Switched grounds? To my knowledge there are switched hot circuits...i.e. they go on with the ignition switch in the on position. Switched grounds is a new one on me.

But in hopefully answering the question I would put all accessories on switched circuits. That way if you forget to turn them off when you stop the engine the key will turn them off for you.

 

As far as I can see from the wiring diagrams, the circuit (for instance, headlights) has +12 volts when the key is on. However, the lights don’t turn on because the headlight switch has interrupted the ground wire. When you flick the headlight switch, the ground side is closed, the circuit completes and the lights turn on.

Normally, what I am used to is the ground side of the circuit is always closed, and the +12 volts side is switched.

For the record, every circuit I add will be fused and run through a relay. My question is just whether I should have the ground side run through the relay contacts, or the +12 volts side.

Do I wire things so it is consistent with the Polaris way, or do I wire the things I add up in the common non-Polaris way?

 

There's an accy wire under the dash. Tap into that. Be warned, don't add too many or too big a light. Your little stator can't hack it... Trying to run oem headlights, an amber led chase light, small light bar and a parker pumper makes my battery light flash at me at idle or low rpm. Have to turn off the parker pumper or lights when I'm going slower or pitting.

 

Thanks for the heads up. It already had a yellow top optima so there is a huge amount of reserve capacity, but I totally understand that the the 800 stator only puts out about 500 watts on a good day.

 

Only the brake lights have constant 12v, and switched ground. This is because they wanted to use the brake light switched ground to also be switched ground for the starter solenoid (their version of neutral safety switch).
The tail lights have constant 12v (when key on), and constant ground, so tail lights are always on when driving.

Do yourself a favor, and replace tail lamps with LED bulbs. The factory incandescent bulbs will melt the housings.

I added a relay and rearranged the wires in the box harness connector so that brake lights have constant ground and switched power.
This was part of mods to add turn signals using factory tail lamp assemblies.

 

Thanks for the info about the switched grounding only on tail lights. I was certain I saw the same thing on the headlight schematic, but I’m research from my phone and it’s hard to trace on the small screen. Also, don’t have the RZR with me at the moment to just go meter the harness.

With regard to running LED in the tail lights, isn’t there some weird issue caused by the lower load or resistance over the incandescent bulbs? I know the polarity is of the socket is backwards (not an issue with incandescents obviously) and some LEDs won’t work so you have to re-pin the sockets.

Any idea what particular bulbs you run / ran?

 

Take a look at post #9 in:

https://www.rzrforums.net/rzr-570-specific-discussion/138157-led-no-brakelights.html

and verify your sockets with a meter.
The lower resistance(load) is only an issue with turn signal blinker, and RZR's don't have one.