farmerfrederick
04-06-2015, 03:43 AM
Here is a handy guide for an almost drop-in LED replacement for your headlight. The headlight when installed will look completely stock and fit inside your original headlight housing. In addition, it has high and low beams, and hooks into your existing wiring so that your stock headlight switch will work to turn it on to low and high beams. You should be able to do this for about $30 (cost of light) and in less than an hour. You'll need a wire cutter/stripper, and some wire nuts or electrical tape. Existing hardware can be used for mounting the new headlight inside your stock housing.
Frustrated by the dim stock headlamp on my ATC 200 ES, I decided I wanted to upgrade it to something brighter. However, I wanted to maintain the look of the stock headlight.
I searched these forums far and wide about upgrading the headlamp to LED, but hadn't found anything definitive. So I decided to find a solution.
Here is my new headlight installed in the stock housing:
213795
Read on to find out how I did it. But first read about some other options and all the concerns with doing this before 3-wheeling ahead!
Other Lighting Options:
Several users have added additional lighting to their 3 wheelers by clamping on small LED lights, such as 27w accessory lights, and wiring those into the accessory port. Some people have changed the stock headlight bulb to a brighter bulb, and others have suggested putting a sealed beam halogen bulb in place of the stock headlamp.
However, changing out your bulb, switching to halogen, or adding additional lights all have one big drawback: Your power usage.
Electrical Considerations
The stock alternator on the 200 ES will put out about 5 amps, 70 watts. This is your power budget, which you do not want to exceed. Going over this limit can cause your lights to be dim, can blow your fuses, drain your battery, or possibly damage your alternator.
The stock headlamp is 45 watts, drawing 4 Amp on high beam and 2 Amp on low beam. Your taillight is 5 watts, drawing about .5 amps. So with your stock equipment, you're already using 50 watts 4.5 Amps, almost all of the available capacity of your alternator. You need to save a little power for the rest of the system and to keep your battery charged.
This is why we need to use an LED. Only a LED light can provide a substantial amount of additional light while drawing the same or less power.
If You Don't Have a 200 ES
For other models of 3 wheelers, the power level to the headlight may not be constant. This could damage your LEDs. You'll need to add a voltage regulator to the power going to the new headlight.
The 200 ES provides steady power to the headlamp, because it has a full wave rectifier, due to the battery, and the electrical system being designed to have variable loads.
If your trike does not have a battery, the resistance of the headlamp is actually used to regulate voltage. You probably notice that your headlamp brightness can change with how hard you run the engine. A voltage regulator will take that variable input of power and provide a steady 12 volts output.
The good news is that they are cheap and plentiful. Just search for 12v voltage regulator for ATV, like this: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=12v+voltage+regulator+atv&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3A12v+voltage+regulator+atv
With that said, I present to you this guide for upgrading your headlamp to LED.
First, the LED headlamp assembly.
You'll need a 6.5 or 6.6 inch sealed beam LED headlamp, with high and low beam.
I chose a 45 watt model, I wanted to stick with 45 watts because that is what the stock headlamp used. Because it is LED though, that 45 watts will give you a lot more light, at least twice as much. The 45 watt LED should draw about 3.75 amps. This is about equivalent to the power draw of the stock headlamp.
Here is the one I bought, sitting next to the stock headlamp after I removed the stock headlamp from the plastic housing:
213793
These can be a little hard to find, especially finding just one, as most sellers sell them in pairs (for trucks, jeeps, etc).
Here is an example: http://hg-light.en.made-in-china.com/product/lvgJzhHdAVWb/China-Hg-1030-LED-Lamp-6-6inch-45W-CREE-Chips-LED-Auto-Headlight-with-CE-RoHS-IP67-10-30V-DC.html
You should be able to find them on ebay from various sellers. I actually bought mine on Wish.com, it was cheapest source to get just a single unit, the only drawback was that it was shipped from China and took about 2 weeks to arrive. Here is a link to all the ones on Wish: https://www.wish.com/search/45%206.5%20LED
I chose the 6.5 inch unit, to give me a little room for installing it, but afterwords, I believe the 6.6 inch would be a slightly better fit.
