PIAA driving lights....

[thenewguy]

Has anyone put PIAA 1100X driving lights on their VMAX?

I bought a light bar to attach them but I read somewhere here that the electrical system on the Max can't handle the extra wattage. If I wire these in will it drain my battery?

Any help is appreciated as I know nothing about electrical.

Thanks

Ed

 

[Buster Hymen]

Has anyone put PIAA 1100X driving lights on their VMAX?

I bought a light bar to attach them but I read somewhere here that the electrical system on the Max can't handle the extra wattage. If I wire these in will it drain my battery?

Any help is appreciated as I know nothing about electrical.

Thanks

Ed

The stock charging system is pretty sad. If you are stopped or just putting in traffic, the lights will discharge your battery. If you are on the highway or running above 2 or 3k RPM, you "should" be alright. Notice should is in quotes as every bike is diiferent, and it also depends on how well your charging system is working now. If you like the lights, then hook them up. If they create a problem, we'll deal with it then!

 

[Rusty McNeil]

My .02 is the system IS marginal but I'd give it a shot anyway...I plan on putting some kind of driving lights on mine if I can ever figure out a way to mount one cleanly and neatly.

Something you might try is this;

Hook the lights up and put a voltmeter directly on the battery.
Start the bike and watch the voltmeter as you bring the rpm's up.

If your voltage at 3000 and above is higher than at idle and at least 13.5 or so then your system is charging...

Now do it again with the lights on; you should see a point where the battery stops discharging and starts charging and it will probably be higher in rpm...As long as your getting 13.5 or so then I THINK you should be OK..

The tough part and the one you can't do anything about is the actual extra load you are throwing on the generator/rectifier/regulator and battery....

I would do the grounding everything and checking all the connections and the "splice" fix before putting the lights in...I already did this on mine and it did make some improvement in charging and stuff...

 

[Robbarrie]

I seen a set of these cool little driving lights which I think would look cool and help see better at night. Now these are two small lights, 12volt 55watt bulbs. I haven't bought them yet and won't if you guys seem to think I'll just end up killing the battery and end up having problems starting and so on....

I would wire a switch to turn on myself so they're not on all the time. However, is there a way to hook them up so either the rpm has to be over say 3K or maybe it would be better to use a light sensor so they only come on at night and just go with that ?

Shit I don't know ?

 

[Rusty McNeil]

I would just install them with a switch to turn them off when not needed or when idling.

Since I last posted on this thread I removed my headlight and installed a cybermax headlight.

it comes with 2 55watt halogen headlamps.

In order to get good light output from it I had to run a separate circuit to them and use the factory wiring just to turn a relay each for the high and low beam on or off.

High beam is both lamps on at the same time.

I put a voltmeter on the battery with the high beams on and it starts to charge instead of discharge at about 2500rpm.

I do realize that when I took away the factory headlamp that I removed a 55watt/60watt load (thats the standard headlamp rating) and added a 55watt/110watt load.
That's a grand total of 50 watts more than original load.

What your wanting to do is going to be adding 110 watts load to your bike. That's gonna be about 8 amps at 13.5volts and is a lot but I don't think it's more than the bike can handle.

The Manual says the bike has a 22.5 amp output at cruise speed.

Edit....
I just found a very interesting link

http://www.powerletproducts.com/documentation/excesscapacity.html

doing the math the Link calls for (I calculated the watts produced by the vmax from the amps The owners manual has in it)
22.5amps * 14volts

Vmax power capacity
315 watts

Minus the following

Headlight on high beam 60 watts
Ignition 60 watts
Fuel pump 60 watts (seems high to me, I may put an ammeter on mine and see what it really is)
Computer-zero as there isn't a computer on this bike
Cooling fan- I say zero for this also because it's not a normal load..mine is rarely on unless I turn it on in stop and go traffic
Instrument lights 12 watts (got this form the owners manual) 4 each at 3 watts
Tail light 16 watts From Yamaha, 2 each @ 8watts, running light only, not brake light
Front running lights 16 watts 2each @ 8 watts

I do not count temporary loads like warning lamps, and the turn signals and brake lights, they aren't on long enough to kill the battery.

This leaves 91watts left over for other stuff.


Another thing you can do to shift load around is ditch all the tail and turnsignals in favor of led models which don't consume much power at all.


By getting rid of the factory turn and tail lites and going to LED's you could free up another 32 watts making power available 123 watts.

I don't know exactly how much the LED's consume that you would replace the factory tail and turns with but it's so low it's almost not worth even adding into the equation


I believe the Max can handle this as long as it's not left idling for long periods of time. And your system is up to snuff. It might take a little life out of the system long term tho'. The further away from 100 percent load any piece of electrical equipment is operated the longer it will last.

 

[Robbarrie]

Thanks very much for your time and for the info. That link is very good. I went through it all. Did you see the products they were selling. The Powerlet plugs outlets. Very cool, but your going to shell out some big cash for it.

Anyways, maybe I'll just go with one light instead of two. I'm not going to do anything till it gets allot warmer out. Too damm cold to do anything, even in the garage. I guess I have lots of time to think about it.

Now I know if I do - how to check to see if it's too much on the system.

 

[gunrunner]

Has anyone put PIAA 1100X driving lights on their VMAX?

I bought a light bar to attach them but I read somewhere here that the electrical system on the Max can't handle the extra wattage. If I wire these in will it drain my battery?

Any help is appreciated as I know nothing about electrical.

Thanks

Ed

I have these on my bike i have just got but i am having fuse blowing probs with my lights tho not sure if they are connected:ummm: