<VV> voltage drop, relays question

JVHRoberts at aol.com JVHRoberts at aol.com
Fri Feb 25 13:28:11 EST 2005


Like I said, the light output goes as a 3.5 power of voltage. I had a set of Cibies in my Corvair, on the stock harness. The voltage at the lamps was 2 volts lower than the battery voltage. When I added relays, they were now within .25 volts of the battery. That's a 59% increase in brightness, and it sure looked like it was more!

>>It's pretty straighforward to add relays to the front lamps ( I would use two fused relays, one for high beam and one for lows) but unless you're running very 
high voltage front lamps, I really don't think they are encessary. In my experience there is not a significant voltage drop through the headlamp switch or 
dimmer switch (as there is in a large number of cars.... I fried a $100 switch in my quattro in less than 5 hours after installing illegal H4 headlamps). Should 
be able to beat the $70 price... I'd put the relays in the left front fenderwell in the trunk.

Just a little more volatge adds quite a bit more light, but my combination of sealed beam halogen low beams and 55w H1 Carello high beams seems to be 
just fine "as is".

Of course, I'm also one of the guy who has sucessfully run a hi output fan for years and years on the stock wiring without an issue.... I keep meaning to 
relay it, but just never seem to get around to it...

Bill


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