Vanagon EuroVan
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Date:         Sun, 17 Nov 2013 06:03:11 -0500
Reply-To:     Frank Condelli <RAlanen@AOL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Frank Condelli <RAlanen@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: High beams not working-lighting upgrades!
Comments: To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
In-Reply-To:  <BAY406-EAS262108059180579945C0D31A0FA0@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

Not to be argumentative, BUT it all depends on where you drive at night. You for example live in and usually drive around the most populous corridor in the world. So, lots of traffic with lots of light. Come up here to greater downtown Ramsey Ward, concession 8, in the great city of Mississippi Mills, Ontario and see how dark it is and if you see another car with lights, WOW, time for celebration. AND, plus we go to Mexico often with our bus, and yes I know it’s not advisable to drive at night on those small, narrow, twisty, dark, roads but sometimes it just is necessary, so I want lights, lots of light so I can see what I’m gonna hit before I hit it ! My Euro H4 lenses with 100 watt hi beams and inner driving beams at 100w give me what I need. And, yes the lenses are not about 10 years old since I got them new back when they were available, so they are reaching the end of their life. The lenses are protected by Lexan covers, unfortunately no longer available, unless the Skylight Guy and Gal get their act together and get them back in production like they promised, but the reflective material inside is now loosing it’s reflective quality. What next ? Well, right now I’m working on repairing all the rust spots on the Westy for the third time ! 20 years and 750,000 km. Maybe at 100,000 km I’ll give it up !

Frank

On Nov 16, 2013, at 11:28 AM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

> 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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