Bulbs and globes for lights

[DoubleChevron]

Hi bob.

On prior older vehicles I have added upgraded looms and relays, with excellent outcomes, but that was when access was less cluttered and much easier. It would be a fiddly job to do this neatly on this vehicle.

At freeway speeds at night the potholes in the Western highway mainly east of Gordon can potentially damage the low profile tyres on the 2008; its in the media a bit and the pavement is quite badly damaged due to the rain. So I needed to do something to improve sight distance.

I think that low beam adjustment has made the most improvement. Without doing a side by side comparison it is difficult to establish if the Osram Night Breaker Silver H7 12V 55W are an improvement over the standard OEM bulbs, the marketing on the packet would have you believe they are. But I can now see much much further anyway with good even illumination of the pavement into the distance on low beam, so am very happy with the outcome.

Cheers.

I've started driving the shitbox rather than one of the boss womens car if I go driving out of town after the dark. Some of the potholes simply defy belief. The shitbox just crashes over them no problem. Nearly all are hidden on crests and corners, so they are impossible to avoid. It so much less stressful driving something with big strong tires with large (heavy duty, offroad) sidewalls. The 407/RCZ/C2 would have destroyed tires and bent wheels. The modern wheels and tires are completely un-suitable for the appalling quality of our roads.

All lights are crappy if its one of those "dark" nights with that weird not quite fog/drizzle that kills light transmission.

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[seasink]

I changed to Nightbreakers one light at a time so I could compare the difference. There certainly is.

You blokes are worrying me. Compact Victoria has the best roads in the country. I am wondering if it's safe to go out in NSW now. The flood damage from a year ago is still largely unrepaired.

 

[Whippet]

Hi seasink.

I guess I could put one OEM globe back into one side and do a little experiment, but I can't be bothered. The low beam is much improved now and Mrs Whippet (and myself) are both happy. Job done.

I did however check the bulbs prior to fitting and using a charged 12V SLI battery, the bulbs pulled 4.0A at 12.3V = 49.2 Watts, not the 55 W they are labelled as. I did note that when I attached a 5A battery charger to the battery, the voltage lifted to 12.7V and the current increased to 4.1A = 52 Watts. Using the same test the OEM Phillips bulb demanded 0.1 A more current. Considering the volt 1.1 V drop in the supply circuit I am pleased that the Nightbreakers don't increase the current draw, and reduce the bulb voltage even more. I have no empirical means of checking the light output over an OEM bulb, so I have to accept at face value what the packet marketing says and your observations.

It is difficult to repair roads that are waterlogged, and usually temporary repairs fail if the rain and sodden sub pavements don't dry out. So road authorities are on a hiding to nothing from the general public who don't understand this. The funding required to repair and rehabilitate thousands of kilometres of road pavements particularly in regional and rural areas is huge. Unlike many decades ago with a smaller farm truck going to market at 45 MPH, many of these roads now carry more frequent, heavily loaded rigid, semi-trailers and B-doubles, at highway speeds. This does tremendous damage to pavements that were only designed for lighter, slower traffic.

So it is a problem for authorities.

Cheers.

 

[Greenpeace]

Most of my vehicles have standard 7" sealed beams. I live in the country and have always found (well aimed) that they were perfectly adequate for normal road speeds.
I went outside the box a little with the Reliant.
As I fitted a small Kubota alternator as part of the weight savings regime (it is 3.4 kg lighter than the original Lucas one), I only had 180W of output to play with with. The thermo fan is 80W, the 2 dash lights are 3W each and the number plate light is 5W, The rest are LED. That left me with roughly 80W or so to play with.
I bought a pair of ABS plastic, 7" replacement lights, which take H4 style bulbs.
I went down to 35/35W Osram Bilux HS1 bulbs that are designed for motorcycle use.
In spite of the low wattage, this car has the best lights out of all my cars and I've never had a flat battery.

 

[Haakon]

You can check these, they have great headlights. It might be a bit costly but worth it

Automotive Globe Specialist | LED Vehicle Lighting Products

Automotive Globe Specialist offers a wide range of high-quality LED lights for vehicles, including headlights, fog lights, brake lights, and more. Our LED lights provide superior brightness and durability, making them a reliable and cost-effective choice for upgrading your vehicle's lighting.

www.automotiveglobespecialist.com

Just no. Theyre illegal for a bunch of good reasons.

