[villagetinker]

I recently bought a really nice low hours 2014 Yamaha PTV and noticed the headlights were nor very bright. These are H3 Halogen bulb-based units. I went to Amazon and found LED replacement 'bulbs' for around $32 for a set of 2. I installed and was very disappointed in the light pattern, it was vertical instead of horizontal. NOTE: the replacement bulbs were installed correctly, and the headlight units can only be installed one way. I noticed when looking at the replacement LED units the LEDs were arranged 90 degrees from the way the H3 filament is arranged. Back to Amazon, and out of over 2 dozen replacements to choose from, only 1 had what I consider the correct orientation.

The attached PDF shows the 2 different designs, with the second unit being to one that works very well.

[Win1894]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

I recently bought a really nice low hours 2014 Yamaha PTV and noticed the headlights were nor very bright. These are H3 Halogen bulb-based units. I went to Amazon and found LED replacement 'bulbs' for around $32 for a set of 2. I installed and was very disappointed in the light pattern, it was vertical instead of horizontal. NOTE: the replacement bulbs were installed correctly, and the headlight units can only be installed one way. I noticed when looking at the replacement LED units the LEDs were arranged 90 degrees from the way the H3 filament is arranged. Back to Amazon, and out of over 2 dozen replacements to choose from, only 1 had what I consider the correct orientation.

The attached PDF shows the 2 different designs, with the second unit being to one that works very well.

A couple of comments that may help: I've notice that Yamaha carts in particular (mostly the older ones) have terrible headlights. They are very poorly engineered. They are essentially just a bulb centered in parabolic reflector, with not even the slightest hint of a proper beam profile intended to light the ground ahead of the cart. That said you can find halogen bulbs of higher wattage than the 55 watt standard that you likely have, such as 75 watts. The problems with this approach are: you will blind oncoming traffic unless you change the position of the bulb in the reflector, halogen bulbs run hot and can melt the bulb holders and bulb housing, and lastly you would need to make sure the wiring can handle the extra current. Having said all that I can tell you that the quality of the light from a halogen bulb is vastly superior to LED bulbs. A lot of folks who get LED replacements purchase LEDs with a high temperature such as 5000 or 6000 degrees K. The spectral output at these temperatures is terrible so shoot for something in the 3500 to 4000 deg range. Your depth perception is be greatly enhanced at the lower temperature which is a very good thing for night driving, especially for women who are much more adversely susceptible to high temperature LED light. I spent 5 years in automotive lighting R&D.

[tophcfa]

We have a 2014 Yamaha G29 PTV that had the OEM halogen headlights. I know it doesn’t answer your question, but we had Todd Casey replace the entire headlight fixtures with LED fixtures several years ago. Not only did it significantly improve the night visibility, but the halogen light electrical draw was really heating up the turn signal stalk. The overheating issue was completely solved when we converted to the LED’s. With the old halogens, the lights would also get very dim when the cart was stopped at a traffic light, then brighten up when the gas was hit. Those halogens are extremely inefficient.