Date:         Tue, 6 Nov 2007 08:42:47 -0800
Reply-To:     aatransaxle <daryl@AATRANSAXLE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         aatransaxle <daryl@AATRANSAXLE.COM>
Subject:      Re: GoWesty's headlight upgrade kit
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=original

Volks (Van)Cafe has a kit that in my mind may be a better setup...used a few
for customers...
Double relays that clip onto the top of the fuse panel...saw an early go
westy kit and wasn't impressed...they may have changed too....still teh same
wire to the lights though..
Daryl of AA Transaxle
(425) 788-4070
aatransaxle.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Marshall" <mailinglist@FASTFORWARD.CA>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 1:40 PM
Subject: GoWesty's headlight upgrade kit


>I wonder how much of a difference these really make to the overall
> light
> output.  It seems to me that you are still using the 15+ year
> old
> small gauge wiring and that the only thing that you are really
> doing is
> by-passing the high currently going through the headlight
> switch thus
> saving it and installing brighter bulbs to get more light
> output.
>
> It would be interesting to get a back to back
> comparison of actual
> voltage at the headlight before and after
> installing the relays - I would
> suspect there won't be much of a
> difference due to V=IR losses.  In
> other words the more currently you
> put through a wire the more voltage
> loss you get - these old wires
> will have a lot more resistance than new
> ones.
>
> Assuming
> 20A of current through 2m of wire:
> 14 gauge (new)  = 0.33 v drop
>
> Adding some corrosion in
> there would double or triple the
> resistance easily resulting in a 0.7 v or
> so drop
>
> http://www.stealth316.com/2-wire-resistance.htm
> explains a lot
> about this
>
> What I have done is get some 8ga wire
> and went
> from the battery direct to behind the grille (install a fuse fuse
> at
> the battery!) then I installed some water proof 30A relays behind the
> grille one for low beam, one for high beam and one for my rallye
> lights.  I used the original headlight connectors to trigger the
> relays and have new 12ga wiring to new terminal housings that plug
> into
> the back of the light.
>
> Now when I turn on the lights
> there is
> almost no voltage drop between the battery and the lights
> and the lights
> are much brighter again - no current through my
> headlight switch or
> ignition switch - factory wiring is 100% uncut
> and can be turned back to
> original.
>
> Using the above
> formulas and averaging at 10 gauge
> (most of the wire is 8ga - 30cm is
> 12ga) would result in a 0.1 v
> drop.
>
> When you have only
> 13.4V to play with - every
> little counts!
>
> David
> Marshall
>
> http://www.hasenwerk.ca
> http://www.fastforward.ca
>
> Box
> 4153, Quesnel BC, Canada
> V2J 3J2
>
> On Mon, November 5, 2007
> 10:01, Stephen Grisanti
> wrote:
>> We ordered one of these on
> special last month and
>> Sunday was the day to install it.
> We&rsquo;re leaving for
> a
>> week in the Smokies soon and with the
> recent time
>> change better lighting in the mountains will be
> most
>>
> welcome. You can see captioned pix of the job at:
>>
>
>> http://picasaweb.google.com/bike2vcu/HeadlightUpgrade
>>
>
>>
>> It took about 90 minutes from start to finish.
> The
>> biggest change seems to be in the low beam.  When the
>> lights are on you can actually see the light cast on
>>
> the
> pavement in front of you.  It&rsquo;s not real cheap but
>>
> improved night vision will be well worth it, and the
>>
> circuitry
> upgrade to relays will help ease my mind
>> about
> melting the light
> switch.
>>
>> Stephen