didn't have any problems. I also went overboard and installed a set of PIAA 540 lights. They look wicked cool and I wired them up so that they will not turn on when the high beams are on. They are 55 watts each and create daylight infront of you when on. I only use them when I absolutely need them because I'm afraid that they will drain the battery. And last but not least I installed a 55 watt rectangular KC floodlight for a reverse light. It is wired through two relays so that it will only come on when the the headlights are on and the ATV is in reverse. But it does work automatically and is one of the most usefull things I have ever done to my 650LE.

Rich.

 

Thats some pretty good wiring. I always wired my accesory lights so that the power to their switch came from the winch cylenoid. That way, it would only work when the key was turned on (which is how I had the winch set up). That way I couldn't leave a switch on and run the battery down.

 

Post some pics for us. It sounds like your machine looks pretty cool with those lights.