Outer Limits 4x4 Board

hey guys i have a 1.6L carby vitara and i am going to wire up 4 100w driving lights on the roof is there any thing i need to change and are there any problems i need to no about

Good luck running 400 watts plus your existing lights from a standard alternator! If you're going to run active wire inside body to roof fit an inline fuse at BOTH ends of wire. In the event of a rollover, at least one fuse will blow and prevent a fire. Cheers.

Pat Murray wrote:Good luck running 400 watts plus your existing lights from a standard alternator! If you're going to run active wire inside body to roof fit an inline fuse at BOTH ends of wire. In the event of a rollover, at least one fuse will blow and prevent a fire. Cheers.

400W = 33+ Amps on top of your existing load - pushing the wrong side of a stock alternator...

One fuse, fitted before the relay(s) will be fine. A second fuse will add no more safety and just provide another potential failure point.

If you go ahead, remember you will be running the wiring MUCH further than a standard driving light install so use much thicker wire to minimise voltage drop.

vitara guy wrote:hey guys i have a 1.6L carby vitara and i am going to wire up 4 100w driving lights on the roof is there any thing i need to change and are there any problems i need to no about

Save your $$ and get a couple of good 55watters with decent wireing and quality globes, you will be suprised by the light output of it.

Keep you alt happier to boot.

Otherwise just come and buy a H4 HID Hi/Low 6000k Upgrade kit for your headlights. THey run at 55w and will poo all over your standard lights. Probably won't even need to run spotties.

In this day and age I just don't see the need to run heaps of Halogen spotties when we have HID technology around.

Here's a link.

http://www.4h.com.au/prod336.htm

These are plug and play, So all you do is plug the existing 3 pin H4 plug into the HID loom and mount the globe in the headlight, assuming its not a sealed beam unit.

cheers

Dan

well what type of altenator can fit (out of another car) so i can wire them up safely

the HID headlights are the way to go. my mates got them on his hilux, they r great, i have 2 nightstalker roo lites on the front of my vit, dont have a problem with my alternator(only stuffed it a few times going through deep mud) and i am also running a uhf, stereo, big fuel pump, gps and waeco 35L fridge when im going away.. your 4 spotties should be finecheers mate

vitara guy wrote:well what type of altenator can fit (out of another car) so i can wire them up safely

Do a search, theres plenty of us who have fitted different alternators, one out of say an EA falcon is ideal, i think thats what mine was from at least.

EA falcon is unsuitable.

EL/EF is the go.

But as stated, do a search. This is convered in GREAT detail.

However - I have to add - HID conversions into standard headlight inserts are illegal. If you go ahead and do this, please have your lights correctly adjusted to ensure you are not blinding other motorists.

My last three road cars have all had factory HID and it's a great thing, but there is a responsibility that comes with using it.

Personally, unless you were desert racing, I can't really see the point of 4 forward facing 100w lights. I have 80w headlight inserts and loom and 2 100W roof lights on my car and it's PLENTY of light for offroad work.

I'd HID a pair of rooflights, put a loomin the car and run quality halogen globes in the headlights if it was me - I always seem to have water in my headlights.

Steve.

not to hijack the thread,

but does putting a larger alternator Effect the power to the wheels at all ?

i'd love a larger alternator

no reason why you would gain extra power to your wheels

Danssurf
I think you might have that back to front....

bugden23 -

Only when the alternator was charging at higher than the maximum amperage delivered by the stock alternator.

I don't know the efficiency of an alternator, let's say it's 50% (it isn't 100% - a quick search didn't net anything) They get hot enough, in some cases to melt, so that's indicating some heavy inefficiency to me, so.. lets say it's 50%.

roughly - a 100A alternator delievering 100A at at 13.8 volts - 1380W or 1.38Kw.... or 2.76Kw at 50% efficient at full load, or roughly the same draw as the airconditioning compressor running....

This would be about twice the engine power consumed by the stock (55a) alternator.

Basically, yes, you might feel it if you could turn it on or off, but the "extra" drain on engine power is only when required, so shortly after startup or when your high drain accessories are turned off there is no effect. for the same job completed though, the draw on engine power is the same in total, it's only over less time with the bigger alternator.

Hope that makes sense.

STeve.

thanks alot steve,

thats probably the best explanation i've heard so far,

note to others: don't bother responding to threads unless u have something construtive to add. Get something better to do with ya time