24V "headlights" for industrial carts

At my workplace, we use a couple dozen 24V electric carts for transporting people and equipment. The stock "headlight" is a Chinesium ripoff of a Bosch Pilot fog light, running a 24V, 35W, H3 bulb.

The carts are wired in such a fashion that when the "ignition" is switched on, the lights are, too. And since folks around here don't care, they never switch the carts off. That means the lights are on 8-10 hours a day, six (or more) days a week. We're getting 3-4 months out of a bulb. Also, by my math, leaving the lights on is eating 12Ah of battery life per shift, which I believe is reducing overall mileage per charge in a not insignificant manner.

Note that I've used the term "headlights" in quotes. The lights are really for conspicuity, not visibility. Nobody is driving in unlit places.

The easy button would be to find 24V H3-style bulbs in LED. Given the use of the carts, I'm pretty sure beam pattern isn't very relevant, so what would be awful (and illegal) in a street vehicle may not apply here.

Option B would be to find some sort of 24V LED flood light fixture. Again, since we're not concerned about street legality (and always concerned about budget!) the cheaper the better.

What say the hive mind?

What kind of mounting possibilities do you have on these carts? This dude runs on anything from 9 to 32 volts and has a wide light spread, or you could use these or these.

-Virgil- said:

What kind of mounting possibilities do you have on these carts? This dude runs on anything from 9 to 32 volts and has a wide light spread, or you could use these or these.

Click to expand...

As noted, the existing fixtures mimic a Bosch Pilot, so it's a single bolt mount, probably M8 or M10. That means the Grote unit you suggested would fit the bill. However, at $44 per, the payback is too far down the road for the folks in Accounting. We're paying around $8 for the H3 24V, 35W, so I'd probably have to find a fixture at around $25/per. Seems unlikely, so maybe I'll find an H3 LED drop in and find out how awful it is.

maybe it would be cheaper to wire the lights so they only work when the cart is moving. i actually did something similar on my friends kid's scooter, i build a circuit, 3 shock sensors in 3 axis, transistor, few resistors and capacitors, as soon as the scooter is touched, the lights go on, when the scooter sits motionless for few min lights go out. or you could have a switch \sensor in the seat, like in my tractor\lawnmower, as soon as i get up, engine shuts off.

I agree with alpg88 in that a seat switch would be a good idea. I would wire it to a timer than shuts off the incan lighting after a time and also add auxiliary LED lighting to the carts for visibility that shuts off in a longer time fashion so someone could be away from the cart for an hour perhaps and it would still be seen. At work a lot of the lifts and equipment have strobes that operate when it is on and beepers when they are moving also.

We use something like these blue lights on electric forklifts at work and they are awesome for warning people.

If if that's what you're really after instead of "lighting" something like this might be the ticket.

https://www.forkliftamerica.com/bluespot-blue-led-forklift-warehouse-safety-spotlight.html