For what it's worth: I have a set of PIAA 510 85 watt drivers on my 2000 sportsman, and two champion 500 cca batts., one in a modified rack in the factory location under the left rear fender, and the other just below the rear bumper against the riser that holds the anti-sway tube...it's a perfect location on a Sportsman, especially if you have a twin tube bumper - it protects the battery from being hit by people following you. Anyway, this setup has been going for almost two years now flawlessly, while also dealing with a 3.0ci Warn winch that gets used regular. The only thing that happend as a result of this setup is that I no longer have dimming lights when the fan turns on, and it takes a heck of a lot to stall my winch now. I do a bunch of night riding (that's when the farmers and police are chill) and I've yet to deplete my charging system, whereas I used to suck a new single battery dead after just running a set of 55 watt Piolots on a hot evening when the fan cycled regular. You can usually buy that light kit for around 200.00. Although some crooks will charge around 250.00...shop around! On my 700 Sportsman I have an eleven hundred dollar set of PIAA 600 H.I.D running on the factory single battery. If you don't mind the initial cost, this is the better way to go, as they develope so much more light using so much less amperage. They come with an independent ballast for each lamp, and are just plain wicked.

 

Correct about the batteries in parallel double the amperage and maintans the voltage level. Also correct about the machine will only draw what is is capable of drawing, not the batteries pushing more electricity into the machine than the machine was capable of handling. Some older Hondas were 6 volt. The smaller models in particular. Also small bikes such as the CB125 for example was 6 volt. Old tractors were 6 volt and it was a popular mod to replace the alternator/starter combination with a 12 volt system to crank them over faster to ease cold weather starting most of all. Also had to put a resistor om the ignition points to reduce wear on the ignition. Equal size resisitors in parrallel divides the resistance. Resistors in series adds the resistance. Maybe blade was thinking of his speakers. (basically another form of resistance in a circuit.) Good thing you didn't toast your Polaris.