there's no doubt that the sealed beams are going
to be the most significant load placed on the
battery.however, a good rebuilt generator
should be capable of outputting 18-22 amps.i definitely would not drive around during
the daytime with a generator setting at
17 amps, though.you're going to be
generating lots of heat and could
damage the generator and the battery. but, as long as you remember to adjust
for 17-18 amps at night and then back down
to a more reasonable level for daytime
driving, you'll be all right. as far as the relay goes, i don't know
if they're really necessary ---
the only argument for them would be
if you were concerned about voltage drop
and the effects on the lighting switch
of switching the headlamps on and off .given
the fact that 16 gauge wire (the original
size, i think) can handle 18 amps and
that each of the "bright" wires is only
carrying 8.3 amps, i would argue that the
short distance of wire from the lighting switch
to headlamp negates the voltage drop worry. the lighting switch is certainly tough enough
to work without a relay -- you're not going
to have to worry about the contacts burning out
rapidly. i don't know for sure if you can get other
wattages than the 40/50, but the 40/50W
seems to be the standard. as far as a converting from cp to watts,
there's not really a single factor
that can be applied. 1 candlepower, or 1 candela as it's usually called
today, emits 12.57 lumens.different
types of lamps have different lumens/watt
characteristics.a brand new 40/50 watt
sealed beam lamp produces roughly 11-13
lumens/watt. so, multiply the wattage by the lumens/watt
number and then divide by 12.57 to obtain
the number of candelas (candlepower). as i said before though, different lamps
are going to have different characteristics.
a 3cp dash light lamp may have different
lumens/watt characteristics than your
sealed beam lamp, though as a general
rule, it's going to be in the 11-16 range.
i bet if you really wanted to know,
you could call the manufacturer and
ask for the lumens/watt number for the
particular lamp that you bought.it's
the sort of thing that would be listed
on a data sheet for the lamp.
hope this helps.
in my car, i have sealed beams (45/50W),
no relays, and an original generator.
everything works fine. ----
doug handran
gainesville, ga : I have a 31 which has what appears to be an older conversion (40's or 50's) to sealed beam headlights. Basically the wiring for the low beams are off the steering column switch like the original, but for the high beams, the wires from the steering column switch were modified to activate a fused relay.This relay has 3 terminals -- one for the switch wire, one for a heavy wire directly from the hot site of the starter switch (battery), and one for the headlights.So the way this operates is that when the high beams are switched on, the current from the steering column switch closes the fused relay which makes the direct connection between the battery and the highbeams.Also, there is a wire from highbeam terminal of the relay which is connected to a Highbeam indicator light mounted on the dash.
: I am currently involved with replacing the wiring harness and reconditioning all the lighting hardware.If I use the relay system, I will have to cut modify the new wiring harness, which I perfer not to do.My main question is, "Do I need to include the relay in the circuit?"The printing on the backs of sealed beam bulbs indicate that they are 40/50 Watts.It seems that switching from low to high beam would change the current draw from 13.3 amps to 16.7 amps.Would the 3.5 amp increase justify a relayed circuit?But this also seems like a heck of a load for the generator.Is there a sealed beam headlight that uses less power (lower watts)?Finally, does any know the conversion factor from CP to watts?Snyders, for example, says that their 32/50 CP bulbs can be a little hard on the battery.But they don't say anything like that in their sealed beam adapter kits, nor is a relay mentioned in the kit.
: Thanks for your advice. | 
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