will 2 60w headlight bulbs be too much?

the headlight i'm using on my kz1000 has twin bulbs and i was thinking that it might be to much draw for the charging system.i don't ride at night all that often so i'm not worried about how bright it would be.any input would help.does anyone make a lower wattage bulb then a 60watt? if not i might just use 1 bulb.

what style of bulbs are they.

they are h4 and they are 55watt,sorry.

The old formula for figuring current draw is W/E so 120 Watts divided by 12 volts comes up with 10 Amps.

It might strain your charging system unless you drove at high rpm or went with lower wattage bulbs. It's too much for the switches unless you had a relay control the lights.

look around there is lower wattage h4 bulbs around

thanks.do you know who sells lower watt bulbs?

GE, Silvania(SP). Try at www.rallylights.com for relays and wiring diagrams.

by the way what headlight assembly are you using. it looks pretty wild on a z'r.also what type of mounts did you use.

it's a yamaha snowmobile unit and i made my own mounts. it was very simple and took about 1 hour.

smithgpz wrote:

they are h4 and they are 55watt,sorry.

For a while I ran a second 55W halogen with my main 55W halogen. I wired the second one through a fuse and relay straight to the battery. I am not sure if the alternators are designed to handle an extra 55W or not, but I never blew mine up.

Ya might give these guys a shout.

easternbeaver.com/index.html

bountyhunter wrote:

For a while I ran a second 55W halogen with my main 55W halogen. I wired the second one through a fuse and relay straight to the battery. I am not sure if the alternators are designed to handle an extra 55W or not, but I never blew mine up.

Unless you really overloaded the system, it won't blow up. The first symptom will be your battery failing to be charged completely and then failing to hold a charge.

For the OP, you may want to consider wiring up a relay so the second bulb only comes on when you select high beam and then have a separate switch to shut it off if you notice your lights begin to dim (sign that the alternator is not keeping up with the electrical demand). That way you'll be drawing only about five more Watts most of the time (assuming you keep your lights on low beam) which the charging system should handle without issue.