Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 11:28:52 -0500
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: High beams not working-lighting upgrades!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I just drove Fun Bus from NY to Florida. I drove through the Carolinas and
Georgia at night. In all I think I was "able" to use the high beams 4 times.
Even with y original lights, messed up lenses and all I had no problem.
There was always something in front of me to follow or in my way (Ha Ha).
Anyway, as weak as the original headlight switch may be adding relays does
also just add another point of failure. As for more powerful lamps there is
just something wrong with using almost 1.2 your alternators capacity just
for the head lamps. As lighting is a continuous load you have to look at the
full power distribution of the vehicle for upgrades like this. The big weak
ling is the harness from the alternator. And this one can fail near the
alternator connection and yes this can catch fire. Replace it with the fuel
lines. At least inspect the terminal where it connects to the alternator.
Buy the way, if you simply re-feed the headlight switch from a circuit not
connected to the ignition switch you will get the same lighting increase as
the relays, (using original wattage bulbs).
I get a bit of a kick out of folks that need super lighting and auxiliary
stuff as they sit in traffic with the car if front of them no more than 4
feet away. I do find it annoying when these folks are behind me. Especially
in the motor home, lights like this shining into the mirrors can be a real
nuisance. Just because oncoming traffic is not flashing their lights out
does not mean you are not annoying drivers in front of you. Those big bulbs
with bad housings and lenses can really be distracting.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Frank Condelli
Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2013 5:51 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: High beams not working
Not really. It all depends on the relays and wires. You need
properly rated relays and wires to keep the 400 watts from burning
something. The only problem I have seen is that damn 9004 bulb socket
cannot take the power, the contacts are too small and eventually the heat
melts the plastic of the socket and will kill it. I've replace them with
ones from NAPA and they seem to hold up better. On my van I do not have
that problem as years ago I installed the Euro H4 headlamps with the H4
bulbs, their bulb holders have BIG fat contacts in the bulb sockets ! The
relay kits I sell
<http://www.frankcondelli.com/staging1/store/index.php?route=product/product
&product_id=1090> are made to handle 400 watts. I know it works as my
personal Westy has had this set for many, many years and we do a lot of
milage, you all know that of course, with the 400 watts a glowing for hours
on end and never have we had any problems.
On Nov 16, 2013, at 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor
<LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> wrote:
> 400 watts is asking a lot of it for sustained use.
Cheers,
Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 VW Westy, '00 Kawasaki 250 Sherpa, "98 Ducati 750 Monster & Lionel
Trains (Collection for sale) Frank Condelli & Associates - Vanagon/Vanagon
Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley BusFusion a VW Camper camping event,
Almonte, ON, June 05 ~ 08, 2014
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