At this time of writing, the going price was $30.
Installation
Remove your stock headlight assembly from plastic housing. This is done by removing two bolts, one on each side of the housing, and a screw on the bottom of the housing. Then, remove the light bulb and light bulb receptacle from the housing.
Here is the housing after removal:
213792
There is an outside metal frame, with clips which holds the glass and reflector in place to the frame.
Remove these wire clips so that you can separate the glass and reflector from the metal frame. Save the clips, we will use them again.
Now, lay the new LED assembly face down on the metal frame:
213790
213791
You will re-use the clips to secure the new LED in the metal frame. You may need to bend the clips slightly to fit the shape of the new LED housing, but these clips should be able to hold the LED securely in the metal frame, as shown in the picture above.
Now, it is time to wire it up.
First, remove the wires going to the bulb receptacle. There may be connectors you can re-use, or just cut the wires and strip them.
213789
Here is a picture of how the wiring goes so you can line your wires up from old to new.
213788
The new LED assembly should come with a block with 3 pins on it. You can either attach your wires to these pins, or just cut the block off and wire the wires together.
If your assembly and 3 wheeler is like mine, then your blue wire from 3 wheeler goes to red wire on LED, white wire goes to blue, and green goes to black.
Wired correctly, you should be able to turn the headlight on and off, and between high and low beam with your light switch.
The way the LED works is that in low beam half of the LEDs are on, and in high beam all of the LEDs are on.
Test your light before inserting it into the housing. In low beam, one full row of LEDs should be on, the light should be installed so that this on the bottom.
Stick the LED and metal frame back into the plastic housing and put the screw and bolts back in.
Congratulations, you are done!
Before and After
Here is the stock light high beam inside:
213794
Here is the new light high beam in same location:
213796
Much better!
And finally, here is my new view while riding outside:
213787
Resources
The following posts were useful for me while doing some research when starting this project:
ATC wiring diagrams: http://www.3wheelerworld.com/content.php/187-honda-wiring-diagram-section
Discussion about upgrading headlight: http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/146772-Light-Bulb
Another discussion about LEDs: http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/156936-84-200ES-Big-Red-LED-Headlight-Replacement
I hope you enjoyed this guide!
I'll be posting some other cool things I did with my ATC soon!
Frustrated by the dim stock headlamp on my ATC 200 ES, I decided I wanted to upgrade it to something brighter. However, I wanted to maintain the look of the stock headlight.
I searched these forums far and wide about upgrading the headlamp to LED, but hadn't found anything definitive. So I decided to find a solution.
Here is my new headlight installed in the stock housing:
213795
Read on to find out how I did it. But first read about some other options and all the concerns with doing this before 3-wheeling ahead!
Other Lighting Options:
Several users have added additional lighting to their 3 wheelers by clamping on small LED lights, such as 27w accessory lights, and wiring those into the accessory port. Some people have changed the stock headlight bulb to a brighter bulb, and others have suggested putting a sealed beam halogen bulb in place of the stock headlamp.
However, changing out your bulb, switching to halogen, or adding additional lights all have one big drawback: Your power usage.
Electrical Considerations
The stock alternator on the 200 ES will put out about 5 amps, 70 watts. This is your power budget, which you do not want to exceed. Going over this limit can cause your lights to be dim, can blow your fuses, drain your battery, or possibly damage your alternator.
The stock headlamp is 45 watts, drawing 4 Amp on high beam and 2 Amp on low beam. Your taillight is 5 watts, drawing about .5 amps. So with your stock equipment, you're already using 50 watts 4.5 Amps, almost all of the available capacity of your alternator. You need to save a little power for the rest of the system and to keep your battery charged.
This is why we need to use an LED. Only a LED light can provide a substantial amount of additional light while drawing the same or less power.
If You Don't Have a 200 ES
For other models of 3 wheelers, the power level to the headlight may not be constant. This could damage your LEDs. You'll need to add a voltage regulator to the power going to the new headlight.
The 200 ES provides steady power to the headlamp, because it has a full wave rectifier, due to the battery, and the electrical system being designed to have variable loads.
