Headlights: Dumb Question

[Hi yo silver]

Gumpy,
If I understand your intention, the 12 volt backup circuit wouldn't necessarily be required like it would be in a headlight circuit.  If you're using the driving lamps as auxilliary lights, with the two bulbs wired in series, along with low beam headlights, and both go out if you loose one, you still have the headlights.  So you're not in the dark.  HEY! I heard that! Somebody was snickering, Gumpy.  Was it something I said about you bein' in the dark??
Dennis 

[gumpy]

I've been in the dark for most of my life. I just don't like it when I'm in the dark on a deer infested highway. I hit two deer in my bus last year. I'm not saying I wouldn't have hit them if I had these lights, but I might have been paying more attention outside the bus than I was when it happened 

I know I wouldn't necessarily NEED the backup line, but having one of these big monsters would be better than having neither of them, and in looking at the headlight schematic, I could probably utilize the headlight backup circuit to aid me with this with some minor modifications. If I decide to put 4 lights on the front, though, I'd have to add separate backup circuits.

[JackConrad]

     When we changed our headlights over to 12 volt, I modified the high beam headlight "cans" to accept a high/low beam bulb. We now have 4 lights on low beam as well as high beam. Since the low beam lights aim down lower, we have never had anyone flash their brights at us when we are using low beams. This also gives us redundancy, if 1 bulb burns out, we still have at least 1 bulb on each side.  Jack

[RJ]

Gumpy & others -

Personally, I still think the best bang for the buck is to replace the lousy US-code headlamps with the high-quality European-code Cibies.

Very precision optics in the lenses make for a much more pleasant night driving experience, both behind the wheel and to oncoming traffic.  Use stock H-series Quartz-Halogen bulbs available at any auto parts store.  Also available w/ 24v bulbs, for those so blessed. 

Easily aimed - all that's needed is a blank wall and the ability to be parked 25 feet away on a level surface.

Provide a low-beam with a very sharp cut-off to the left, which eliminates glare to oncoming drivers.  Has a very sharp rise to the right, which throws the light a LONG way down the road, even on low beams.  High beams are like aircraft landing lights, but with much more precision.

www.cibieusa.com

Not cheap - $320 for a set of four in the 5" size, but then again, what price SAFETY??  Also available in the 7" size for 4104 and Scenic owners, plus the two common sized rectangulars, for those so-equipped.

TTBOMK, the only reason they're not US DOT-approved is because they don't come with those three little "pips" on the front for use with those antiquated suction-cup headlight aimers.  (Which aren't much good with all the aero-shaped headlights on cars today anyway. . .)

Chris Christiansen up in Idaho put them on his 4905, and so far, he's been the only other busnut who's backed up what I've been saying for over 40 years. . .

Or at least was willing to invest in a set to see if I was just spouting hot air?

FWIW & HTH. . .

[Tim Strommen]

Hey Russ,

     I've been running Cibie's on my 93' Toyota for about five years now.  I agree completely on the light output benefits over US-DOT patterns.  Sadly  , headlight shape was even a consideration when I bought my bus (I really liked the light output of the Cibie 6x8" fixtures), because I wanted to install Cibies in that too.  My only problem with them to date was that I took a rock to one of them about a year ago ($$$).
     I've gotten a few comments on these since I put them in my truck - some asked if they were HIDs (this coud be ignorance or shock at the quality of the light output).  I just run the off-the-shelf H4 bulbs they were designed for at 55Watt Low-beam, 65Watt High-beam - although I've seen specialty bulbs up to 75Watt low, 100Watt high.

Dan Stern is a great guy - I had a chance to talk with him a few years back, very knowledgable.  I bought my fixtures from Aardvard International (they run the Cibie USA site).  They are great to work with.

With the Philips H4 "Truckstar" bulbs the same housing can be used on a 24volt rig without any fancy dropping resistors, or complicated series circuits (just hook them up to a 24-volt power-buss with a fuse/breaker and a relay and voila!).


The only better solution I've seen to the Cibie fixtures, is the Hella 90mm HID modules with E-Code "Z" beam patterns (like what they use on the new Prevost H3-45's, Vanhools, and Gilligs).  Those do require building a mounting surface though, and reallly get a boost from auto-leveling (this is required in europe, but since the US-DOT regulations are about 25years behind the rest of the world, you can get away with not having this).

Cheers!

-Tim

[Tenor]

Jack -
When you changed to 12 volt headlights, do you mean that you just changed the bulbs and then ran them in series to handle 24volts or did you switch to 12 power to each headlight?

[JackConrad]

Jack -
When you changed to 12 volt headlights, do you mean that you just changed the bulbs and then ran them in series to handle 24volts or did you switch to 12 power to each headlight?

We changed the entire system to 12 volt, running off our house batteries (and charged by a 12 volt alternator we added to the bus engine.  Jack