[vl2dy4]

What voltage should be getting to the headlights?

when i measure off the Battery terminals i'm getting 14.8 volts approx, and at the headlights i'm getting 13.6 volts approx, so that means that i have a 1.2volt drop through the wiring, but will the extra 1.2 volts really make a difference?

I have also just upgraded my Alternator to the Mitsubishi 110amp ford alternator.

Cheers

Conrad

[Scrawny]

14.8v is a bit much at the battery

[whincup]

vl2dy4 wrote:

will the extra 1.2 volts really make a difference?

this is taken straight from http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... elays.html

Quote:

When operating voltage drops to 95 percent (12.54v), headlamp bulbs produce only 83 percent of their rated light output. When voltage drops to 90 percent (11.88v), bulb output is only 67 percent of what it should be. And when voltage drops to 85 percent (11.22v), bulb output is a paltry 53 percent of normal

i only assume this is true, but it seems right to me after seeing the difference between stock and relayed headlights

[royce]

Made a loom for a Sierra today drops 0.2v on high beam

[Moag]

That's a thing of beauty Royce...

[royce]

This is why you dont stick massive wattage globes in and why if you dont understand electricity, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM IT

This sierra had burnt the high beam side in the dipper switch, for some reason the tard that owned it before thought it was a good idea to tap the drivers side to the passenger side but crossed and the high and low beam wire in teh process

[Moag]

royce wrote:

This is why you dont stick massive wattage globes in and why if you dont understand electricity, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM IT

This sierra had burnt the high beam side in the dipper switch, for some reason the tard that owned it before thought it was a good idea to tap the drivers side to the passenger side but crossed and the high and low beam wire in teh process

Not to mention what's its doing to your dimmer switch with high wattage globes with stock wiring.

[royce]

Moag wrote:

royce wrote:

This is why you dont stick massive wattage globes in and why if you dont understand electricity, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM IT

This sierra had burnt the high beam side in the dipper switch, for some reason the tard that owned it before thought it was a good idea to tap the drivers side to the passenger side but crossed and the high and low beam wire in teh process

Not to mention what's its doing to your dimmer switch with high wattage globes with stock wiring.

hehe yeah, it wasnt working on high beam but worked on the passing flash (hehe passing, in a sierra)
The plastic housing had melted around the little arm things and flowed between the contacts and set again so it didnt work

[truongski]

Royce,

That loom looks awesome. Looks like I'll have to get some corrugated tubing. Are you using relay holders? Where did you get the fuse holder from? Is the black cable from the fuse holder the postive from the battery?

Cheers.

[royce]

nah those ones they are just a molded plug for the relays, the next ones I do will have a screw in place relay holder, fuse holder is ebay, black cable goes on up the loom a bit to teh heater cable grommet for the switch for the spotties in the cab, red cable poking out a little way down in teh fat stuff is the power from the battery

[truongski]

Looking good. Definitely not your first time. Thanks for the advice.

[fordem]

Moag wrote:

That's a thing of beauty Royce...

X2 - it's also nice to know I'm not the only person who works on the floor

[steak_knife]

fordem wrote:

Moag wrote:

That's a thing of beauty Royce...

X2 - it's also nice to know I'm not the only person who works on the floor

I call it the "big shelf"....

[royce]

Made one for the vit today, tapping off the stock headlight fuses underbonnet for power, it drops 0.4 total, better than 1.5

though it seems my expensive fuse panel for the dual battery stuff is up the shit now so ill have to replace it next

[Marked]

Thanks for the diagram, very helpful. This saved me a bundle as I would have had to go to auto electrician. This site is such an amazing resource, so thanks Royce! I wondered if the 2006 GV was the same, and they are.

One difficulty I had was finding a good firewall entry. (No problem on my old Vitara). So I had to unbolt the fuse box on the drivers side engine bay to get to the bonnet cable so I could pass wires through.
Also, I dont know what the deal with the three prong is on your diagram, is that low and high beam? I think so.
On the 2006 there is just two prongs because the high and low beam are separate. I used tap joiners to wire in the relay to the two wires coming out of high beam.

