Date:         Wed, 15 Jan 1997 23:57:36 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         James Cohen <jscohen@m2.sprynet.com>
Subject:      Re: halogen wisdom please

>Hello all,
>OK, I'm looking for a definitive answer here, from someone who has
>experience or who knows pretty well what will happen:
>
>I have a set of Hella 500 driving lights mounted on my van.  These
>lights came with the H3 12v/55W halogen bulbs (these bulbs are a pain in
>the ass compared to the other H bulbs).  Anyway, I was wondering if when
>these burn out I could safely replace the 55W H3 bulbs with 100W H3
>bulbs or if this is a really bad idea.
>Anyway, don't forget the original question :)  .  Can I safely put 100W
>H3 bulbs in a light made for 55W H3 bulbs?
>
>Thanks all,
>Sean

I believe you can.  Hella does sell 100w bulbs for the 500s.  However, the
consequenses would be that the glass lens would crack if the bulbs were too
hot.

Call Hella and ask them: 800-247-5924.  They're very helpful with technical
questions.

But I'm not sure why you'd want to do this.  Unless you're exclusively
using the lights off-road, you won't be able to turn them on without
seriously blinding oncomming traffic.  EVen the 55W are so blinding that a
second's exposure to them can cause severe vision problems for drivers.
It's downright dangerous.

James