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Raptor 700 Information => 700 General Discussion => Topic started by: Krandall on July 09, 2008, 02:29:46 PM

Title: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Krandall on July 09, 2008, 02:29:46 PM
So.. In late August I have a Night XC Race. I've been thinking about doing a light upgrade for the rappy. Has anyone run a self made HID kit?
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Colorado700R on July 09, 2008, 02:31:47 PM
Soltek Lighting is a member........He's got some really cool set-ups.  Maybe drop him a PM?

Aaron
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Bert on July 09, 2008, 09:54:02 PM
Raptor HID plug & play kit
Ebay Item number: 120281248702

Is this what your looking for?

Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Krandall on July 09, 2008, 09:57:11 PM
Quote from: Bert on July 09, 2008, 09:54:02 PM
Raptor HID plug & play kit
Ebay Item number: 120281248702

Is this what your looking for?



Perfect.

Do you know what the stock stator output is?

Says their ballasts run 35w
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: shookie on July 09, 2008, 10:27:51 PM
What about this i was looking at doing this
http://www.highlifter.com/forum/Grizzly_700_owners_%2F_Change_your_lightbulb/m_2390821/tm.htm
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: shookie on July 09, 2008, 10:31:42 PM
Wait what is the bulb size on the raptor
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Bert on July 09, 2008, 10:34:17 PM
Not sure Krandall. I don't have my Tech manual here to look

shookie the Raptor is 35W
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: preddy08 on July 10, 2008, 07:44:52 AM
The stock raptor stator is pretty stoute, it should handle about any HID you through at it.
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 07:58:42 AM
I remember reading others having their battery's drain due to some sort of light ???
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: preddy08 on July 10, 2008, 08:01:02 AM
I was reading on Ricky Stator's website about ATV that require rewound hi-ouput stator for big light kits. They raptor and predator was the only two that did'nt need it.
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 08:01:57 AM
Interrrrrresting.

I'ma look into that kit you posted on Ebay bert, Thanks! :clap:
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Jamie700R on July 10, 2008, 09:13:25 AM
I installed 2 4" fuego halogen lights from Baja Designs. They are built really nice. The wiring harness is sweet. It has water tight connectors, fused and comes with a handlebar switch with low(lights up one light) or high(lights up both) I got the lights,Piaa bulb upgrade,1" drop bracket, wiring harness and 2 rock guards,Which are plastic covers that snap over the lights for even more protection. One of my rock guards cracked and Baja design sent me a replacement. No questions asked. They have great customer service. And these lights are really bright. I was lighting up the way for riders in front of me on the trail. If your thinking about lights for your rappy,These are the way to go. I was going to do the hid kit for the stock housings. But after looking at the reflectors they are not designed for good light dispersion IMO. The better the reflector the better the light. I learned that by wasting the money on the brighter bulbs for my 660.  Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 09:21:41 AM
dang those things are bright as heck!

I'm really hoping to find a "bolt in" replacement though.
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Jamie700R on July 10, 2008, 09:28:28 AM
Quote from: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 09:21:41 AM
dang those things are bright as heck!

I'm really hoping to find a "bolt in" replacement though.
These are self contained with their own wiring harness, fuse and switch. You can still keep your stockers.(Which you can't even see when these are on)When riding at night it really helps that the lights turn with the bars. Besides the halogen's are half the cost of the HID's. :thumbs:
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 09:37:36 AM
by the looks of it they take up a lot of room on the bars. ???
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Jamie700R on July 10, 2008, 09:44:14 AM
Quote from: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 09:37:36 AM
by the looks of it they take up a lot of room on the bars. ???
Not really, They mount on the 2 front bar clamp bolts with their own bracket.
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 09:50:02 AM
Hmmmm, I'll give Soltek a call, They pretty reasonable on price?
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Jamie700R on July 10, 2008, 09:52:16 AM
Extremely. Pm Sent
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Bert on July 10, 2008, 06:41:34 PM
Quote from: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 08:01:57 AM
Interrrrrresting.

I'ma look into that kit you posted on Ebay bert, Thanks! :clap:
On Ebay a while back kits were going for $80 with slim ballasts, not sure if the price jumped or there's a better deal online.

It would be nice to have the lights turn with the bars but I don't want expensive lights smashing into the ground in the event of a wheels up situation.

I believe someone bought cheap immitation Trail Tech lights & then used the HID kit. I searched but didn't find any pics.  Lots of options

Personally I'll try the Ebay HID's & if they suck put them on the lawn mower   ::)
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: shookie on July 11, 2008, 03:13:57 PM
Quote from: Bert on July 10, 2008, 06:41:34 PM
Quote from: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 08:01:57 AM
Interrrrrresting.

