Wanted Question: How many lights

[redteck]

My question is how many 100w lights can i run at the same time on a stock 1999 ford explorer. it has the original altinator. i have the stock sound system with no plans to upgrade. i do have a cb i like to run and i have a smart phone thus it needs to charge often. how many can i safely run. oh and ill be installing back up lights soon to there 55w but ill have them on a switch so i tell them when i want them on. thanks.

 

[mattadams]

Is the question how many can your vehicle handle you running at once, or how many can you run before people get pissed at you and you get pulled over? OK Seriously, that coming from a guy who had about 10-14 lights on at least two previous vehicles...

Look at it this way... 100 watts on a 12-volt car is about 8.3 amps. Most alternators are rated around 85-110 continuous amps, some upgraded alternators might be 150amp or even 200amp... and of course batteries rated at hundreds of amps (lets say 400-600 for an average battery, more for a higher end one). Remember that your alternators job is just to keep the battery charged so if your vehicle isn't draining all the power from the battery, you should be able to run quite a few accessories with no real worry the alternator can't keep up with it.

Now, I'm not sure what driving conditions would you require you to be driving around with a ton of lights on for a consistent amount of time, but if you needed, say, 10 lights on at a time, perhaps it would be wise to upgrade the battery and the alternator .

 

[corkey]

4 100 watt lights, the motor and the heat on at almost full fan speed will show you pretty quick how the battery drains faster than you think,,

 

[Bill Kemp]

How many lights do you want to put on the X?

Easy to figure the draw once you know the Amps.

 

[redteck]

Well were id use them most is way out in the woods were i gotta see due to my friend and yhree of his friends hit elk. So the more lights to see the better. I was thinking id go four 5inch 100w lights.