| Author | Message | ||
     Swordsman |
Just curious... I'm plotting. Temperature limits of the stock housings aside, what's the maximum safe wattage of the XB headlight wiring harness? ~SM | ||
| The_new_guy |
It wont handle 1.21 jiggawatts, if thats what your thinking! | ||
| Jakezor |
Wattage = Volts * Amps So if you consider 12V nominal battery voltage multiply that by what the light circuit is fused for (I don't know off hand). | ||
| Swordsman |
Mmm, the headlights have a 15 amp fuse. So..... 12 volts x 15 amps = 180 watts. Cool, thanks! ~SM | ||
| Darthane |
NOTE: Automotive fuses 'derate' based on ambient temperature. For a Firebolt, this is unlikely to be much of an issue as the fuseblock is not in a high-heat area. For a XBS or Uly, where the fuseblock is located underseat and subjected to engine heat, it may be enough to cause a significant percentage drop in allowable current before you head into 'nuisance blow' territory. To be safe, you should back it down a bit. A conservative amount would be 20%, making your target wattage closer to 150. The other thing to consider is the wire itself, but I sincerely doubt our lighting wires are smaller than 20GA (they might even be 18GA - either of which are fine for that load). | ||
| Fastxb12r |
it also depends on how long the length of the wires are as the longer they are the more resistance which leads to voltage drop.Excessive voltage drop will result in poor operation of electrical equipment, and represents energy wasted in the wiring system. | ||
| Chippy |
the fuse is there to protect the wire...that doesn't mean that it really should carry that much load fwiw. | ||
| Swordsman |
Well, I shouldn't be approaching anywhere near that. I'm probably going to rig up two ~50w high beams and two ~50w low beams which will operate separately. So I really won't be pushing more than 100-110w at a time for the lighting system. I know a lot of people are running their stock high/low beams at the same time, but I was curious how close that was to the threshold. Looks like it's a safe distance away. ~SM | ||
| Chippy |
sounds good. what lamps are you planning to use? changing the whole setup? | ||
| Swordsman |
Yeah, switching from an Ss front end to an R front end, so I'll be using the two R headlights as my brights, probably the 55w halogen/xenons from ABS. I'm going to mount some aftermarket driving lights to my forks to run as low beams. ~SM | ||
| Jos51700 |
Use relays. Problem solved. | ||
| Petebueller |
The wires on my friends 2005 XB12R get hot up near the headlight. They hardened and cracked in a couple of years. I changed mine to relays with a thicker power wire when I first bought mine. I wouldn't be putting any more load through the existing wires. I'd also consider the charging system. I have heated grips, and the auto electrician said that with these and both headlights on I am running close the the capacity of the charging system. |
