Maximum Wattage for Cibies?

[Fishcop]

Hi All

I've just wired up my Cibie hood lights through a relay and am wondering what wattage I can safely run?

I do some country driving and would like to run these spotlights with as high a wattage as possible, maybe 100w (120w blow too easily on our bumpy roads). I'm happy the all new 40A wiring is up for it - currently running 55w and have the original '69 Marchal alternator (I suspect this will be the weakest link?).

I'd appreciate any advice/experience/reference.

Cheers
John

[Jappy]

I run 100w through mine with no problems, so far. (unlike my engine !)

[Fishcop]

Thanks Jappy. I've decided I'll go with the 100w globes and see how I go.

[CamBiscuit]

Same on mine John

I can't say I've run them for any great length of time though!

[Max (SD)]

John,

Can you show some photos and details on how your wired up the Cibies?

I have yet to wire mine up and always looking to see how others have faired.

Thanks,

[chris_seven]

Interestingly Cibie published an article many years ago (Late Seventies) which dealt with uprating the bulbs in Oscars and Super Oscars.

I am sure I have a copy in an old magazine but it is up in the attic and may need some finding.

The basis of the article was that the reflector was only designed to deal with a certain light ouput and fitting a more highly rated bulb only marginally improved output.

The calculations on reflector area and bulb position were given and from memory a 100W bulb in an Oscar gave 2% more candlepower output than
55W.

[Fishcop]

Hi Chris and Max, my apologies, I hadn't checked this thread for a little while.

I do recall something about efficiency not being too much better with 100w, but I figure it can't hurt to check it out...

To wire them up I found a correct single stage fog light switch and put it in the dash in a blank hole next to the cigarette lighter (probably where the fog light switch goes?). I used a hella relay and located it next to my fuses and tapped power in directly off the battery. The relay is switched off the left high beam wire, but the relay safely feeds both Cibies. I powered the switch light off a tap to the high beam indicator at the speedometer so everything lights up and displays correctly I drilled the hood lid rib and put in a wiring grommet so that the wire is hidden inside the hood rib and runs from the hood lights, down to the hinge and then is again hidden in the wiring loom running back to the fuse boxes at the front. Overall I'm very pleased with every visible component looking factory and period correct...

I'll add some photos shortly.