12 volt fog lamp as headlight

[Rnroutlaw]

Is it possible to use a 12 volt fog lamp as a headlight or would that just be a waste of time. My buddy bought a set and we tried them out and they are super bright! We want to use them as our headlights for our bikes but we don't want to have to mount a battery. Don't want the extra weight. Anyone have any good results using the magneto to run them? If not any good headlights for under 40 bucks that anyone know of?

 

[Finfan]

The white wire puts out a dirty 6 Volts DC so it wouldn't run a 12 volt light. Even if it was a 6 volt light and you tried it, you would probably pull so much power it would kill the spark.

 

[Motormac]

Dont use an automotive battery thats way too big and heavy!!Get a small SLA 12 volt battery, mine measures only 3X3X5 inches and will power a 55 watt driving light (not a fog light) for 1-1/2 hours, find a little plastic or metal box for the battery to sit in and mount it underthe back of your seat somewhere.

 

[mabman]

It is entirely possible to produce enough parasitic power with any of of these motors to achieve 12v enough to run and entire lighting system if you use the right type of system of generator/alt/battery/proper relays/optimized wiring/switches. The trick is who is going to make that available?

 

[Rnroutlaw]

Yep sounds like alot of work just for a headlight. what brand or type of light do you all use? I will be riding home from work at night whenever the weather permits so I am looking for a bright light.

 

[jasonh]

I'd grab a small 12v SLA battery. Like 17 bucks at batteries plus, and only weighs just over a pound.

Norman has a headlight that runs off the white wire. Not sure how bright it is compared to a 55w foglight though. Next paycheck I'll be going the foglight/SLA route.

 

[Cookie]

About 2 yrs ago I got tired of driving at night using a bike light and having just enough time to say OH NO before I hit a pot hole or pc of metal in the road so I went to Wal mart and bought a set of fog lights. went to a pocket bike shop and bought a 12 vt battery wired everything up and it workes great except the batter keeped running down so I bought a solar pannel trickel charger used zip ties and secured the solar cell to the school boy rack during the day I have the battery charging so I can use it at night, just switch the gator clips.

Cookie

 

[old motorbike]

I used a 12v fog lamp from Harbor Freight (about $15 for 2) a $5 led tailight and a $30 scooter from batteries plus (very small, just carry in small bag in basket). It works good, but I'm going to use a xenon slim kit like on my motorcycle, $78 for 2 kits. The bulb will fit in the fog lamp and only use 35 watts rather than 55.
I charge the batt with a battery tender.

 

[wheelbender6]

I found an older 12v driving light while cleaning out my garage. I replaced the bulb with a 6 volt bulb from the auto parts store, so that it runs from the white wire.
So far, so good and the beam is nice and wide. LOL

 

[wezwheels]

try this one...use a 12v 5ah gel cell battery. you can find them on ebay. about $15 shipped. use a 12v 1156 socket gm tail light. and dont`t forget to buy a charger. in total, it cost less than the rest of the idea`s mentioned. you can mount the battery in any direction and use led bulbs. my friend got 5-7hours of run time on a single charge,with very min voltage drop...he runs serveral lights on the bike. head,tail and turn signals. all bulbs are led...

 

[LincolnMercury]

yes they work... 55 watt driving lights from walmart $15.00. SLA 7ah battery and charger $20.00. Lights mounted to reflector mount, battery is in a Bell leather handlebar bag.

 

[Motormac]

Thats a powerful setup! you got to be lighting up the night with 2-55watt lights setup the way you have over and under. Do you run them both at the same time or just one?

 

[LincolnMercury]

Battery time with both is 25-35 minutes and very bright. Even with them angled down, I get flashed by oncoming cars. I am only running one now. When I find them, I intend to replace the 55 watt bulbs with a 20 watt flood and a 35 watt narrow spot. I rescued the SLA batteries from lightning damaged computer UPC's. I charge one while one is on the bike. My night riding involves less than 12 miles of riding total. I also have a flashy blinky led taillight on back to satisfy the Florida bicycle requirements.

 

[jasonh]

Those are the lights I was going to pick up at walmart.

I was just going to use a 2.3ah SLA battery and run just one light, but have both mounted for a "high-beam" setup.

 

[xPosTech]

Those are the lights I was going to pick up at walmart.

I was just going to use a 2.3ah SLA battery and run just one light, but have both mounted for a "high-beam" setup.

Find 20 watt low voltage (12V) landscape sealed beams that will fit those housings at Lowes. The housings take an MR-16 base.

I found that if you glue the socket in the holder (helps stop vibration of the sealed beam) and seal the wire exit with high temp RTV it keeps the housings a little more watertight.

12V 7ah SLA battery (for deer feeders) at Academy for about $15.

Ted

 

[jasonh]

Find 20 watt low voltage (12V) landscape sealed beams that will fit those housings at Lowes. The housings take an MR-16 base.

I found that if you glue the socket in the holder (helps stop vibration of the sealed beam) and seal the wire exit with high temp RTV it keeps the housings a little more watertight.

12V 7ah SLA battery (for deer feeders) at Academy for about $15.

Ted

How big/heavy are those 7ah batteries? Not sure what Academy is, but I'll check out a farm supply store near here.

Would 20w really be bright enough? I want a nice bright beam like I'd get from a MC at least.

 

[Prasinos]

All of these suggestions use batteries. Does anyone know of a light that can run off of the engines generator. If not, what is the generator wire for? Perhaps two 6 volt batteries wired in parallel to the engine and in series to the light could act like a capacitor preventing the engine from losing a spark and allowing it to charge the batteries during daytime riding. Using the right resistor would also allow the generator to increase the battery under a load without killing the spark.

Though that would be a lot of trouble if there are 6 volt lights that could be used instead.

 

[jasonh]

The problem with the motor's wire is in can only supply a few watts at best. There are 6v lights you can use. Norman sells one.

The only real solution for a BRIGHT light currently involves a battery. I know some of us are looking for some type of alternator solution.

 

[Prasinos]

I understand that, but with resistors you could limit the amperage while retaining the nessisary voltage to charge the batteries during all lighting conditions. If the Norman light doesent kill the engine with 6 volts, assuming a 12v light would take double the power, you could run the light for half of the time the bike was running using 2 6v batterys. Im not excluding the battery, this system would just prevent the need to plug your bike in along with refueling. Im at school right now but I may try this system over christmas break.

 

[jasonh]

I see what you're saying, and I've seen something similar proposed here once before (I think that was just a single 6v system though)...don't think I saw any results out of it. If you could pull it off it would be great really.

Lemme just double check here.... You are saying use 2 6v SLA batteries wired in parallel to the motor. The white wire will basically trickle charge each of these batteries with 6v. Then wire the batteries in series to the lights to get 12v.

Seems like it might get complicated. Just drawing it out, unless you do some creative work with diodes or something, it seems like the motor would actually most likely see them in series and not parallel. Dunno.

edit: actually, without some clever work, it would just ground out the magneto and kill the motor.