Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 16:02:22 -0400
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: So... what is the answer for these poor lights?
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20030605111141.03556378@harmony.he.net>
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At 02:16 PM 6/5/2003, Ri wrote:
>Our low beams SUCK. Our high beams are ok! But, even our high beams don't
>get flashed by people. Living on the Oregon Coast, the blackness + wetness
>at night is so dark it sucks the light out of the air!
>
>I understand the problems as this?
> 1. Add a relay for the switch.
> 2. The glass/lenses are poorly designed.
>
>Then I hear that for the $$$ a South African (round head light) setup is a
>better way to go cuz the lenses are cheaper? $350 for rectangular lenses
>really makes me squirm.
>
>Can someone one enlighten us on what is the *true* way to have proper
>lighting?
John 8:12 <g>
Ok, a recap:
A) low beams. The Vgon US 4-light system has an atrocious beam pattern on
low beam. There is no cure for this (within reason), so your choices are:
1) buy European 4-light system (from David Marshall or
whatever). They are excellent and expensive. Bulbs are cheap but broken
lenses are expensive and must get from Europe somehow.
2) buy South African grille with round 4-light system
(James Cohen?). They are excellent and expensive. Bulbs are cheap and
headlight assemblies (7" round, just like the two-light systems) are
standard items from Hella, Cibie, Bosch etc. available in any reasonably
cosmopolitan FLAPS for reasonable money. In emergency you can substitute a
standard 7" round sealed-beam light available anywhere practically for
free. The inner square auxiliary high-beams are the same as the regular US
or Euro grilles.
3) buy a grille and headlight set from an earlier
Vanagon. Either use ordinary 6014 sealed-beam halogens (standard good
US-pattern) or Euro-spec round lights with H4 bulbs (huge improvement over
any US-pattern light). You'll lose the inner high-beams but the loss will
be partially made up by the greater efficiency of the larger round reflector.
4) Leave the existing system and add auxiliary low beams
to make up the deficiency. Don't know if they're as good as the
European-pattern low beams, but at the least should be an excellent
US-pattern (which is to say, about half as good IMO as a mediocre Euro-spec
pattern).
B) High beams: Beam pattern pretty good as they stand, brightness see next
section. Euro-spec H4 lamps will likely give some improvement, see choices
above. If still more high-beam output desired, add driving light(s).
C) Overall: The wiring is wimpy and likely deteriorated, the switch
ditto. Light output decreases disproportionately with reduced voltage.
1) Go through the system from battery to fuse panel to
lights to ground and identify the voltage drops. Fix grounds, poor
connections as needed. Replace wiring with larger as indicated to reduce
drop along wire runs.
2) Rewire the system to use relays for switching and have
the headlight switch and dipping switch only control the relays. Run new
heavier feeds direct from the battery to supply actual power to the
lights. There should be four feeds, one each for high and low on each
side, and each one should be fused within a few inches of the battery. The
power feeds should be as short as reasonable and the relays can be wherever
is convenient along them. The relay control wiring (which formerly powered
the actual lights) can be extended to any length as convenient. It's
already fused for each beam. This scheme will require four SPDT relays or
two DPDT relays -- whichever is easier and/or results in shorter runs for
the feed wires is best. If your relays are physically located together or
if you use DPDT relays, can drive using only two of the original four
headlight feeds
3) Consider more powerful bulbs, preferably high-beam
only. Don't even think of it before doing the previous steps. H4 bulbs
are available in a number of wattage combinations. Work the numbers for
voltage drops vs. wire size so you don't end up with wires that are too small.
D) End note: The combinations with 7" round lights will make it easy to
temporarily swap in US-pattern lights if your inspecting stations are
unpleasantly picky. I've been using Euro-spec round lights since 1970 and
haven't had a problem yet (east coast). But I haven't been running
five-kilowatt bulbs in them...
david
--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"
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