IPF Spot lights Advise please

[skippernicky]

On my newly aquired surf I have a pair of IPF Spots fitted. My mate has just got them working (Blown fuse. Loose wire). The lights are wired from a "box" under the bonnet which I assume is the relays and are contriolled from a module on the dash which has an of/off button and 2 buttons for mode1/mode2 (these I beleive are high/low beam), the bulb rating is 170/100watts. My questions are:
Are they street legal - If not what is the law? Can I fit lower wattage as I need to buy 1 bulb anyway?
What fuse/ cable amperage should be used/ (These were fitted prior to inport and I dont want to destroy anything.
Your help would be much appriceated
Still grinning
Skippernicky

[slydog]

not road legal

nope that watage is not road legal in uk . but hey i got 130 watts in my spots so wot the heck lol

[Pauleds]

Mate, the wattage in your auxilliary headlights is not actively Policed.
They wouldn't even think of checking(unless their retinas were burned out).

[AndyLala]

If all the cabling is IPF and was spec'd to handle your 170/100w bulbs, fitting lower wattage bulbs won't make any difference to the wiring.


Fuses is another matter. Divide the wattage by the voltage the bulbs will see to get the current... so 130w divided by 13.8v equals 9.42amps, give or take. As has been mentioned earlier, aux lights aren't really investigated.

andyL

[Verbal]

Are IPF's good ?

As I had a pair on the front of my truck, but took them off as they were a bit tatty. Mine were wired to a seperate button as well, but the button was hidden under the steering column. My spots seemed to be quite a wide beam, as it lit the banks and fields about 10-15 metre off the road, but gave little penetration at distance, I think they are IPF rally ones, they have yellow lenses.

[Tallyman]

Verbal, yours sound more like fog lights than spots. Spots should give a long narrow beam lighting up the road 50-100 yds ahead, whilst fogs give a wide low beam that lights up the immediate vacinity and doesn't get reflected too much by the water vapour in foggy conditions. That's what mine do.

[Gizmo]

For road legal use you normally find 55W Spots and anything above generally should not be used on road.

[Verbal]

My IPF spots were 960 Super Rally's. Just looked up a few reviews and they score well with the top of the range lamps. I was maybe a bit hasty in taking them off. They were pretty scored and had no covers etc, so no real loss really. Didin`t realise they were worth as much as they are though