I also managed to fit a nice switch, rather than the crappy roller one they give you.

[Ben_Sierra]

vl2dy4 wrote:

What voltage should be getting to the headlights?

when i measure off the Battery terminals i'm getting 14.8 volts approx, and at the headlights i'm getting 13.6 volts approx, so that means that i have a 1.2volt drop through the wiring, but will the extra 1.2 volts really make a difference?

I have also just upgraded my Alternator to the Mitsubishi 110amp ford alternator.

Cheers

Conrad

Well, power delivered to the globes is proportional to the voltage squared, so assuming a nominal resistance of 1, your looking at about 16% more power delivered at 14.8 volts than at 13.6 volts...

[monley]

Hey guys,

Just want to double check some thing, say if i had 4 100 watt spot lights with a draw rate of 8amps on each light, will i be able to run 4 spot lights with one 40/50 AMP relay? or is that dodgy?

[atari4x4]

personally i'd split them into their pairs no matter what, one dead relay/sticky relay = zero spot lights.

[royce]

the relay might well pass the full current but you are going to have trouble getting fat enough cable in there and the crimp terminals would likely get a bit warm

[monley]

Ok thanks Royce, i have a pre-wired harness so i wound not be crimping any thing, just be tapping my other 2 lights into the current circuit, but i guess that still won't adequate for running 4 lights right?

Cheers,

Andy

[royce]

correct

[Scales]

hey royce, how would you wire in a carling switch (arb) into one of these sort of spotlight setups?
heres the switch pinout
i understand the panel lighting goes to pin 6 with 7 being gnd for that particular light.
but how do i get the other light to illuminate with the negative switching the zooks have?
cheers
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm28 ... Lights.gif

[royce]

I am sure I have done it before for negative switched lights

Off the top of my head, I would have to draw it to check but

12v high beam to battery power off the back of the headlight (make sure you fuse it!) that would normally go to pin 85 on my diagram

Switched to pin 85 on the relay

Ground (lights) to pin 86 on the relay, which is also hooked up the high beam negative switch wire

so youll either need to run 3 wires into the switch or find battery power inside the cab somewhere

[Scales]

Yep, you've lost me. Any chance of a diagram with the arb style switch in it?

[royce]

This should make sense

Red is Battery power (fused at source, doesnt have to be from the headlight)
Blue is switched battery power (so will have power when switch is on regardless of where headlights are at)
Black is factory high beam switched

I left the other parts of the relay wiring out to keep it easy to read

So we can see that the circuit for the relay to switch on needs both the switch AND the high beam on to work, switching either off will break the circuit like normal, we just a switch on either side rather than 2 switches on one side like normal

the LED in teh switch effectivley is wired paralell to the relay contacts, it will always have power at one side of (if the switch is left on) but no earth to complete the circuit till high beam is selected

[Scales]

Thanks for that mate. I'm only installing Spottys at this stage (not doing harness upgrade yet). Will this diagram still work ok?

[royce]

yep, to make it simpler you could also find the high beam wire at the column as well, less wires to run out

[rpower10]

Don't mean to be a pain but I'm a noob... So with the 3 pin led switch why doesn't the red wire connect to the battery anymore? I need to do a combination of both royces diagrams and I'm a bit confused... thanks in advance....

[porky_one]

Moag wrote:

All is in - with fuses, spotlight switch and wires made neat and protected.
Works perfectly.

Re did the drawing of what I finished up doing,
to make it as clear as possible for all

Hope this helps!!!

I know this may be a newbie question but can this relay set up be used with a HID conversion or would this relay set up be a waste of time considering the HID conversion installation?

[fordem]

Apart from being totally incorrect for a Suzuki - yes - you could use that with HIDs - 50W HIDs pull as much current as halogens.