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Addition headlights ?

4K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  rusty_is_riding4life 
#1 ·
Has anyone added addition driving lights/headlights to a 1600 Vulcan. I would like to but I am not sure if the charging system can handle it.
 
#4 ·
What year is your bike with the driving lights

Is your bike carb or FI... I am concerned that some of the FI machines can't have extras with FI... (according to the fine print in the parts catalog) apparently the FI takes up the surplus electrical

Mine is a 08 so it's FI
 
#9 · (Edited)
As sfair posted the 1600 engine has dual stators (i.e. two electricity generators). The Kawasaki engineers suspected the Nomad drivers would be adding all kinds of after market electrical accessories for thier long cross country trips so they wanted to make sure there was plenty of juice to power them. Adding lights should not be a problem. You might want to install a dedicated in line fuse for them though. Any existing fused circuit might not handle the extra load and result in blown fuses.
 
#12 ·
It actually would be cheaper to build one engine with dual stators and cover both bases rather than have two separate engine lines...one for police work and one for consumers.
Not all 1500's are dual stator. I do not remember what year the switch over was.
But, the bottom line is it does not matter why, just that some 1500's and 1600's enjoy the benefit of watts in excess!
 
#13 ·
Hey Bagger1600, yeah it cant handle it. depends on how youve got it wired. If u run it off the stator, your battery will be fine, but you will have dimming of both your AUX lights and your headclight at low rpm. If you have it connected to the batt like i do on my 96 1500d(Kuryaken lightbar) then this is what i recomend you do.
Run your bike with the AUX lights during the day (this will build plentty of charge for running AUX light on at night. I have a 230 dollar deepn cycle Shorai battery, and if I run my lights on all the (like i would preffer to do for safety reason) then i get like 20 starts out of my bike before it need to be jump stated. If you should ever die out and need it jump started, run the bike for an hour to 1 1/2hrs and it should be charged up. But i still recommend throwing it on a trickle over night.
I looked into getting a higher output stator for it, but had no luck finding one, just pattent made (chineese) OEM replacement with most likely the same output.
 
#14 ·
One thing forgot to mention, your bike is a dual stator bike i believe. You should be fine to run day and night if both your Gens are working properly. TEST IT using the following tech (pretty easy) 1) get a volt metter even a 3.99 harbor frieght one will work fine 2) ASSUMING YOU HAVE A GOOD BATT, turn the bike on with the seat removed for BATT access, and turn your AUX lights off and headlight set to low beam 4) connect volt metter, reading should be over 14 volts at idel no less than 13.8 or 9.

Good luck
 
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