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Cody
01-07-2005, 03:28 PM
OK, this is probably a dumb question but here goes anyways....

What I'm looking for is a long range driving light for my dodge. I always seem to be towing late at night and I would love to have a super bright driving light to blast out the road.

Say I buy a set of Hella 500 driving lights---first off does anyone no how bright those are compared to factor highbeams? I can get these for 30 bucks, but they only have the 55 watt bulb.

So my question is, can I simply replace teh 55 watt bulb with a 85 watt or 100 or whatever and will that effectively increase the brightness and range of the driving light?

I like the 500's cause they are low profile enough to mount on my bumper but I'm not sure they are bright enough to do the job. Should I try and get these and put the brighter bulbs in, or should I just figure out a way to mount of some KC daylighters or something?

Cody

MaineZJ
01-07-2005, 03:42 PM
just a sire note- i had a friend who replaced the bulbs in some driving lights with higher wattage ones... ended up melting the housing.

robselina
01-07-2005, 04:11 PM
yea, typically if you just put in higher wattage bulbs you'll just overheat your wiring harness.

First, to compare your existing lights to whatever you want to do, look at the lumen count for your existing bulbs compared to the upgrade. EG, I think standard ZJ bulbs are 300 lumens and the ulta-brites at NAPA are 350 lumens.

What I would probably suggest for your situation, is just rewire your lights and run better bulbs (higher wattage). You could get some relays from NAPA and then wire your existing headlights into the switch on the relay, then run fresh higher gauge wire from the battery to the relay, then to the lights for the higher wattage bulbs. Then you could run those 110W suckers everyone loves and not have to worry about damaging your wiring. It'd only cost you $30-$40 for the bulbs, relay and wires.....

I just did a similar wiring job putting some driving lights on my MG and it was pretty straight forward....

EDIT: you'll probably need two relays now I think about it since you have separate circuits for the high and low beams...I'd just use standard 40A relays, they're plentiful at NAPA, and I'd probably suggest 14ga wire. I'm kinda tempted to do this myself on the ZJ now I think about it :)

EDIT #2 - re-read your question and realized I didn't answer it. LOL. Anyway, you should be able to put a higher wattage bulb in there if you want as long as you replace the wiring going to the bulb. It needs to be a minimum of 16ga, preferably 14 ga. Then 14ga wire back to the relay that controls them.

Cody
01-07-2005, 05:02 PM
Thats an interesting idea. I have no problem finding relays and wire since I install car stereos for a living ;)

I need some long range lights--I had upgraded headlights on my ZJ and they were better, but not what I want when I'm criusing down a 50 mile straight away at 90 mph with a jeep in tow at 2 a.m.

(and yes I do realize there are other safety issues present in that scenerio ;) )

My brother has the 90 watt KC daylighters and they work awesome. I was looking at the 130 watt 6" Pro Comps (which I am told are made by KC), but my problem is that they are a little deeper and I'm not sure how I could mount them and have them not look goofy....

Cody

robselina
01-07-2005, 05:45 PM
for what you can get them for, get the 500 driving lights and try them out. I'll bet they do some good....

KC also makes those 'slimilte' 6" deals that would seam ideal but NOT cheap....

BMRisko
01-08-2005, 01:01 AM
OK, this is probably a dumb question but here goes anyways....

What I'm looking for is a long range driving light for my dodge. I always seem to be towing late at night and I would love to have a super bright driving light to blast out the road.

Say I buy a set of Hella 500 driving lights---first off does anyone no how bright those are compared to factor highbeams? I can get these for 30 bucks, but they only have the 55 watt bulb.

So my question is, can I simply replace teh 55 watt bulb with a 85 watt or 100 or whatever and will that effectively increase the brightness and range of the driving light?

I like the 500's cause they are low profile enough to mount on my bumper but I'm not sure they are bright enough to do the job. Should I try and get these and put the brighter bulbs in, or should I just figure out a way to mount of some KC daylighters or something?

Cody

My 130w Pro-Comps were bright as hell. It was seriously like daylight when on a back road or open stretch of highway. Too bad they were so large. I had the 8" versions. You can't go wrong for the price though.

FinlayZJ
01-08-2005, 01:52 AM
I had a set of Hella 500's on the old ZJ. Alot brighter than the crap ZJ lights. Then my friend got a set of KC's and mounted them on his YJ's hood.

KC > Hella.

It was rediculous how much brighter the KC's were.

Nordic1
01-08-2005, 05:19 AM
E-Spec em 8)

maybe change out the wiring harness for something a little more HD, then swap in some 90/110 lightbulbs

Cody
01-08-2005, 03:30 PM
I'm not really looking to upgrade my headlights. I want some damn flamethrowers on the front of my dodge---the 150k candlepower kind.

I"m going to go down to 4wp today and see how deep the PC lights are. If I can mount them without them looking rediculous, I think I'll go that route.

Cody

Jim311
01-08-2005, 04:38 PM
I agree on KCs... super freakin bright. I'm running the 100 watt version in my Hella 550 housings... so much brigther than the ones they came with its not even funny.

Jeepin' Wolf
01-08-2005, 05:16 PM
Not exactly cheap but my IPF's reach pretty damn far and bright. 130W is 130W. Although the high beam in the WJ is most excellent and in a usable range ( I can't see a mile ahead anyways ) work just fine for the most part.