I've been running 80 watt high beams with no damage to the wiring or connectors, but decided it would be a good idea to check my voltage drop from the battery to the bulb terminals to see if I was getting all the performance I could.

Test 1 had a battery voltage of 13.33 under all conditions, lights on, off etc.

high beams on, low beams on, both high beam bulbs disconnected, 12.88 volts at the high beam terminals. Not that great.

Low beams on, high beams on, one high beam bulb connected, 12.4 volts at the terminals, getting worse.

Low beams on, high beams on, both high beam bulbs connected, 11.5 volts :( yuck, bad bad bad... 1.83 volt drop




I went out and bought my typical overkill lighting relay system components.

10ga wire, 30 amp relay and 20amp breaker. I use one of these per filament. My Eldorado has 4 relays and 4 breakers for it's lighting system :)

Anyway, I mounted the relay inside the housing, ran all the proper wiring. This time battery voltage was measuring 13.43 volts, lights on or off. I tried just this test.

Low beams on, high beams on, both high beam bulbs connected, voltage at high beam bulb terminals was 13.38 volts, MUCH better :) I'll take a .05 volt drop anyday.


The difference in output is more than noticable.