Rigid Ind. Dually LED aux lights

I've been researching aux lights most of the day, and came across the Dually and Dually D2 lights from Rigid Industries. They look like a lot of bang for the buck. Anyone have any experience with these on any type of vehicle? Seems like they'd fill my needs for extra visibility along the edges of the road in addition to extra visibility ahead.

Sweet! i'm curious as well...

You are just about in the ballpark in terms of wattage and light output with the Clearwater Glendas, which are 12-watts per side (1650 lumens), but use 3-LED modules (4-watts each). This is considerably less than the Kristas which are 35 watts per side. The Dually lights at 15 watts (1300 lumens) should be good for increased visibility, and okay as a supplemental light source, but they are not night blasters. You will still need to use a dimmer on them to avoid dazzling oncoming drivers, so you might consider the Skene IQ170 controller. BTW, you do need a controller for any LED light or you will really piss off other drivers, or you will be constantly switching them off.

The most popular alternative here seems to be the ADV Monster lights which seems to be more of a motorcycle purpose-driven solution. The Dually is equivalent to the Model 30 (1500 luments) which is selling for only $55 each. Upgrading to the Model 44 at 2000 lumens at $200-$220/pair is relatively expensive, but moves you into more of a driving light category.

You already know Clearwater lights are going to be premium priced, but IMO nothing else can touch them for quality.

Bottom line on LEDs is that you do get what you pay for. There are no truly cheap sets, and less expensive generally buys less light and features.

I have the Dually D2's and love them. the D2's are listed as 2600 lumens each. I saw Krista's listed as 2700 lumens each. I know that different manufacturers measure lumens differently but I can assure you the D2's are for real. My neighbor has the Krista's and side by side I could not tell the difference. The D2's are built solid and are very bright.

Installing the D2's I used this wiring diagram and this LED Dimmer, also known as a Pulse Width Modulator-PWM. NOTE you must us a PWM to control LED lighting.

As far as these type of LED Lights...I tried them, had issues with them and returned them. Further research I believe they are over driven...meaning too much current is being applied making the LED's brighter beyond the limit of original specifications. This will cause very short life. BTW these light can be found all over ebay from many different suppliers. Lights are coming from China.

I'd say they're very comparable to the Kristas in output, beam pattern and such. As I recall, they may be a tinge bluer in light color than the Kristas. Other than being ugly as sin and having to assemble wiring, relays and dimmer yourself, they seem to be a very good deal. I have no idea why JimLL even put them on his bike since he doesn't ride at night anymore [/sarcastic neghibor jab], but if you buy a set, he's definitely the man to make a quality light bracket for you.

The Kristas do come with the dimmer, relays and wiring all put together into a clean harness that is easy to install. While that alone is not necessarily worth the price difference, if you get group buy or discounted pricing, it could be a factor. I've put over 20k miles on the Kristas so far and they are a quality product for sure.

Regardless, I'm sold on LED's for my purposes.

JimLL said:

I have the Dually D2's and love them. the D2's are listed as 2600 lumens each. I saw Krista's listed as 2700 lumens each. I know that different manufacturers measure lumens differently but I can assure you the D2's are for real. My neighbor has the Krista's and side by side I could not tell the difference. The D2's are built solid and are very bright.

Installing the D2's I used this wiring diagram and this LED Dimmer, also known as a Pulse Width Modulator-PWM. NOTE you must us a PWM to control LED lighting.

As far as these type of LED Lights...I tried them, had issues with them and returned them. Further research I believe they are over driven...meaning too much current is being applied making the LED's brighter beyond the limit of original specifications. This will cause very short life. BTW these light can be found all over ebay from many different suppliers. Lights are coming from China.

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The D2's are what I was considering. Similar in output to the Kristas, more compact, far less money, and to my eye anyway, slightly more attractive...as far as bug-eyed motorcycles go. Jim, can you provide a picture of your mounts? Looks like you've got the FZ mirrors, as do I. Thanks.

Craig,

No FZ mirrors...yet

PMS Paul is right...I guess <_< ... about the Krista's in being easy to install. They come with everything you need to install...plug and play. If you are handy with a soldering iron, then your good to go with the D2's.

The brackets are home made. They are made from 3" wide X 1/8" thick flat bar steel I got from Lowe's. Made a pattern, cut, drill holes, sand and paint.





Location of the Pulse Width Modulator



Jim

Nice job Jim! A couple of us spotted the Rigid LEDs at a local Polaris dealer and were impressed with the appearance, light output and reasonable cost.

Thanks for the pics and info!

--G

This picture reminded me of something. If you notice the nylon washers in the pic where light meets bracket. They had to be installed to isolate the light from grounding through the mount bracket. Jim can correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall the light would go to full intensity when grounded because it completed the circuit prior to reaching the PWM. Just a minor WTF moment you can sidestep when wiring yours.

JimLL said:

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pmspaul said:

This picture reminded me of something. If you notice the nylon washers in the pic where light meets bracket. They had to be installed to isolate the light from grounding through the mount bracket. Jim can correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall the light would go to full intensity when grounded because it completed the circuit prior to reaching the PWM. Just a minor WTF moment you can sidestep when wiring yours.

JimLL said:

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Good catch Paul...almost forgot...Correct the light would go to full intensity. I had to isolate the circuit by using the nylon washers and a nylon collar...available at lowe's.

