Will 130W bulbs fry my lights? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Will 130W bulbs fry my lights?

I have the Pro Comp 55W fluted lights mounted on my roofrack. I love the spread of the pattern but would like more output so I'm thinking about swappin' out the H3 bulbs for some 100W or even better, some 130W lights. They're on my roof so they're obvioulsy for offroad/camping. In my searching i'm seeing things about people possibly screwing up their Hella's 500s with higher wattage bulbs, but my Pro Comps are a metal body/metal reflector so I don't think I would melt anything. Oh, I have a 10ga wire running 2 lights so my wiring is fine.

Thanks!
 



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They sell 130W lights so I wonder if there's a difference. I'd call ProComp.
 






I'd probably buy the ProComp 130W H3 bulbs. They put it in the 8" light. You can get 6" lights with 130W (KC Slimlights) so the only thing I can think would be that the 5" wouldn't cool enough? But I honestly don't think size will make that much of a difference b/c the air inside the lights is small and those lights don't take long to heat up

Q=mCpT
 






How does the wiring connect? If there was anything I would be worried about it would be the leads going to the bulb and whatever connection the harness makes to the bulb.
 












My best guess is that the bulbs just wouldnt last as long in the smaller lights cause of the additional heat.
Piaa & KC dont use any heavier wire in their 120 & 130 watt models. So if theres nothing to melt...Go for it.
 






Yeah the input wire for the H3 bulb is the same size regardless of wattage (pretty small gauge). I thought about putting 130W'ers in my KC's (used as driving lights) but they have 100W now and when I pass big road signs on dark interstates it hurts my night (hehe.. they're bright)
 






Originally posted by Bill Kemp
My best guess is that the bulbs just wouldnt last as long in the smaller lights cause of the additional heat.
Piaa & KC dont use any heavier wire in their 120 & 130 watt models. So if theres nothing to melt...Go for it.

Yeah, I really don't think the size can be that much of a factor. The volume inside the lights are definately small so the mass of the air is small... Then again, maybe a larger light can dissipate heat better.. oh well, i just ordered the bulbs so we'll see :thumbsup:
 






all you'd have to do for sure is install a relay for these lights (if you haven't done that already) - otherwise they will sure fry your switch pronto...

other than that they should be fine.
 






I relay everything. I never run something directly off the switch, thats just a bad idea. I ended up putting the 100W on the roof and the 130W in my KC's. When I get a chance to rewire the roof lights, I'll put the 130W up there. The leads for the roof lights are ~16ga and i'll change them to 12ga. The wires in the KC's are 14ga and they were designed for 100W so going to 130 won't be any problem. The ones on the roof were designed for 55W so going to 130W is a big jump. So some weekend it'll just take me 30 minutes to pull off the lights and run new 12ga wires (6" worth for each wire) and then remount em.
 






I'm just wondering about all those cars with tiny little wires in their system.... I once took a wire loom out of a Subaru and was surprised to see that wires factory used were really, really skimpy....

try putting 100W bulbs in the headlights...

ouch!

good luck!
 






Originally posted by Dre
I'm just wondering about all those cars with tiny little wires in their system.... I once took a wire loom out of a Subaru and was surprised to see that wires factory used were really, really skimpy....

try putting 100W bulbs in the headlights...

ouch!

good luck!

Which is why you don't do that ;) And the Subaru Baja thingy with the lights on top probably only has like 35W bulbs in those lights
 






;)
 












holy geez!

Some poor soul is gonna buy those and wonder why their bumper catches fire :eek:
 






that's ridiculus.... that's a poor man's HID conversion....

and sometimes I wonder why these people drive with their high beams on.... to show everybody that their honda or yota is equiped with HID headlights....

kids...

just buy the kit and convert...
 






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