If your trike does not have a battery, the resistance of the headlamp is actually used to regulate voltage. You probably notice that your headlamp brightness can change with how hard you run the engine. A voltage regulator will take that variable input of power and provide a steady 12 volts output.
The good news is that they are cheap and plentiful. Just search for 12v voltage regulator for ATV, like this: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=12v+voltage+regulator+atv&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3A12v+voltage+regulator+atv
With that said, I present to you this guide for upgrading your headlamp to LED.
First, the LED headlamp assembly.
You'll need a 6.5 or 6.6 inch sealed beam LED headlamp, with high and low beam.
I chose a 45 watt model, I wanted to stick with 45 watts because that is what the stock headlamp used. Because it is LED though, that 45 watts will give you a lot more light, at least twice as much. The 45 watt LED should draw about 3.75 amps. This is about equivalent to the power draw of the stock headlamp.
Here is the one I bought, sitting next to the stock headlamp after I removed the stock headlamp from the plastic housing:
213793
These can be a little hard to find, especially finding just one, as most sellers sell them in pairs (for trucks, jeeps, etc).
Here is an example: http://hg-light.en.made-in-china.com/product/lvgJzhHdAVWb/China-Hg-1030-LED-Lamp-6-6inch-45W-CREE-Chips-LED-Auto-Headlight-with-CE-RoHS-IP67-10-30V-DC.html
You should be able to find them on ebay from various sellers. I actually bought mine on Wish.com, it was cheapest source to get just a single unit, the only drawback was that it was shipped from China and took about 2 weeks to arrive. Here is a link to all the ones on Wish: https://www.wish.com/search/45%206.5%20LED
I chose the 6.5 inch unit, to give me a little room for installing it, but afterwords, I believe the 6.6 inch would be a slightly better fit.
At this time of writing, the going price was $30.
Installation
Remove your stock headlight assembly from plastic housing. This is done by removing two bolts, one on each side of the housing, and a screw on the bottom of the housing. Then, remove the light bulb and light bulb receptacle from the housing.
Here is the housing after removal:
213792
There is an outside metal frame, with clips which holds the glass and reflector in place to the frame.
Remove these wire clips so that you can separate the glass and reflector from the metal frame. Save the clips, we will use them again.
Now, lay the new LED assembly face down on the metal frame:
213790
213791
You will re-use the clips to secure the new LED in the metal frame. You may need to bend the clips slightly to fit the shape of the new LED housing, but these clips should be able to hold the LED securely in the metal frame, as shown in the picture above.
Now, it is time to wire it up.
First, remove the wires going to the bulb receptacle. There may be connectors you can re-use, or just cut the wires and strip them.
213789
Here is a picture of how the wiring goes so you can line your wires up from old to new.
213788
The new LED assembly should come with a block with 3 pins on it. You can either attach your wires to these pins, or just cut the block off and wire the wires together.
If your assembly and 3 wheeler is like mine, then your blue wire from 3 wheeler goes to red wire on LED, white wire goes to blue, and green goes to black.
Wired correctly, you should be able to turn the headlight on and off, and between high and low beam with your light switch.
The way the LED works is that in low beam half of the LEDs are on, and in high beam all of the LEDs are on.
Test your light before inserting it into the housing. In low beam, one full row of LEDs should be on, the light should be installed so that this on the bottom.
Stick the LED and metal frame back into the plastic housing and put the screw and bolts back in.
Congratulations, you are done!
Before and After
Here is the stock light high beam inside:
213794
Here is the new light high beam in same location:
213796
Much better!
And finally, here is my new view while riding outside:
213787
Resources
The following posts were useful for me while doing some research when starting this project:
ATC wiring diagrams: http://www.3wheelerworld.com/content.php/187-honda-wiring-diagram-section
Discussion about upgrading headlight: http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/146772-Light-Bulb
Another discussion about LEDs: http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/156936-84-200ES-Big-Red-LED-Headlight-Replacement
I hope you enjoyed this guide!
I'll be posting some other cool things I did with my ATC soon!