 

[Greenpeace]

Just no. Theyre illegal for a bunch of good reasons.

Yeah those non-compliant LED bulbs give me the shits. There are that many morons in 4WDs around here with them fitted.
How you can't notice that your low beam now lights up the interior of the car in front like Hiroshima in 1945 (or do notice and think it's OK anyway) has got me f#cked.

 

[Haakon]

Yeah those non-compliant LED bulbs give me the shits. There are that many morons in 4WDs around here with them fitted.
How you can't notice that your low beam now lights up the interior of the car in front like Hiroshima in 1945 (or do notice and think it's OK anyway) has got me f#cked.

They notice, but they just don't care. There are a lot of arseholes out there...

 

[Beano]

I think I now know why I'm occasionally being blinded, as I whinged about in the thread here I created recently..

 

[DoubleChevron]

It is difficult to repair roads that are waterlogged, and usually temporary repairs fail if the rain and sodden sub pavements don't dry out. So road authorities are on a hiding to nothing from the general public who don't understand this. The funding required to repair and rehabilitate thousands of kilometres of road pavements particularly in regional and rural areas is huge. Unlike many decades ago with a smaller farm truck going to market at 45 MPH, many of these roads now carry more frequent, heavily loaded rigid, semi-trailers and B-doubles, at highway speeds. This does tremendous damage to pavements that were only designed for lighter, slower traffic.

So it is a problem for authorities.

Cheers.

This is true. But not the problem IMO. Think of every road you drive on that has been fixed in the last 5years (geelong to ballarat is a great example). Years, bloody years ... and endless crap and cost blow outs to get them repaired. They don't even get to the point where the lines are marked before they have seriously broken up surfaces ( look at the road to arrarat, the new sections of the melbourne highway ...). There is a little street beside my kids school we drive down each morning. It was dug down and resurfaced earlier a few months back. Its now almost a 4wd only track (a normal car has to crawl between the caved in surface at a crawl and try not to get hung up on its belly). Don't worry, they put "rough suface" signs beside it All around the shiny new re-surfaced area is fine. Its just the newly re-layed with new foundations that is no good.

The older roads, seem to be holding up fine. Its just all the very expensive roads made in recent times .... utter junk!

 

[Haakon]

This is true. But not the problem IMO. Think of every road you drive on that has been fixed in the last 5years (geelong to ballarat is a great example). Years, bloody years ... and endless crap and cost blow outs to get them repaired. They don't even get to the point where the lines are marked before they have seriously broken up surfaces ( look at the road to arrarat, the new sections of the melbourne highway ...). There is a little street beside my kids school we drive down each morning. It was dug down and resurfaced earlier a few months back. Its now almost a 4wd only track (a normal car has to crawl between the caved in surface at a crawl and try not to get hung up on its belly). Don't worry, they put "rough suface" signs beside it All around the shiny new re-surfaced area is fine. Its just the newly re-layed with new foundations that is no good.

The older roads, seem to be holding up fine. Its just all the very expensive roads made in recent times .... utter junk!

I went up the calder a couple of weeks ago and the Woodend bypass section is a bloody goat track and one lane closed for a lot of it - and thats not an old road

I'm sure all the cement sections of the Hume in NSW cost a whole lot more to build, but guarantee theyre a shti tonne cheaper over a few decades than the rubbish currently built thats under constant repair.

 

[Whippet]

Hi.

When we had road authorities with direct labour workforces, not contractors, and their own plant and equipment, and civil engineers that designed the pavement based on good prior knowledge of how pavements perform in different geographical areas. Then with direct labour they constructed the drainage, sub base and other pavement layers. They had the ability to rework the pavements if the compacted densities had not been achieved. Then once the pavement testing was deemed acceptable, it was sealed with a spray primer and then bitumen, with an aggregate wearing course on top.

I suspect that when we moved from direct labour to contractors, who need to make a profit, that the well known nuances of road construction were/are compromised, as it is difficult to retain the labour force and equipment onsite to achieve the desired design parameters and make a profit. There are countless examples of work that has been accepted by the relevant road authority and then needs rework soon after. As I mentioned in post #63 the years of above average rain fall has exacerbated this situation.

