Aircraft landing lights?

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 9:11 am

Anyone wire up aircraft landing lights as rally lights? Someone was gonna try it on an e30, but I don't think it ever panned out. I know they're 13v, but that shouldn't be that big of a deal. You can buy 4 of them off ebay for $25, and of course you'd have to fab up some sort of housing for them.

This was the first one to pop up
ebay link

I'm not really sure exactly how bright they'd be though, seems like they'd be really bright, but you never know I guess...The idea was to wire them as high beams, since the high beams are pretty worthless on this car. Also if I went another route and used some headlamps, or even rally lights, would it be legal to use them as fogs? Assuming they are mounted on the grill.

I'm trying to limit my spending A LOT on this car, I don't have the income I did when I had the e30(read, no income)

Aerotech · Post by **Aerotech** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:38 am

I had some on my old 4-Runner, 250 watt 13V bulbs, which I mounted in chrome 5" bullets I found at a truck sports shop on Long Island; they have a sealed-beam light held in with a rubber grommet, you replace that with the aircraft light, which is a halogen bulb, mounted inside a 5" housing, identical to the sealed beam.

Amazon.com has a couple of them left, two in black and four in chrome, I haven't seen them anywhere else recently...

Amazon Link

If you want something brighter than 100W, I can get you the 250W version of those bulbs for $10 each, you'll need some 40 amp relays and heavier wiring for them... two of them will turn about a mile of dark pavement into broad daylight.

g20sleeperjdm · Post by **g20sleeperjdm** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:32 am

Aerotech wrote:I had some on my old 4-Runner, 250 watt 13V bulbs, which I mounted in chrome 5" bullets I found at a truck sports shop on Long Island; they have a sealed-beam light held in with a rubber grommet, you replace that with the aircraft light, which is a halogen bulb, mounted inside a 5" housing, identical to the sealed beam.

Amazon.com has a couple of them left, two in black and four in chrome, I haven't seen them anywhere else recently...

Amazon Link

If you want something brighter than 100W, I can get you the 250W version of those bulbs for $10 each, you'll need some 40 amp relays and heavier wiring for them... two of them will turn about a mile of dark pavement into broad daylight.

interested in 250w where can you get those for $10 each?

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:48 am

Not a bad idea. I think I'd like to wire some facing backwards through the rear window.

Aerotech · Post by **Aerotech** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:58 am

^^^ You got that right! Behind a flip-down licence plate, maybe...

g20sleeperjdm wrote: interested in 250w where can you get those for $10 each?

You send me $10, and I send you a 250W light bulb.

Private stock.
Plus shipping, of course, $4.00 and $1.00 per additional bulb.

P-mail me if you want some lights.

These are G.E. bulbs, by the way, and you need ring terminals to hook them up, terminal screws are included.

Post by **Legacy777** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:02 pm

Wouldn't you want more of a flood light then spot light.......or a combination of both for rally.

lucas · Post by **lucas** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:29 am

hey im not sure how savey you are around planes but its basically a GE flood light bulb. get some hella, or piaa pencil beams.

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 11:46 pm

I don't know planes at all, haha. I'm just trying to look for the cheapest way, and these seem like they'd be overkill, which is perfect

I don't have much money to spend, so everything I do is gonna be like $10 mods. Don't worry, I'm not gonna start putting APC intakes and crap on it, just cheap things that won't hurt anything.

jefferson · Post by **jefferson** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 1:41 am

Those look just like the bulbs we used to put in the light bars on the fire trucks. Don't know the wattage, but we got them at the local auto parts store. They weren't very expensive.

Jeff

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 6:55 am

I was ready to click buy on some on ebay, but saw they were 28V

anyone know where I can get 250W 13V cheap? Or if they even exist?

Aerotech · Post by **Aerotech** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:26 am

Apex3 wrote:I was ready to click buy on some on ebay, but saw they were 28V anyone know where I can get 250W 13V cheap? Or if they even exist?

Unfortunately most aircraft apps are 28V... the huge frisbee-size landing lights are 115V. I have access to a particular bulb that is 14V, only used on large commercial airliners.

Send me $10 for each light, as many as you want. Paypal to mccavittj@yahoo.com Shipping $5 + $1 ea additional bulb

Rated 250W at 13.6V... (your alternator should be putting this voltage out normally) Will give you a nice tan. 4.5" diameter (roughly) You WILL need relays.

They look just like this one; but with larger Halogen inner bulb

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 8:25 am

Awesome! I will do that. I PMed you and you didn't answer so I was trying to look elsewhere, or maybe I thought I PMed you and didn't, I don't know.

