Hella light wiring question

[Gnarvan]

Hi All.....Newbie here with a question for any wiring wizards on the list.

I'm in the planning stages of mounting 3 Hella 4000i Hid's on the light bar of an Aluminess bumper. I have a fair amount of experience with lights from other projects but this is the first time I've installed a bank of three. The 40a relay I'm using is plenty stout to handle the load of the 3 HID's so that isn't an issue. The question is about how to wire the three lights to the relay. I can use a single 87 pole relay and run a one to three pigtail or I can use a dual 87 pole and run one single and a one into 2 pigtail. One side of my brain says even the load between the single 87 pole relay. The other side of my brain says to split the load between the dual 87 pole relay even if the draw on each terminal won't be even. Ray at Rallylights.com explained what he would do and it sounds like the way to go but I'm open to other opinions.

Another question for any of you Washingtonians on the list. Have you ever had a trooper give you grief about having 3 driving lights? The law says the limit is two. I will be running 2 fogs as well as the 3 drivers on the front of the van.

Thanks


John

[ANZAC]

I've posted links to the WAC code before, but you are also allowed "spot lights". So just tell them the middle one is a spot light.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=204-21

See sect 80-110

You're allowed:
- 2 fog
- 2 driving
- 2 spot
- 2 "auxiliary passing"

But you can only have four on at any time, and each have specific physical height/mounting requirements, most of which are problematic on an SMB.

On the wiring, what exact brand/model relay are you using? My recollection is that 4000 HIDs draw only a few amps (35W power consumption @ 13.8V = 3A ish) so you should be ok.

You want to minimize two things, voltage drop and points of failure. By using a dual pole relay you've got a good chance if one pole of the relay craps out, the other will work. You want to organize the wiring so the path is pretty direct. I use the alternator fuse link box thing for my driving lights.

Please show us pictures with the lights mounted on the bumper!

I'm looking at the 4000i's - I have the 4000FF HIDs on my Subaru, and have 4 x old school 4000 HIDs (9") which are going to wind up on the roof. I'm going to have an "off road" switch or jumper mounted not accessible from the driver's seat to prove they're not wired up for road ruse, ie disabled. This would be in addition to the 4000i's on the bumper....

[Gnarvan]

I will be using a Hella mini relay.

I've checked the regs on auxilary lights in Washington. One question I had after reading the regs was where to measure the max height of 42" above the ground. It isn't real clear where on the light the 42" measurment should be taken. Is that at the mounting point? The center of the light? The top of the light? The center of the stock headlights on my 92 E350 are 42" above the ground.

I'm pretty conciencious about when and where I fire up the brights. "Knock on wood" I haven't run into any issues with the troopers about lights on my other rigs. I had my 87 Chevy van wired so I could run 8 lights all at once. My R1150GS-Adventure has 6 lights on it and they can all run at once also. 2-Hella micro de hid's, 2-Piaa 510-atp's and the 2 stock lights with upgraded bulbs

I will be wiring the lights on the 92 using an on/off/on switch. One trigger to the relay will be off of the high beam circut. The other trigger will be from an always hot lead. This allows me to shut down all the aux lights when I flick the high beams off. It's a lot quicker that way since you don't have to fumble for a dash mounted switch. With the 3 way switch I can also run each set of lights independent of everything else.

I havent figured out where to draw the main current from yet. I will be adding a second battery and a Warn M12000 winch. I'll probably tie the lights into a "direct from the battery" terminal from either the left or the right battery.

I'll have some winch wiring questions once I have a better understanding of how that system works.

I will post pictures once I get the bumper and lights installed. This van is a work in progress. I picked it up used 6-8 months ago and have been working the bugs out of it.


John

[ANZAC]

Measure to center of light. There is another WAC code that says how they are measured. Like I said, the SMB may be too tall, but I've never have a fix it ticket for anything. One of my cars doesn't have a front plate.