Bronco wall art/headlights

[Pops68]

HELP!!

This question is only partially Bronco-related. I bought an extra grill/headlights etc. Looking to make a functioning piece of wall art for the garage. I bought a 12volt DC to 110 volt AC inverter, too.

My question is....how are the pigtail wires connected to the inverter to get both lights to work at the same time????? If I touch the inverter wires to the pigtail wires of each headlight individually, they each will work alone. However, when I then try to wire them up together, the lights either don't work at all or they blink very faintly. I have tried several different wire color combos to no avail. Spent more than 2 hours on this today, thought it would be easy.....connect same color wires on each headlight, but that didn't work.

HELP, please!

Thanks, Pops

 

[The Buda]

I suspect the amperage load of the 2 lights combined is exceeding the rating of the inverter.

 

[Bonco4Broncos]

Sylvania Silverstars are rated at 45 watts Lo and 55 watts Hi Beam. So 2 Hi Beams would draw around 110 watts and this rating is at 12.8 volts. There would be no reason to burn Hi and Lo s at the same time and I am thinking that the Lo would be sufficient for wall art. What is the inverter you are using rated at and is it a momentary or continuous rating?

 

[NJBronco]

why not use leds instead of regular bulbs? no real draw, so it uses less electrictiy and no heat. Last time I metered a headlight I think I was showing like 12 amps draw. So that would be 24 amps on two bulbs. compared to like .5 amps for leds.

what's funny is I've been thinking of doing the same exact thing, but I was going to use "art" as a shop night light. Put it on a light sensor so it's only on when the shops dark.

No I just need a shop. lol

 

[Pops68]

I will have to check later on the amp rating.

NJ Bronco....where can I get LEDs that are the same size as the headlights??

Another option I thought of at 2:30AM - when I couldnt sleep - was a second inverter.....one for each headlight????? Not going to wire up the turn signals at all, just the headlights.

Thanks for the start guys.......WHICH wires, though????

Pops

 

[Pops68]

OK, I went out to my shop and got the box from my 'inverter'.

It is a BESTEK 90 watt AC to 12V DC Power Adapter - rated at 7.5 amps.

Looked on ebay before writing this....couldn't find anything similar with any higher amperage.

SOOOOOOOOO, tell me what to buy to connect both headlights, or I can just buy another one of these and have separate adapters for each headlight.

THANKS again, Guys!!


Pops

 

[roundhouse]

Might could use a rheostat to dim the lights ?

Otherwise. Gonna need a bigger inverter

Any battery charger should work

 

[Broncobowsher]

All kinds of options.
http://www.amazon.com/LET151-Voltag...2?s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1424625875&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/TOMTOP-Voltag...1-18&keywords=led+power+supply#productDetails

You just have to have enough power available to run the load. This also means knowing the load to start with. What bulbs are you running? I've seen headlights as low as 35W and climb up over 100W. Remember that watts = Volts x amps.

Are you just after a glow or are you wanting to light the room? A cheap set of H4 housings (go ahead and do cheap since beam pattern won't matter) will give a reflector with a hole in the back that will let you mount all different options of lighting. My guess is after a little bit of real headlights at full power you will want to back it down a bit. Throttling the original incandescent bulbs will probably give a less than satisfactory dull yellow glow. So play with the lights. Probably find something like a 194 bulb at a couple of watts will give a decent looking color and glow without being overpowering. In which case your current power supply will be more than sufficient.