Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:27:28 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Aux driving lights question..best easy power source..?
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nice strategy on the 'only when hi beams are on' ..........
On a regular 4 contact relay ............
they way you plan it right now ...........the load current would have to
come from your high beam circuit. Not the best.
what you want is a more evoled relay ,
they have 5 or 6 contacts......perhaps that's what you have in mind already.
With one of those two conditions have to be met to make the load part
connect.........
you have your KC lites switch on, AND hi beams are on............
but the high beam cirucit is not the load source..........
it only allows the real load souce to make connection.
And you get that voltage off the fat wire feeding the fuse box or light
switch .........
or even your own dedicated fat wire from the battery or whaever, fuse
protected of course.
I am sure that you Don, realize that only wires downstream of a fuse are
fuse-protected.
I've seen people run a fat wire from a battery, under carpet, then to a
fuse, then to a booster amp for a sound system.
Of course the wire prior to the fuse is free to short and burn things.
I know a guy who had time to pull over, and watch the entire interior of his
vanagon get ingulfed in flames that way- blew out all the windows. I'm still
mining little parts off that vanagon carcas now some 5 years later. Point
is, fuses need to be near the power source.
on a typical fog light relay it's like that.........need two inputs or
conditions met for the load circuit to be completed........
like fog light switch on, and low beams on.
that's the kind of relay you want to use. The right kind will have 5 or 6
terminals.. A basic four termnial relay can't do that of course.
And you do not want to be drawing more current through your stock high beam
circuit or light switch.
Even the normal headlights should have a relay between the light switch and
the headlights, really.
scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Hanson" <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 12:46 PM
Subject: Aux driving lights question..best easy power source..?
> Hi all,
>
> I am installing some KC Daylighter lights onto my 84 vans front bumper.
> These came from my now retired big Ford. 100 watt bulbs, you see em
> everywhere on showboat trucks and buggies, the big round ones with the
> 'smiler face' covers sometimes.
>
> Anyhow, I used these on my pickup in Baja and on deserted roads and
> they've saved me a few cow and deer encounters so now they are going onto
> the van.
> So far, I have all the stuff and the hardware is in place, with the
> lights
> drilled into the bumpers right under my headlights. I also have a genuine
> VW auxiliary light switch for the blank position in my dash switch panel.
> Here's my plan..see if it makes sense. I plan to take a small lead from
> my
> high beams, probably from the fuse panel and run that to the aux light
> switch. I will use the aux light switch to control a 30 amp relay to
> power
> the lights, but the aux. light switch will only get power through the
> switch
> if the high beams are on. So, if I want the aux lights on, I have to run
> the high beams..and if I dim the high beams, the aux light switch will no
> longer power that relay, so the auxiliary lights will go off also. Just
> in
> case I am on a mountain road and come round a corner encountering a stray
> vehicle with my driving lights on, a quick dip of the high beams will kill
> em. (as is mandated by law, too, I think, though the KC lights aren't
> highway legal anyhow.)
>
> So the question is, where is a good place to get some power for the power
> side of the light relay I plan to install as close to the lights as
> possible. Shorter is better, right? But I don't want to chance
> overloading
> a critical circuit so what would be good? I could come forward from my
> coach battery (under the driver seat) or maybe from the fan power supply.
> Not the headlights..as I'd hate blowing a fuse and being lightless at
> speed..
> any suggestions, any 'gotchas' with my plan?
> Thanks,
> Don Hanson
>
> I don't care if it doesn't look 'factory'. I can live with extra visible
> wires. Easy of install overrides beauty, but durability and function
> trumps
> all.
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