our local pepboys is having a special on hella 500's and they come with 55 watt bulbs, i was wondering if i could buy 100 watt bulbs and replace the 55's without having any problems with heat or overload on the wiring harness. help me out

 

well, I did, right now I'm running the 100w each bulbs.... so far no problems, it will draw 15.3 amps instead of 8.5 amps at 13V ..

Amps = watts/voltage, so calculate with whatever V you want

I think they normally come with a 15amp fuse? not sure, i've allready used larger wiring and a bigger fuse, but can't guarantee any situation

go here http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm for wire size and load guide... I always factor in a little extra for safety and additions

 

oh, to answer your question, any wattage, in theory no, I don't remember if I found anyone that actually had a problem with the 100's and melting housing, but I figured, what they hey, I'll give it a try... If you do, make sure your relay is rated for 20A or more, or it probably won't last... also I don't remember if I had to modify the bulb housing with pliers (easy) or if it was just because I missed something obvious, but either way they go in relatively easy and are a little brighter

 

I put 100w bulbs in my 500 fogs. See m to work fine, the housings are all glass and metal so should hold up to the additional heat. I did put in a new 30 amp relay to replace the old Hella relay, it had fried with the new bulbs:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...shtml#HOrelays

 

I did it! It works without problems. If you are winching or sitting still, I would not sit there with the 500's/100watt bulbs on for too long. They do need some air flow to keep from overheating and causing damage. Other than that precaution, do it! You'll be glad you did!

 

is there anything in between 50 and 100 watts? Maybe a 75 or 80 watt bulbs?

 

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/H3.asp has 85w YellowStar H3 bulbs, seems they should work, but obviously yellow

 

I see a few from tooling around the web...

Sylvania Silverstars makes a 65w H3

Sylvania Standard makes a 70w H3 (Part #64156)

Doing a simple eBay search I can find basically any wattage H3 I can think of.

80w 5000k H3 on eBay

Anyway, I just don't want to have to buy another burn the lights/wires/covers/etc... and realize I could have gotten some 5" 100w PIAA's for the cost I have put into 2 Hella 500's.