Cheap 10MCP Thor upgrade, any opinions?

I'm in the process of buying a 10 MCP Thor, and I see that the bulb is 100w, and that the light has a high/low beam switch. The H4 bulb is the same as a car headlight, right? So, I see on ebay, that I can get a 160/100w lamp quite reasonably cheap. Will this cause overheating of the light, or the 12 volt 7Ah battery? Should I just leave it alone at 100w?

I know folk has done HID mods for this light, but I don't want to spend a lot of extra cash, after buying the Thor, and an uprated bulb seems the easiest option.

It might be a little brighter, but remember that the bulbs are rated at ~13.8 volts car running voltage, and the SLA will sag to 11volts underload so it might not be any "whiter" and may even be dimmer/yellower due to the increased currrent draw?

Yeah, I notice a similar thing with the High output lamps for my SF M4, they actually seem 'less bright' than the lower power ones, which stay bright for longer anyway.

I guess I'll live with the 10,000,000 candlepower (what's that in lumens?) until something better comes along.

Since it's underdriven bulb I'd say it's putting out somewhere between 1000-2000 lumens or maybe even a little under 1000. I don't know the actual ratings on those 100watt bulbs. CP doesn't really convert to lumens, and I don't think the 10mcp is accurate # anyways.

You could try eliminating some resistance in the wiring by soldering contacts that use crimp on connectors and using a larger gauge wire, cheap and simple

Later
Kelly

RAF_Groundcrew -- I own one of the 15MCP Thors, and it uses the Phillips 130/100 watt H4 bulb...so I'm sure you could safely go there. The heat doesn't seem to really be a problem for me.



What I want to know is about going the other direction.

What ramifications are there to swapping a lower wattage 12 volt H4 bulb...other than being dimmer, of course.

I'm thinking of going to a 55 or 60 watt lamp for more usable runtime.

Any thoughts?

here are some of my observations of the thor.... I have a 15MCP with the 130/100W philips H4..


The wiring is too small. Looks to be about 18 gage... Which approaches a "limit" at aruond 16 amps.... Driving only 1 of the filaments at a time direct from the battery will never move that much current... But an easy cheap upgrade is to rewire the way the bulb is hooked up so that you can run both the high and low beam together. On my light, I end up movig around 15.5amps when I run both filaments(only about 160 watts). The voltage drops to 10.4. I'm going to try rewiring the whole thing to 10 gage or better and see if it improves... I'm considering going on the list for one of newbies booster circuits. I am also considering a narva 100W bulb instead, to help increase run times... Driving both filaments together drains the battery in a big hurry- only good for about 20 minuts of fun. If we had higher voltage, we could get these bulbs to run in their "zone" a little better... I was thinking of cramming a 4V 7AH battery in series with the battery that's in there now. This would being voltage at the bulb to around 14.5... problem would be inrush curent- would blow out a lot of bulbs..... I think the best option for the thor is going to be Newbies booster circuit.... maybe find out how much they are gona cost and see if it would be worth it to ya.

I'd be willing to bet that moving up to the higher wattage bulb won't help as much as you would expect... The reason being that as you draw more current from these batteries, the lower the voltage gets on the circuit. So the actual wattage might not improve all that much, and the filament would be underdriven so not as efficiant anyways. A good quality 65/45 driving light would probably work pretty well in these lights for extended run times, and whiter light (not neccessarily brighter).

I have been thinking about trying to cram a bigger battery into the thor.... A 12AH would probably be able to drive the higher wattage with less voltage drop on the circuit. And would last longer. I'm also tinkering with the idea of building a NIMH pack for the thor...

so- there are lots of options, some cheap, some expensive. Your easiest cheapest upgrade- is to flip the "high beam" and "ground" wire on the bulb so that you can run both at the same time. (at least, i *thinnk* that's how i did it)

Update: I just finished rewiring my whole thor- all wires have been replaced with copper 14gage "speaker" wire. I decided on this size because, mostly, I had a bunch of it around, and I figured this would be a reasonable balance between current capability, and it is flexable enough to cram in around the battery and bend back behind the reflector without being a hastle.

Takes a bit of patience to de-solder and re-solder on the little board and the switches, have to be real carefull not to damage things or drop solder where you don't want it... I'm not very talented with a soldering gun myself, but I *luckily* managed without a hitch.

i'm getting 11.2V at the bulb now with both filaments running, as apposed to 10.4 on the stock wiring, it's noticably brighter and whiter now.

My understanding of this type of mod:

With the lower resistance wiring, you will get lower losses = more efficiency.
The run time will probably decrease, though, because you will draw more current from the battery, E/R=I. On the plus side, the bulb may last longer at the higher voltage because it is closer to design spec.

Does this appear correct?

I just got my Thor yesterday, I haven't opened it up yet. How many wires are there to be replaced to carry out this mod?

Nigel.

Nige,

As a matter of interest, where did u get yours from. Mine was delivered today.

EBAY Special !

I took it out tonite and have to say, I was really disappointed, the beam is full of artifacts and the 'throw' is not what I expected. I ran a comparison with a weapon lite that I use for foxing and it outthrows the Thor by far.

I don't know the make (I'll look later) but I'm gonna try and do some beamshots of the two together. The weapon lite is only a little bigger than an SF TurboHead, runs off the same Thor Type 12v 7AH Battery but via a coiled cable.

I just checked, these are Cluson Lights, Edgar Bros sell them as well.

Cluson Engineering

Alan

Got mine from an ebay seller called "hisnhers24seven, paid £24.99 + £9.99 P&P.

I've only tried it once so far, and I'm impressed with the 'beam in the sky' characteristics, and it does have a good reach.

For the price, I think it is quite good. I'd love one of the Costco HID lights often discussed on here, but even if I could find one, the shipping would be expensive (might even need to buy it without the lead acid battery, due to air freight regs).

alard said:

My understanding of this type of mod:

With the lower resistance wiring, you will get lower losses = more efficiency.
The run time will probably decrease, though, because you will draw more current from the battery, E/R=I. On the plus side, the bulb may last longer at the higher voltage because it is closer to design spec.

Does this appear correct?

Click to expand...

The lower resistance wireing results in less, resistance. You could say that you are getting more light per watt at the bulb by running it at a higher voltage(bulbs are more efficiant when driven near their threshhold), but the wiring itself isn't neccessarily more efficiant. Just makes room for more electrons to move with less resistance. You get more voltage at the bulb this way. And yes, it would result in lower run times. The bulb life wouldn't be much different with this mild of a change- anywhere from 10-13V these bulbs will likally have similar life, in general however, the more voltage, the less bulb life, with the exception of severe underdriving.

Happy/Merry/Holiday/Christmas!

Would having it plugged into a 12 volt source eliminate the voltage drop issues, or is as much a matter of the resistance of the wiring? If I were to use mine primarily from a vehicle, it wouldn't matter if the battery inside wasn't able to last too long, or keep it at full brightness.