hella 100 worklights..

[bigballer]

i know this has been covered quite a bit lately and i have seen all sorts of installations but wanted to see if anyone else was using the hella 100 round lights? i bought 2 of them on amazon ($8.97/ea) to "demo" and they appear to be well built (thick rubber housing and glass lenses) and very bright (think stadium lights). the coverage is excellent even though they are "long range". i should have my second set tomorrow and hopefully will complete the installation project this weekend.

<btw, i am not the seller of these so this is not a promo>

 

[BigE_]

I'd be curious to see how well they work out for you.

 

[kennyd]

How many watts are these lights?

 

[bigballer]

hey kenny - these are 55watt H3 bulbs

Hella Oval 100 H3 Long Range Double Beam

 

[BigE_]

If you only get one set and mount them on the rear fenders, you'd be able to swivel them front to rear as needed....

 

[bigballer]

was actually thinking of adding a 3rd set to do just that but for side viewing.. i'm probably taking it a bit too far but i like to brainstorm. i am not sure my alternator would handle a 3rd set though.. it's 40AMP let's see.. 28AMPs for the 6 worklights and ~9 amps for the stock lights puts it right at the edge.. i suppose i could not use the stock lights.. don't really need them anyway.. hmmm..

 

[BigE_]

I would definitely disconnect the stock FEL illuminaters. I also would have a different set of switches for the 2nd or third set. You don't want all three on at the same time, even if the stock lights are disconnected. Your battery still needs to charge, and you'd end up killing your alternator.

A really cool project would be to design a switching power supply so you could dim some of the lights as needed and at the same time lower power consumption. (Most DC dimmers just dump the load across a resistor instead of across the light, so the current consumption stays the same).

Heck, I might just go ahead and build something like that myself.....

 

[Tororider]

BigE,
If you build it...
You could sell it to all us yokels without the skills to do so.

 

[BigE_]

Couple of questions then, on the design:

First, there are a few options: panel mounted or on a per light basis, at the light itself.

• Panel mounted would make the wiring a bit more complicated, and make installation a bit harder, but it would obviously be easier to control
• Mounted at the light itself would be very easy to install, but a tad harder to adjust
• The third option is mount at the light itself, but run a control wire back to the dash

The second set of options is control type: can do push button or rotary

• Rotary is easier to adjust, but I know after a few days left out in the rain would corrode, unless I found a potentiometer rated for outdoor use
• Push button would be very easy to mount on the dash. You would have 3-4 settings of brightness.
• Cost is similar between the two designs, but they are very different: rotary uses a switching power supply, whereas pushbutton requires a microcontroller and programming. I could do both in my sleep....

Myself, I'm leaning towards a design that mounts at the light, and you have the option of running a pushbutton back to the dash.

-Steve

 

[bigballer]

i like the dimmer idea but for now i am just going with the standard on/off.

i finalized my installation tonight and had a chance to get out in the woods and try 'em out. they work pretty good, i would say for anyone thinking about adding lights make sure to consider REAR lights as well. these make all the difference. i was able to do some brushogging which required me to back into a thicket of blackberries and having the lights made it a breeze. i attached a couple pictures of my escapade around the property. these were taken around 7:30 pm longer after the sun had set, if i turned the lights out it was pitch black (no moon tonight), my digital camera doesn't do to well in the dark without a flash but you'll get the idea.