Halogen Headlights

[Joe/Ct]

I have halogen seal beam headlights on my '39 coupe and the 30 amp circuit breaker trips after the've been on for about 10 min. Do the halogens draw that much current? If so, what amperage breaker is appropriate?

A really dumb question....How important is it that the positive be connected to the copper terminal of the breaker? The above condition was observed with the positive on the silver terminal......I haven't had a chance to run with the lights on to see if it makes any difference.

[345 DeSoto]

Two things. If you are using a Stock generator, it won't be able to keep up with the power draw of the Halogens. Halogens are usually operated through a relay...

[wfritchen]

DeSoto is correct: are you running the power draw of the halogens through your headlight switch? Relays are typically used and work well.

[G.M.]

Either the halogen bulbs you have are to high in amp draw or the wireing and connections are bad. I suspect both. I had good wireing in my 39 and if I recall had 55 halogen bulbs. They got so hot and drew so much power the plastic 3 prong connectors melted seveal times. I could only run the high beams at highway speed because of the generator power. I got in touch with someone in the bulb business in AU or NZ who also operates in the USA. He was very helpfull and had a large selection of halogen bulb. He even has them that plug into the standard Ford head light sockets. I went with I think 45s which he said were brighter then incondecent 55s. They worked fairly good but with any headlights powered by a generator as soon as you slow down the generator drops out and the lights are running off the battery and in cities and towns at stop and go driving it don't take but a few minutes for the battery to get low and the lights dim. Also there is also the chance the coil volt will get low and the engine start to run poorly. I had many nights on tours I had to run in town trying to follow someone with the parking lights on. Last year I made 7- 6 volt alternators which charge at about 6.65 volts at a very slow idle and come up in the 7 volt range at a normal idle and 7.5 at 700 RPMs. A normal fully charged battery after being charged and sitting over night is 6.3 to 6.4. With no other electrical components running the coil itself draws 3 amps and the brake lights even more so just the coil with nothing being put back into the battery will run the battery down in a few hours. ANY poor connection drops the power to anything using electric more than you think just like the resistor for the coil. You can usually find bad connections after they are pulling power for a while by a heated or hot connection. Headlights or the starter will make a lot of heat right now and you could burn yourself so touch carefully. The battery cut off switches with the green knobs don't have enough surface contact and make poor connections on 6 volts. I went through 3 of them in recent years, one over the past several months. I run a 12 volt GPS on 6 volts with the polarity changed in the cord and it worked good but every time I would hit the brakes the GPS voltage dropped and it went off. This always happened in places I needed the GPS and had to be restarted which takes a few minutes. I noticed the starter a little sluggish sometimes for a few months and came out of a lunch stop, hit the starter button and nothing happened. I got out and opened and closed the green cut off and it started right up. I replaced it with a switch that does the job and the GPS NEVER drops out and even runs when the engine is shut off which it never did with the green knob switch. It only drops out now if it is running with the engine off and I hit the starter to start the engine. The lights are now brighter and don't pull on the battery. G.M.

[JM 35 Sedan]

GM, This may be the bulb supplier you are referring to in your post. http://www.classicbulbs.com/
I bought 6V halogen head light and tail light bulbs from him last year at Hershey. They fit my original '35 light sockets perfectly and they are ~30% brighter than the brightest incandescent bulbs that I could find that fit the original light sockets. I had to bump the third brush up some on my generator so I could use my lights at night and still charge the battery.. At least I can see and be seen now while driving at night.

[G.M.]

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JM I'm pretty sure that's the guy. I thought he was also located in Mi. But wasn't sure so I didn't mention it. Are the 45s?? Thanks for the help. G.M.