Got them fitted to my 02 FJR and my FJ1200, very impressed with them, excellent quality. I like the idea of the dimmer switch as I find they can be a little too bright for the sort of riding I do.

fudgejerkin1188 said:

Got them fitted to my 02 FJR and my FJ1200, very impressed with them, excellent quality. I like the idea of the dimmer switch as I find they can be a little too bright for the sort of riding I do.

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Nice. I see you have the Dually's (1300 lumens each)? I have the Dually D2s which are 2600 lumens each. As you can see in the wiring diagram, I have them wired so I can use the PWM to dim them when I'm on low beam. It is full power when I hit the high beams.

Well shit!! I thought I'd do the same thing as Jim and have the ability to dim them while on low beam... Evidently I missed something somewhere as I have power while they are on high but nothing in the low position.

As I've rechecked everything from the added switch, relay and PWM it has to be the headlight relay connection. I danced around under there and was certain I had the right wires but apparently I goofed :dribble:

Anybody with a FSM care to tell me what color wires I need on that fuker.... I don't wanna have to tear it down again..Yeah I'm lazy

At this point I'm all out on the dimmer .. I don't understand how you can feed power into a grounded circuit an make shit happen.. :blink:

Several hours, $19 for a PWM that I ain't gonna use, half a dozen fuses.. fuk it! These fukers are full bore .. I found the issue and guess what?? I didn't screw da pooch.

Somebody else did. Fer shitsakes! If yer gonna post up shit to assist in repair/ farkeling at least make sure you ain't an idiot an check it. :dribble:

Why am I not using the PWM??

because it's a stupid idea

independent lower fork leg lights are far less bullshit.

edit - re-thinking this

Bustanut joker said:

Several hours, $19 for a PWM that I ain't gonna use, half a dozen fuses.. fuk it! These fukers are full bore .. I found the issue and guess what?? I didn't screw da pooch.

Somebody else did. Fer shitsakes! If yer gonna post up shit to assist in repair/ farkeling at least make sure you ain't an idiot an check it. :dribble:

Why am I not using the PWM??

because it's a stupid idea

independent lower fork leg lights are far less bullshit.

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Bust - Don't Panic.

The drawing on ADV Rider must have been done by a plumber because that lad is no electrician though he could be an electrical design engineer.

Let us take a look at two drawings ...



In the bottom half of the drawing I added terminal 87a and drew in the coil and we would call the free wheeling diode. The diode is there to protect the PWM when the coil in the relay is de-energized. One of the reasons you are blowing fuses may be either how you wired in the diode if you added one or if the relay has an internal diode, you may have switched terminals 85 & 86. It is very important that the negative terminal of the diode be connected to terminal 86 and that the positive 12 volts be applied to terminal 86 when the high beams are activated. If either of these is wrong you have created a direct short to ground and the fuse will do its job and blow.

I modified the ADV Rider drawing but then I did a re-think and returned it to the original layout and it looks like this ...



When the aux light switch is closed (turned on) the optional aux lights relay is energized via terminal 86. A 12 volt signal will now be present at terminal 30 and will the applied to the positive input terminal of the PWM. On these modules the positive signal is passed through to the positive output terminal which then gets wired to the positive terminals of the aux LED's.

The best way to think about the negative path of the lights is to follow it back from the LED's. The negative connection from the LED's is connected to terminal 30 of the second relay. When the relay is de-energized (high beams off) the path is from terminal 30 to 87a. From 87a the path then goes to the negative output terminal of the PWM where the pulse is modulated before going to ground.

When the high beams are turned on a signal is applied to terminal 86 of the second relay and energizes the relay. The Normally Closed contact (87a) goes open and the Normally Open contact (87) goes closed. This now gives the negative connection from the LED's a direct path to ground without being modulated (full power).

I suspect that the original drawing posted on ADV Rider was done by an English Electrical Design Engineer since the English do everything wrong including driving on the wrong side of the road. However I would almost put money on the diode going across terminals 85 & 86 of the second relay was installed backwards. We are talking about Bust here after all.

Bustanut joker said:

Several hours, $19 for a PWM that I ain't gonna use, half a dozen fuses.. fuk it! These fukers are full bore .. I found the issue and guess what?? I didn't screw da pooch.

Somebody else did. Fer shitsakes! If yer gonna post up shit to assist in repair/ farkeling at least make sure you ain't an idiot an check it. :dribble:

Why am I not using the PWM??

because it's a stupid idea

independent lower fork leg lights are far less bullshit.

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Being this is Dog Pile Friday and all I feel compelled to report the following:

All this ranting and raving. After a few e-mails back and forth and a liter of Crown Royal plus a two four of Molson's finest so that I could put myself into the same mind as our good buddy and what do I discover????

It would appear some drunken sod who should be living in Wisconsin with the rest of the drunks thought the above relays being referred to were the factory relays and not the relays that you have to BUY and add. When it became apparent to me what our electrical wizard had done it was a miracle the battery didn't explode.

After giving some poor, unsuspecting sap over on the ADV Rider forum this major lashing I would think the least he could do is send the lad a bottle.

The scary part about this is Andy is even worse and I wouldn't trust either one of them with so much as a roll of electrical tape.

From here on in when I see either one of these boys mucking about with electrons I'm just going to say:

Put the tools down and back away. This is far too scary for me to watch.

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Lesson learned....................but now we have a new problem

Unless these people have stumbled across something new,.... LED lamps are polarity sensitive. They won't work power to ground.......

I knew this before I started and figured there was majic in those relays I guess.