Switch to turn off headlights

[TurboMatt]

A thought that I had as I was working on the sled tonight. Just wondering if anyone has done it of if its even worthwhile.
Could I help my charging system at all by wiring the headlights to a switch so that I would only need to turn them on during the nite, but during the day I could have them off to save power for oil pump, AFR gauge, EGT gauge.
How much power do the headlights use?
How would I wire it up?
I realize I could just unplug them, but it seems like a switch would be more user friendly.
Sled is a 2011 Pro with a Silber turbo.

 

[POLZIN]

I unplug one of my headlights a few guys I ride with do the same. Im thinking about sawing my headlight in half and making a cold air intake ducted to the airbox with the other half

 

[Cody Phillips Racing]

Not sure if this would really help that much because the headlights and hand warmers run on the ac side of the stator to my knowledge. All of the stuff you're trying to pick up voltage with is all DC powered.

You might get more bang for the buck installing a rectifier and converting the ac power to power some of your dc stuff

 

[Boston Racing]

Thats a great idea Cody

 

[Wheel House Motorsports]

Cody is dead on, upluggling, or shutting off anything on the AC side is a waste of time unless you have a rectifier regulator tied into the DC side of things.

I would be more then happy to explain to someone HOW to hook this system up if they wanna take pictures and maybe make a little tutorial. A lot of the stock sleds have just enough voltage out of the box, throw an AFR gauge, oil pump, etc and your taxing the system and the stock ECU does some wacky **** when it starts getting low voltage. Good luck tuning if your sled is doing this as like i said, the ecu starts acting very strange and will make getting your sled running right virtually impossible.

you just need a guy like this which you can grab from WPS for like $20-30 bux and wire it in properly.

 

[Cody Phillips Racing]

Interested in ways to do this. I wanted to wire my wideband into the ac side. I've got a cheapo RadioShack rectifier, but I'm not sure it'll do the job. I've meter the yellow wires coming off the stator and it looks like they're both 6 volts ac each. Haven't researched much else.

That picture there is of the stock ac regulator isn't it? Not sure how we could use that. Love to hear some ideas.

 

[Wheel House Motorsports]

It is very similar to your stock one just a little smaller and can only handle a smallerdraw, also no plug, just bare wire.

This is a rectifier/regulator not just a rectifier, so you will get a much more stable voltage being fed back into the system instead of just rectifying whatever crazy AC signal your getting. should be stabalized at that point by the factory but i guess i dont know unless i tested one, again i do assume the factory has delt with it if you wire it in up by your lights or something. I know i have gotten away with just the radioshack rectifier on an Tm7 that needed some more juice to power gauges, etc. works really good, and that sled is a PRIME example of what the pro's have for issues, they have DC power just not enough to power all our crap, start loading it down and your asking for troubles.

 

[off road rider]

Cody is dead on, upluggling, or shutting off anything on the AC side is a waste of time unless you have a rectifier regulator tied into the DC side of things.

I would be more then happy to explain to someone HOW to hook this system up if they wanna take pictures and maybe make a little tutorial. A lot of the stock sleds have just enough voltage out of the box, throw an AFR gauge, oil pump, etc and your taxing the system and the stock ECU does some wacky **** when it starts getting low voltage. Good luck tuning if your sled is doing this as like i said, the ecu starts acting very strange and will make getting your sled running right virtually impossible.

you just need a guy like this which you can grab from WPS for like $20-30 bux and wire it in properly.

I think you guys will run into issues using the photoed reg/rec. that unit has a 150 watt max and more than likely will butn down in a sled.
You can still do the mod, I would suggest just a simple rectifier as the ac circuit is already regulated.
There is good dc power available from the estart circuit, even if you dont have the estart the plug should be there on the right hand side,tucked up under the top cover. If you need the corresponding plug, I have some made up with a fused and simple harness.

 

[Wheel House Motorsports]

Offroad, i just grabbed a picture off the web, definately want to check spec before installing anything, and as long as you wire in up by the lights it does sound like its already regulated, so thats awesome. this is like a $5 project.

I dont see the gain of going off the E-start plug, there just isnt enough DC power produced and regulated from the factory setup to feed all the pumps, gauges, etc. plugging in for power in a new spot is still drawing from the same well and the well is running dry as far as i know?

 

[Boyko]

You should run a capacitor on it as well or you will still end up with some ac in the line.

 

[Cody Phillips Racing]

Anyone do an install on this yet? Looking for more options for my sled.........

 

[rmk_racer]

Bumping this back to the top as I am interested as well!

 

[Gracefull]

Anyone do an install on this yet? Looking for more options for my sled.........

YES, I am running a Rectifier from MtnTK. with my silber setup i didnot have near enough DC juice for everything. Shawn has a nice unit already prewired and ready to plug'n'play. now i can utilize my 'blowhole' LOL

 

[rmk_racer]

Gracefull can you be more specific about what exactly you have? How long have you been running it and how is it working out?

 

[Gracefull]

I was sledding in Idaho last spring and met up with Shawn and the boys from MNTTK, I bought a blowhole system for my pro. After installing it I ran for about 33 1/2 seconds before my display shut down from low voltage. I have a Silber turbo system on my pro. So with the oil pump,afr,electronics,ect. It was too much for it so I had to unhook it. Shawn sent me a nifty little unit. Which is a full wave bridge rectifier. (Takes AC volts and converts it to DC volts) it plugs into the AC power plug by the steering post harness, then you can plug in additional DC accessories. ( mine was the blowhole fan) the unit is a nice finished little box with a couple of plugs on it. I have about 300 miles on it since and have had no voltage issues since.
I know I could go down to an electronics store and build the same thing, but it would not be as nice of a unit. I do not know how much MTNTK charges for the unit as they sent it to me for free. Very nice guys.

Hope this helps.

 

[rmk_racer]

Thanks Gracefull, I'll give them a call!

 

[TurboMatt]

I thought I would post a link to this thread as well In case you haven't seen it. Lots of good info:
http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/showthread.php?t=323154

Anyone have any feedback on the original topic?
I haven't tried this yet, but my thought was that I could just disconnect the wire from headlight switch for the low beams. So then when my switch is on High beam the headlights will work. When the switch is on low beam the headlights will be completely off. Will this work? Is it safe?
I am going to be hooking all my turbo electronics up through the electric start plug(the battery charge wire), this is the same circuit as the headlights so the system will still be drawing power, just the headlights will be off, taking a little load off the system.