Voltage Reducer

[Balthazar00]

Just ordered a voltage reducer from Carts Unlimited. Anyone have one of these? ScottyB is great, so I'm sure it's fine, but I was just curious if anyone has one of these from Carts Unlimited. My HID headlights and taillights keep blowing fuses. I even went up to a 15 amp fuse, but can't get any more than about 5 minutes before they blow. AllSports claims that a voltage reducer is not needed, but I'm not so sure about that. Going to install one anyway because of blowing fuses and I may want to add a light bar in the near future.

[Sergio]

If what you have is a true HID (xenon and ballast), they normally have a high starting current but tapper to less than half once the gas is excited.

The problem is if the HID does not achieve "ignition", the current draw will continue to be excessive.

Your light should come on dim and get brighter within 20 secs.

I have heard of problems of folks retrofitting old cars with too small of a wire gauge to the headlight circuit causing enough voltage drop in the wires that the ballast never generates the high voltage required for the Xenon to ignite.

That will make the bulb continue to draw excessive current until the fuse blows.

[Balthazar00]

Originally Posted by Sergio

If what you have is a true HID (xenon and ballast), they normally have a high starting current but tapper to less than half once the gas is excited.

The problem is if the HID does not achieve "ignition", the current draw will continue to be excessive.

Your light should come on dim and get brighter within 20 secs.

I have heard of problems of folks retrofitting old cars with too small of a wire gauge to the headlight circuit causing enough voltage drop in the wires that the ballast never generates the high voltage required for the Xenon to ignite.

That will make the bulb continue to draw excessive current until the fuse blows.

That's very interesting. Actually, what happens is the opposite. When I turn them on, there is a "surge" at the very beginning, very bright, then they level off after about 5 or 10 seconds. They're not "true" HIDs, where they're Xenons (at least I don't think they're Xenons), but they burn very bright and I'm sure pretty hot (about 8,000K). Here is the kit I purchased from AllSports a few months ago.

http://www.americanliftkits.com/copy...ium-light-kit/

I've never really used them extensively before... only for about 5 or 10 minutes at a time. Last week, I did have them on for about 20 or so minutes and that's when the fuse blew for the first time. I put a new fuse in (actually, higher amp, from 10 to 15) and it lasted for only about 5 minutes. Then, the third one I put in only lasted for about 3 seconds.

I'm going to have a friend help me install the voltage reducer and take a good look at all the wiring with me to make sure that there isn't a "short" somewhere or nothing is touching the frame. It wasn't before, but I do take the cart in the woods on semi-rough terrain, so things always come loose and happen. Hopefully, the voltage reducer will solve the problem. I'm actually glad that I got the reducer anyway because I've wanted to also put a light bar on the car for quite some time. I ordered a Rough Country Cree 12" dual row LED light bar today. The light bar probably doesn't even draw a fraction of the amps that the HID light kit does. I told my wife that after I install the light bar and get the HID lights fixed, the cart is going to look like an airplane coming in at night!