How long will you have them for? I think I'm just gonna get two right now, but depending on how it goes I might want as many as 5.

Aww hell, I'll just get 3 for now. Sending money right now

epicfail · Post by **epicfail** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:08 am

Not trying to steal your thunder Aero but, those can be had at any good auto-parts warehouse as "worklights" meant for off-highway equipment and such.
Be aware that they're sensitive to vibration and emit a bunch of heat.

Aerotech · Post by **Aerotech** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:10 am

epicfail wrote:Not trying to steal your thunder Aero but, those can be had at any good auto-parts warehouse as "worklights" meant for off-highway equipment and such.
Be aware that they're sensitive to vibration and emit a bunch of heat.

No skin off me, man.

I've never seen 'em outside the airport. And yeah, they do get hot!

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 4:08 am

Did you get my payment? Lemme know when you send them out. Also someone on bimmerforums was asking for your email address, he wants some lights for his boat, is it okay if I give him your paypal email? Or a different one?

epicfail wrote:Not trying to steal your thunder Aero but, those can be had at any good auto-parts warehouse as "worklights" meant for off-highway equipment and such.
Be aware that they're sensitive to vibration and emit a bunch of heat.

I've never seen them anywhere, and this is much cheaper than anyone else is selling the lights for, so I'm not too concerned about where else I might be able to get them. But thanks for the tips, this is just a stupid little project for me, it's not like I'm actually going to be doing forest stages at night with them or anything

Aerotech · Post by **Aerotech** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:45 am

Got it, thanks... Picking them up tonight. No problem with sharing the address. What's he doing, setting up a night dive rig or something?

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:07 am

No idea, he just said the HIDs aren't cutting it anymore

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:54 am

Sorry forgot to tell you, got the lights last week, thanks! Now to work on figuring out mounting(mostly the pod), then I'll figure out the wiring.

Redlined · Post by **Redlined** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 11:54 pm

Used to use these on old 60s cars with 4 headlights. Just replace the passenger side high beam with one of these and put a toggle on the ground so you could turn it off when in public.

GREAT for late night bombing runs!

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 6:15 am

Redlined wrote:Used to use these on old 60s cars with 4 headlights. Just replace the passenger side high beam with one of these and put a toggle on the ground so you could turn it off when in public.

GREAT for late night bombing runs!

Yea some people on bimmerforums were telling me it was somewhat popular back in the day. I tried to hook them up just to see how bright they were, but the wire was too small gauge so I couldn't tell, and almost melted the wire, lol.

nosyt · Post by **nosyt** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:05 pm

PART#:GE-4313 13VOLT 250WATT

sobe_death · Post by **sobe_death** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:59 pm

Those things are awesomely bright, but their rated life is only 25 hours

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:13 am

Thanks nosyt, but I already have 3 of them!

Right now I haven't a clue how I'm going to mount them, the whole idea was a cool cheap project so I don't wanna go out and spend $100 on housings for it, gotta find a way to improvise.

dscoobydoo · Post by **dscoobydoo** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:30 am

The issue with these is the voltage draw, as well as the heat. If you put these is a housing near other parts, the radiant heat will begin to melt stuff.
I recommend only using them above 35 mph so you have the air cooling them.
I had a friend who used these in the back 40 due to a lot of deer. We could cook an egg on them if he turned them on.
Also, they melted some plastic nearby when he first installed them.

Apex3 · Post by **Apex3** » Sat Mar 27, 2010 12:46 am

dscoobydoo wrote:The issue with these is the voltage draw, as well as the heat. If you put these is a housing near other parts, the radiant heat will begin to melt stuff.
I recommend only using them above 35 mph so you have the air cooling them.
I had a friend who used these in the back 40 due to a lot of deer. We could cook an egg on them if he turned them on.
Also, they melted some plastic nearby when he first installed them.

I know, I'll probably only be using one at a time anyway because of the voltage draw, they're 20amps, and alternators are rated at 60amps...

Anyways, finally found something to mount them in!

Dog bowls!

$4 a piece. Everything from here should be cake, it's surprisingly hard finding something that's the right shape and size, they fit almost perfectly inside. Now I'm gonna have a trash can grill and dog bowl lights

I can make rings for the front, to hold them in, in the metal shop here, then I'll either bolt or clip the two rings in place, drill a hole or two in the back for wires, and a hole in the bottom for a bolt to mount them to the car. Then I'm either gonna have my friend make a light bar for me, or temporarily just get something in place to mount them, just gotta deal with wiring after that.

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Aircraft landing lights?

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