There is a section of ring road past McCain's in Ballarat that had a major re-sheet a few years ago awarded to a commercial contractor. Many potholes emerged, and section of the pavement failed and were patched. I see that very recently the pavement has now been augmented with expensive hotmix asphalt. I wonder who paid for the rework? I suspect it was the ratepayers.

I think cement is mixed with aggregates and water to make concrete which is used to construct rigid pavements, In Vic we mostly have flexible pavements. I don't know why one is selected over the other and which is initially more expensive and which has less ongoing maintenance.

Cheers.

 

[Haakon]

Hi.

When we had road authorities with direct labour workforces, not contractors, and their own plant and equipment, and civil engineers that designed the pavement based on good prior knowledge of how pavements perform in different geographical areas. Then with direct labour they constructed the drainage, sub base and other pavement layers. They had the ability to rework the pavements if the compacted densities had not been achieved. Then once the pavement testing was deemed acceptable, it was sealed with a spray primer and then bitumen, with an aggregate wearing course on top.

I suspect that when we moved from direct labour to contractors, who need to make a profit, that the well known nuances of road construction were/are compromised, as it is difficult to retain the labour force and equipment onsite to achieve the desired design parameters and make a profit. There are countless examples of work that has been accepted by the relevant road authority and then needs rework soon after. As I mentioned in post #63 the years of above average rain fall has exacerbated this situation.

There is a section of ring road past McCain's in Ballarat that had a major re-sheet a few years ago awarded to a commercial contractor. Many potholes emerged, and section of the pavement failed and were patched. I see that very recently the pavement has now been augmented with expensive hotmix asphalt. I wonder who paid for the rework? I suspect it was the ratepayers.

I think cement is mixed with aggregates and water to make concrete which is used to construct rigid pavements, In Vic we mostly have flexible pavements. I don't know why one is selected over the other and which is initially more expensive and which has less ongoing maintenance.

Cheers.

Cement highways are certainly more expensive to build, but they’re bloody great. I did the Vic-Canberra drive a lot, and it’s always so nice after bouncing along the shit road on the Victorian side that’s constant work correcting steering as the camber chops and changes to get on the cement in NSW. It’s a big sigh of relief and getting to relax as the steering tracks straight and consistent.

 

[Haakon]

Concrete highways are hugely less maintenance. Like a lot less! They deal with heavy traffic far better.

It’s one of those pound wise penny foolish things - save money on crappy bitumen roads at the outset, spend big in the long run on do overs and maintenance

 

[Kenfuego]

I went up the calder a couple of weeks ago and the Woodend bypass section is a bloody goat track and one lane closed for a lot of it - and thats not an old road

I'm sure all the cement sections of the Hume in NSW cost a whole lot more to build, but guarantee theyre a shti tonne cheaper over a few decades than the rubbish currently built thats under constant repair.

That was built in the fading years of the Brumby Government and we were lucky to get it opened (and also muchly free of speed cameras as John and others in the Government used that road to commute, but several sections of the bitumen surface have broken up much earlier than was expected. One of the engineers at some of our meetings admitted that there were concerns that durability and longevity of the surface had been sacrificed as mates of mates of the Government contracted and sub-contracted for various sections. There was some talk of an Inquiry, but quite ineffective at the time.

Sadly even after continual repair and years of bad weather, the same sections are still continually under repair. I don't think there will ever be any public inquiry. Trying to build major roads on shoestring budgets and with political urgency to finish is a recipe for future problems.

As a Bendigo boy, I was pleased to see the Bypass completed, as was every one else, that had endured that section of Highway for years, sadly I think we taxpayers were short changed by some companies that were involved. Too many years have passed to get any real answers due to politics and profit involved.

PS I don't blame John Brumby he at least got the thing completed!

Ken

 

[bob]

bitumen ain't what it 'usta be. The muck they are raking out now seems to have a much lower tolerance to heat and flows like putty under the truck wheels. I've read that NZ has the same problem, it's all imported....

Roads are like railway lines, it's mostly in the formation under 'em. Look after the drainage and you'll pretty much be right, local breaking up around here is over mud holes that never go away, the answer is obvious but engineers 'aint what they 'usta be either....

Bob