By Jon Williams (Jonw) on Thursday, December 13, 2001 - 03:08 pm: Edit

Friend of mine gave me a couple Hella 500s with their wiring harness, etc., off his old truck. I've put 100W bulbs in them (OEM was 55W) so my question is, does the relay in the standard wiring harness have the capacity to power 100-Watters for periods of time, or will I fry the relay and need to get one for 100W bulbs? The relay is fuse-protected, so I imagine that will blow if everything gets too hot, but maybe somebody here knows? It's done fine so far...

Thanks for any info.

By Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) on Thursday, December 13, 2001 - 06:55 pm: Edit

What's the fuse rating?

By Mike B. on Thursday, December 13, 2001 - 08:34 pm: Edit

Which relay are you taking about? Fog Lamps or Aux Lighting?

By Roverine on Thursday, December 13, 2001 - 08:56 pm: Edit

Oh man, another light thread ... Just looked outside: Our neighbors just outdid us on the X Mas lights!!! ... (wait 'til Greg sees this, hehehe) That does it, I want some lights for my truck!!! (er, OUR truck, in case you read this, Greg) Gotta have some, just, got, to ..

Sorry for the outburst, carry on ...
Kim

By Mike P on Thursday, December 13, 2001 - 11:28 pm: Edit

The Hella 500 relay is 30 amp... standard fuse from battery is only 15 amp. I had to got to a 25 amp fuse just to get the set 500's to burn, I think you will blow the relay with 100w bulbs. Maybe even melt some plastic in the lens.
Mike

By Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) on Friday, December 14, 2001 - 08:01 am: Edit

200W / 12V = 16.6 amps, relay should be fine. I'm running 260W on a 30amper and its fine. But harness? Is it really really thin?

By Jon Williams (Jonw) on Friday, December 14, 2001 - 09:42 am: Edit

It's the Hella harness that came with the lights, and a Hella relay with 15 amp fuse. But thanks for the info. I'll have to keep a check on the inside of the lights to see if I start melting anything, because I do use auxiliary lights often.

By Carl E. Cedeholm (Cederholm) on Friday, December 14, 2001 - 09:53 am: Edit

You should worry more about the wires than the relay. I have the 500 and would not want to run too much juice through those wires.

The fuse is there to protect the whole circuit not just the bulb and relay, buy putting in too large a fuse you eliminate it's usefullness.

my 2