Saving watts with headlight and taillight mods

[Corkus]

What are the different options, costs and the wattage saved for headlight and taillight mods?

I'd like to save 25-50 watts for accessories. 60 watts would be awesome.

The headlights and running portion of the taillights are always on. Reducing the current to those items would free capacity for accessories. What are the different ways to reduce the current to those lights? What are the costs? What is the wattage saved?

- - LED taillights (for the always on part of the taillighting)
- - HID Headlights
- - What are the ways to disable one headlight, pulling a headlight connector, a switch? (would that work for HID lights too?)
- - Are there any ways to turn down the current to one or both headlights (would that work for HID's too?)

Thanks

[RubberDown]

I use an LED tail light, I bought it on eBay mainly because I wanted it clear to match my turn signals. The quality is very good in my opionion but I'm not sure how much juice it saves. I can post a pic of it if you like.

[Wingspan]

Eastern Beaver has a wiring kit that allows you to turn off one low beam headlight to save a bit of juice. They say it'll save you 55 watts.

http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Products/VStrom/vstrom.html#headlightcutadaptor

[roger123]

You can easily pull the plug for one headlight.

[Corkus]

Eastern Beaver has a wiring kit that allows you to turn off one low beam headlight to save a bit of juice. They say it'll save you 55 watts.

http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Products/VStrom/vstrom.html#headlightcutadaptor

Now I have my solution ideas. Great. I'll get one of those kits to switch the headlight off when I go full power with accessories. (I'm not crazy about pulling a headlight connector.) The cost is low and the savings is 55 W, just what I'd need. And I estimate from a post by Gravehunter (http://www.stromtrooper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21065) 12 watts are saved from changing to rear LED running lights and license plate light.

My situation: 2 Gerbing Jackets, 77 watts max. 154 watts total. The Wee has 100-125 Watts capacity for accessories. One headlight less makes 155-180 available. Rear LED lights save 12 watts. Grand total 177-192 Watts full capacity for accessories.

That should work fine for 2 jackets, a GPS and maybe an intercom. I don't expect to be able to save any more watts, there's nothing left to modify that is on all the time unless I change the 1 remainig always on headlight to HID. Don't see any reason to do that.

Thanks Wingspan, Roger123 and Gravehunter for the info.

[Kawidad]

BTW, you can just replace the tail/stop light bulbs with LED bulbs without replacing the whole assembly. The bulbs are cheap enough and work real well.

FWIW, get the red colored LEDs, they somehow combine with the red tinted lens and are brighter than if you buy a white colored LED. I bought the white colored LEDs and was given this tip and since they're cheap enough, I tried it with red colored and was surprised at the difference. It really does work.

[Wild Will]

BTW, you can just replace the tail/stop light bulbs with LED bulbs without replacing the whole assembly. The bulbs are cheap enough and work real well.

FWIW, get the red colored LEDs, they somehow combine with the red tinted lens and are brighter than if you buy a white colored LED. I bought the white colored LEDs and was given this tip and since they're cheap enough, I tried it with red colored and was surprised at the difference. It really does work.


Do you have a source for those bulbs?

[Kawidad]

eBay can be your friend. Superbright LEDs is what I used.