Lights

Posts: 12

I have a HH mini for my son and a 150cc for me. The 150 also does duty as a farm utility vehicle - it tows hay around and is used to pull the horse manure spreader. I'd like to add some extra lights to the 150 so when it gets dark I can still see the spreader when walking back to engage it. I'd also like to add some headlights to the mini so my son can drive it when it gets dark. I have been impressed with the LED flashlights.
We have one that runs on one AA battery and has 9 LED's and it's very bright. With such little power draw, I'm hoping to find something for the mini. I've also seen some headlamps (like a miner hat) that come with little solar rechargers. I was thinking I could put two of those on the mini to avoid pulling power from the kart at all. Also to use as utility (at least one for lighting behind the kart) lights.

Has anyone worked with LED lights for their karts? Or put lights on a HH Mini??

Posts: 616

im all ears on this subject as well. my lights are very weak and only light up maybe at max 5 feet ahead of me and thats not much light when your going 25 mph in the dark on a trail. where have you seen the solar powered LED lights?

Posts: 12

The solar ones were these:
http://calpumpstore.com/product/part_number=EL8%20Solar%20Headlamp/416.0

they are a bit pricy and not sure if they would put out enough light to drive by, but would give me enough for the extra light I need to adjust the manure spreader at night....And keep my shoes clean. Sad

I've also seen some bike LED lights on ebay - they look like they may be less than $5.00ea but are just battery powered. Not sure if I could wire a few of them into the karts electrical. These have a built in mount - not sure if it would fit the diameter of the karts bars, but for 5 bucks I may find out. These are also 5 led's. I have a 9led flashlight that on a new battery may give off enough light. There are up to 50+led flashlights....so many choices...so much unknown for quality and distance lighting...still looking and researching.

Posts: 175

One thing you have to be careful of is the voltage they specify. LED's are Diodes at heart, and they work at one voltage only, around 1.7v -- you can crank up the voltage on them and all it does is cause more current to go through, eventually burning up the diode/LED.

If a light is specified for 5v, they have designed it so that the correct voltage is used for the LED portion, and a resistor or other device drops the 5v down to the correct voltage level. Putting 12v on it would almost certainly fry it, or at least severely limit it's lifespan.

You are going to need to find a 12v version of the LED light fixture to work on your buggy.

I have seen some LED-based fog lights, check on jcwhitney.com under their fog lights section. I haven't tried any, but I have given it some thought. I would imagine that a fog light would do OK for lighting on a buggy...

Posts: 411

Ok i have been researching led lights as well here are some links i came up with.

http://www.plasmaled.com/high_power_module.htm

what you would want is the 3 watt 008s they are equivalent to 25 watt light bulbs....although i dunno how you would make them look decent and not look like you have some crazy weird laser beam thing mounted to your kart...on hh i think you could mount them up top and have the soft top cover most of the mounting just the "nipple" of the light sticking out.
Would be cool to have a pretty much hidden install like that i think i may just try it.
My birthday is in a couple weeks so i will probably wait to see the results of that before i buy the "cheaper" alternative;-)

Although these look cool but do cost more.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product?storeId=10101& amp;Pr=p_Product.CATENTRY_ID%3A2017635&productId=2017635&catalogId=10101

and
http://www.piaa.com/LEDs/LEDs.html

Something like those as well.

Basically for 40 bucks shipped i think they would/should do the trick although they wouldn't look as pretty as the other options.