Headlights (NGC)

[n3303j]

I'm old. I'm used to double filament headlight bulbs. When you used headlights you lit one or the other, not both. So you either has 55 or 60 watts per lamp for illumination (per bulb).

My 2016 Toyota 4runner has separate bulbs for high and low. For high beams all four bulbs are lit for a output of 115 watts pet side.

Is that even legal?

[n3303j]

I don't understand why the power draw of your headlights would be a legal concern.

Not worried about power draw.
Old school specified headlight output in watts.
55 was max low and 60 was max high per bulb.
They were never lit simultaneously.
I was under the impression that 60 was (X2) was maximum legal front lighting for automobiles.

One of my bikes let me light high and low simultaneously and vision improved greatly. But I am under the impression this was not legal.

If it is legal then I'd consider doing it more.

[nc43bsa]

And for the last few years the Ford pickups have had 4 low beams on at once.

[Moparnut72]

Not well aimed either. I drove at night a lot last winter for a personnel  transport company, those Ford trucks drove me nuts. I wonder how many get high beams flashed at them.
kk

[BMCMOTO]

In Eaton County, Michigan a police officer shot and killed a teenager in a dispute that originated with the teen flashing his brights at the officer. The same officer had been flashed repeatedly the same evening. The officer was driving a new Ford patrol vehicle, couldn't possibly be anything wrong with "his" lights!

Brian

[Moparnut72]

I don't understand why but a lot of sheriff's depts in my neck of the woods are using pickups as patrol vehicles. All Fords.
kk

[s1120]

Old four lamp cars ran all 4 lamps when the high beam was on. My 72 LTD run the outer lamps with the low beam filament in normal use. With high beam the outers used the higher watt filament, and the inners were on [single filament.. not sure on wattage. ]

[jas67]

I think that law was VERY old.   I'm going to guess, because America cars started getting four headlamps in 1958 that the law changed around then.

The law does state that only 4 forward headlamps can be on at a time, which is why cars with factory fog lights turn off the fog lights when the high beams come on.
 

[Redrider]

The old, sealed beam types had a specific lens design for high and low for the 4 lamp setup. The filaments in the 2 lamp types were set at different distances from the reflector to fool the optics for a correct pattern. Bikes then had very weak charging systems and most folks would be using battery voltage to augment the charging components at low to mid rpm. Think short shifting cruisers. Modern lighting uses more efficient technology such as reflector shape, bulb type and lensing. The color temperature has also changed the designs. I changed to Hyper Yellow bulbs in the Cafe Sport and Benelli 1130 and the night view is amazingly good. The Benelli uses 4 bulbs and has the best illumination of any bike I have owned or ridden without dazzling other motorists. As a bonus, a lot of folks pull over to let me by day or night. I guess the color makes them think I am on a mission.