i took my '01 arctic cat 500 to uwharrie for a night run last week and determined that i need additional lights mounted high enough to be able to see over rocks before i climb them. i mounted two 55 watt square lights on my front rack but they just dont seem bright enough. i want to put two kc 6" round lights in their place. the problem is that they are 100 watts each and the alternator is capable of 300 watts. 200 for the kc's, 70 for the factory lights, and that would leave only 30 for the fan before it would start draining the battery. does the fan consume less than that or do i need to stay with less powerful lights?
thanks.

 

Perhaps you could disable the factory lights, switch them so when the KCs are on, the regular ones are off.

 

I had a 2000 400 4x4 that I mounted 2-13volt 100 watt aircraft landing lights on and never had any trouble with the battery or running the battery down even when I didn't have it running. I did put individual switchs on them so if I didn't want them both on at the same time I could switch one off. I traded for a 2001 500 manual 2 weeks ago and moved my homemade light bar over to it and so far haven't had any trouble. I also ride alot at night or early morning for hunting, trapping, and goofing off so I use them alot.

www.angelfire.com/ks2/kansastrapper/

 

> I had a 2000 400 4x4 that I mounted 2-13volt 100 watt aircraft landing lights on and never had any trouble with the battery or running the battery down even when I didn't have it running

thats exactly what im looking for. thanks.

 

Just a reminder that the 300 watt rating is around 3000rpms (I think). So unless you are doing some serious riding keeping the RPMs up you will be over working your alternator. I'm sure a new alternator isn't cheap. This is just a guess but I'm sure the fan will pull atleast 50-60 watts. Suggestion: If you are going to do it try hooking them up so that when they are on your factory lights are off, like the other two people before me said.If you were to add a relay; double pole( or 4-pole so you could get your rating with the contacts on the relay)(each 100 watt light will draw around 8-9 amps) , double throw and run the factory lights through the normally closed set of contacts and hook up the others to the normally open set and run the coil wires to a switch some where so that when you turned it on the relay would close. Any questions ask Shane

 

The pattern that the light beam is has as much to do with it as the watts. If you have a 100 watt light with a spot pattern. It won't do much good in the woods or on a tight trail, because it will light up a small area or spot. A flood light won't do much good in the desert or high speed driving. Because you will be over driving the light pattern because it is a real wide short pattern. A trapazoid pattern is kind of a cross between the 2. That is what I have mounted on my handlebars. It works very well for the kind of riding that I do, woods and tight trails. They sell lights in all sorts of patterns. So you might want to check around before putting to much stress on your charging system.

 

You need to check out High Lifter's sight. They have a day lighter kit that mounts a VERY powerful 60 watt Hella light where the speedometer mounts-- so it is steerable. This light is MORE than enough for high speed riding-- muchless your low speed rock crawling.