I'ma look into that kit you posted on Ebay bert, Thanks! :clap:
On Ebay a while back kits were going for $80 with slim ballasts, not sure if the price jumped or there's a better deal online.

It would be nice to have the lights turn with the bars but I don't want expensive lights smashing into the ground in the event of a wheels up situation.

I believe someone bought cheap immitation Trail Tech lights & then used the HID kit. I searched but didn't find any pics.  Lots of options

Personally I'll try the Ebay HID's & if they suck put them on the lawn mower   ::)
Who mows at night lol
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: preddy08 on July 11, 2008, 03:35:37 PM
Quote from: shookie on July 11, 2008, 03:13:57 PM
Quote from: Bert on July 10, 2008, 06:41:34 PM
Quote from: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 08:01:57 AM
Interrrrrresting.

I'ma look into that kit you posted on Ebay bert, Thanks! :clap:
On Ebay a while back kits were going for $80 with slim ballasts, not sure if the price jumped or there's a better deal online.

It would be nice to have the lights turn with the bars but I don't want expensive lights smashing into the ground in the event of a wheels up situation.

I believe someone bought cheap immitation Trail Tech lights & then used the HID kit. I searched but didn't find any pics.  Lots of options

Personally I'll try the Ebay HID's & if they suck put them on the lawn mower   ::)
Who mows at night lol

Meth heads from Council Bluffs :thumbs:
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: shookie on July 11, 2008, 03:36:29 PM
Damn you got me
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Bert on July 11, 2008, 05:56:55 PM
Quote from: shookie on July 11, 2008, 03:13:57 PM
Quote from: Bert on July 10, 2008, 06:41:34 PM
Quote from: Krandall on July 10, 2008, 08:01:57 AM
Interrrrrresting.

I'ma look into that kit you posted on Ebay bert, Thanks! :clap:
On Ebay a while back kits were going for $80 with slim ballasts, not sure if the price jumped or there's a better deal online.

It would be nice to have the lights turn with the bars but I don't want expensive lights smashing into the ground in the event of a wheels up situation.

I believe someone bought cheap immitation Trail Tech lights & then used the HID kit. I searched but didn't find any pics.  Lots of options

Personally I'll try the Ebay HID's & if they suck put them on the lawn mower   ::)
Who mows at night lol
I've mowed after sunset to finish.  If your working nights it seems normal
If its really really dusty its good mowing at night  :lol:
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Jamie700R on July 13, 2008, 06:29:45 AM
One more pic.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: ThisGuyAlex on July 14, 2008, 10:18:54 AM
i dunno bout them bar lights......woulda smashed my head off em more than once already.....
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Duane on July 18, 2008, 11:21:52 PM
Got a email asking for some input on HID's, so I'm here to help.

On the stator, supposedly the Raptor stators are good for 100w. If anyone asked me to ever send something to Ricky Stators, I'd be hessitant, heard to many bad things and considering I have personally seen a Rappy with 2 H12 and H16 Trailtech lights (135w) at night, I'm more then convinced a stcok stator is sufficient.

As for the ebay kit, I have them on mine (go for the 6k for best light, 8k is sharp blue, 10k is blue). I have the larger ballast kit, have had them mounted in two differnt locations, one on the crossbeam in front of the steering shaft and now being supported by the plastic piece under the gas tank, using a t-brackeT I made and a large washer.

Now for power, I have seen them done 3 different ways. I tried initially to power straight from the stock wiring (probably would of worked if I didn't f*ck up installing the connectors), but that didn't work. So I have mine setup like this, left hand side is powered using a relay, power from bat, right side off the stock wiring. 2nd way One relay being activated by stock wiring, powered from bat, split to both ballast and 3rd, two relays, being activated by stock wiring, powered from bat.

For the bulbs, order the H6M's, use the stock "cup" and spring to hold the lights in.

For pwoer to the lights, I choose the high position, my low beam powers my www.livewire.com whip

Anymore questions, feel free to ask. The 80 buck ebay is the way to go IMO. Hell, I'm ordering 2 more for my two 434's (Z and KFX).
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Bert on July 18, 2008, 11:48:24 PM
Duane - do you have a link to the $80 HID's?

Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Duane on July 20, 2008, 11:36:24 AM
Quote from: Bert on July 18, 2008, 11:48:24 PM
Duane - do you have a link to the $80 HID's?



do a search for HID H6M conversion and you will pull a bunch up. Usually they ate 25-40 bucks with 30-40 bucks shipping.
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Shawnz on July 20, 2008, 11:40:01 PM
I agree 100% with what Duane has said about the ebay kits.   that $145 kit looks like everything you get in the $75-$80 kit.  It is worth the extra $5 for the slim ballasts though.  They are easier to find a place to mount them and they appear to be potted.

I put the kit with the Slim ballasts (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Super-Slim-HID-Kit-9006-3K-5K-H1-all-color-bulb-6K-8K_W0QQitemZ330254848866QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item330254848866&_trksid=p3911.m14.l1318) on a friend's Rzr and it worked out great.  The seller is 'supervtec'.

Two other friends installed the kits with the large ballasts like Duane has.   One of them had a ballast failure:

(http://www.shawnz.com/RF/badballast002.jpg)

He replaced the ballast (at his cost) and managed to get a potted ballast.  He's up and running now.   We took apart the other three ballasts and JB-welded that piece (igniter?) and anything else that looked like it might vibrate loose.  So far, so good.

The only complaints I have with the supervtec guy on ebay is that once the money chnages hands you'll never be able to communicate with him again.   Forget warranty / support.   for the money though, you can't really go wrong  :lol:.

My other gripe is the color of the bulbs.  I have the Simple Racing 6000k kit and love it.  The first two ebay kits with the large ballasts also ordered 6000k kits.  To my eye the ebay kit on the left looks 8000k:

(http://www.shawnz.com/RF/THID008.jpg)

We all agree that the whiter light that mine puts out just lights up the desert better.  They plan on swapping bulbs to get some whiter ones.  Maybe even 5000k.

Now, here is the weird part, on that Rzr kit the owner also ordered the 6000k bulbs.   His match mine perfect and he's happy as can be.

As for the Stator...

The stock headlights draw 30W/ea.  The HIDs draw 35w/ea.  10W is pretty insignificant.

Besides the HIDs I'm powering 2x LED license plate lights (no idea on the draw but it can't be much!) and I'm powering my GPS as well.

I have had issues where the battery runs down on an extended night ride (I'm talking 8+ hours).  It has only happened when riding where I'm just creeping along in extremely rough terrain.  When this happens I'll lose one or both lights, seemingly out of nowhere.

On the last night ride I went on (5-6 hours), the Raptor 700 that is 100% stock + the ebay HIDs started losing one or both lights towards the end of the ride.

I have all but eliminated this problem by doing two main things:

#1 I now use a battery tender religiously.  It's plugged into the tender right now, sitting on the trailer.

#2 I have a whole process around my lights.
  a. I always have the lights off when starting the quad.
  b. The lights only come on when under-way.  If I want to stay visible I use the low beam setting (no headlights) to keep the plate / tail light lit up.
  c. Lights off, then turn the quad off.

It way be overkill, but I haven't had to push start or deal with losing both lights at once since starting to treat the lights as fragile  :thumbs:.

Unlike halogens which just get dimmer as the battery runs down, HIDs just turn off when the voltage drops.

Shawn
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Krandall on July 21, 2008, 07:42:02 AM
Thank you for that awesome review/writeup Shawnz!!

Question. when you took the balast apart. What parts specifically did you jbweld? ???
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Bert on October 17, 2008, 03:34:27 AM
Question for Shawnz, Duane & Jamie700R

How are the lights working?
How many hours on them?
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Jamie700R on October 17, 2008, 05:12:54 AM
Hey Bert,
             The lights work amazing no problems. The brightness of them is insane, people want to follow me at night so they can see where they are going. At first i thought i went a little overboard but after riding with the stock lights and these off. Im glad i got them. And having bar mounted lights make a big difference for night riding. As for hours on them i have no idea??
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: zx10r203 on October 17, 2008, 08:42:52 PM
Anyone ever put the lazer/bullet lights on the bumper??

I saw a 660 that had that on it at Pismo and it didn't look bad.  They were black so they blended in with the body pretty good!!
Title: Re: Light Upgrades?
Post by: Bert on October 18, 2008, 06:11:12 AM
Quote from: zx10r203 on October 17, 2008, 08:42:52 PM
Anyone ever put the lazer/bullet lights on the bumper??

I saw a 660 that had that on it at Pismo and it didn't look bad.  They were black so they blended in with the body pretty good!!
I'm  looking for some bullet lights to mount on the bars & convert to HID so I can powerslide at night without crashing  ???