gaz Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 Can anyone tell me where the Stardream headlamp kit came from in the 'improve your motorhome ' supplement. Mine has been mislaid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 Available from Hella, at quite a cost! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizken Posted April 11, 2007 Share Posted April 11, 2007 Contact Autocruise as they are fitted as standard to the Pioneer, but I agree with Brian that the kit is expensive Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 MMM's supplement gave supplier details for the Hella kit as: Carafax Ltd Rotterdam Rd Sutton Fields Industrial Estate Hull HU7 0XD Tel: 01482 825941 Web: www.carafax.co.uk The Part Number for the kit was given as 1DL 008 945-891 for Fiat Ducato/Citroen Jumper/Peugeot Boxer models 02/2002 onwards. The RRP was said to be £721.13 (VAT inc.), but excluding charges for fitting and paint-colour matching. Ignoring the altered 'look', the primary benefit of this product for the motorcaravanner seems to be the ability to alter the dipped-beam pattern between UK and Continental norms. It's doubtful, in my view, that the extra main-beam performance arising from using 4 bulbs simultaneously has any great value in real-world traffic conditions. Modern standard headlight units normally have plenty of long distance main-beam capability and, in any case, one is usually driving on dip nowadays. The report says that the small Hella lights provide a well-defined dipped beam pattern, but I suspect that the standard Ducato headlamps do too. If more oomph is desired from standard headlamps there are plenty of bulb upgrades that offer this quite cheaply and without increasing the bulbs' wattage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 I completely agree with Derek, if you need/want better performance from your headlights replace the bulbs. In the past I have replaced headlight bulbs with higher power units ( I beleive you can go up to 120Watts per lamp for main beam and 85Watts for dip) on our current motorhome I have fitted high power Xenon bulbs. Not the HED units which are very expensive but straight forward replacements for the Halogen units. These give a whiter light and even at standard Wattages of 65/50 (main/dip) they are an improvement over halogen bulbs. If you can get a pair of 100/85 Watt Xenon bulbs you should notice a big improvement in lighting performance but you will need to be extra vigilant about not dazzling anyone coming the other way, at these wattages they can very nearly melt mirrors at 100 yards! (lol) D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 Something in the back of my mind tells me that these 85/100W lamps are not legal for road use in Europe. Do check before you buy! I seem to remember that they were originally developed for off road rally use, and are sold by Halfords etc with a warning to that effect somewhere on the packaging. Derek is right, modern headlamps, with clean front "lenses", especially those that maintian the dip beam on when the main beam is also on, give excellent illumination at the sorts of speeds common to most motorhomes. If there is mist, fog, or falling snow higher light outputs just make things worse, and the increased wattages mean less power available for battery charging and running the fridge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 But would the extra light power, and therefore heat generated, cause more problems with marks being observed on lenses when using beam benders? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 I don't know what the current regulations are for vehicle headlamp output. In the 1980s I used 130/100 wattage bulbs in the lights of my Golfs and (as Brian says) the packaging definitely stated that these bulbs were illegal for ordinary road use. In those days headlamps had glass fronts and seemed able to tolerate the extra heat produced by high power bulbs, but I think you'd need to be more wary with modern 'plastic' lights designed for standard 60/55 wattage H4 bulbs. I'm sure Mel B is right to be concerned about potential heat-damage problems relating to beam-benders - the hotter the light gets the more prone to 'marking' it's bound to be. A week or so back I thought I'd check how difficult it would be to change a headlamp bulb on my 2005 Transit-based Hobby. Having selected the easier left headlamp (you need to dismantle various parts to reach the inaccessible right one) and removed the plastic cover from its rear, I decided that I should be able to remove/replace the bulb if I used a mirror and torch to see what I was doing. What I hadn't anticipated however was the absolute swine replacing the outer plastic cover subsequently proved to be. There's probably a cunning knack to this that's taught on Ford training courses but, having finally managed to manoeuvre the cover back in place, I certainly wasn't going to take the beggar off again to practice. Let's hope the headlamps on the latest Transit are more user-friendly when it comes to bulb replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 As far as I'm aware the current legal maximum wattage for headlights is 120 Watts for main beam and 85 Watts for dip beam but I am happy to be corrected if anyone knows differently. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.