Adding Lights to Our Yard Kart

[pjoe]

Gonna do some night karting. Purchased a light bar, two spotlights, some strip LEDs, a battery tray and a four gang switch set. Kill switch will be one of the 4 switches. All powered by 12V. Can you folks post some pictures of your lighting setup? Can you suggest a battery/charger setup that'll give a couple hours of lighting? Engine is HF Predator 212, we do not have an alternator.

Thank you

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Post pics of your kart.

Id say put the bar on the roll bar, but i don't know if you have one.

Do you know the amp draw of the lights?

 

[Denny]

I do all of my night riding when the sun is high in the sky. I found that is the best time of night for me. When it’s dark out I’m at work like normal people.

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

My suggestion is get an alternator. Put it in/on there somehow. It'll need some wires and other doo-dads, plus a battery. I feel real helpful.

 

[Hellion]

We…have…the technology. Lighting coils on small engines. They had them aplenty on early minibikes and due to those lights and legit transportation features they were used as legit transportation (licensed as scooters) but I digress.

Some people have retrofitted the alternator and flywheel from a lighted Baja/Coleman 196cc minibike or similar and put it on a Predator but it can’t be that easy. The issue is does it have the same taper on the crank?

With LED tech I am less concerned about battery duration. Just make sure your battery has a hefty milliamp hour rating.

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

Well you have a chain in motion when the kart is moving.

 

[pjoe]

We…have…the technology. Lighting coils on small engines. They had them aplenty on early minibikes and due to those lights and legit transportation features they were used as legit transportation (licensed as scooters) but I digress.

Some people have retrofitted the alternator and flywheel from a lighted Baja/Coleman 196cc minibike or similar and put it on a Predator but it can’t be that easy. The issue is does it have the same taper on the crank?

With LED tech I am less concerned about battery duration. Just make sure your battery has a hefty milliamp hour rating.

I agree

 

[Sparkwizard]

You could mount a pulley on your axle, run a belt to an alternator. It would only charge while moving.
Small deep cycle batteries can be had, and you should go very conservative on your amp draw. You do not need to try lighting the whole neighborhood.

 

[Hellion]

You do not need to try lighting the whole neighborhood.

I had to re-read, it sounded excessive and yep. How about just two (or one light bar) for the front and one tail light/back-up light?