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801 headlight bulbs - 6V vs 12V

T

Todd C.

Member
I have several unattached headlight from 801 era tractors and
some of the bulbs are not stamped 6V or 12V. Is there a way
to tell what the are without burning out the bulb? - ie hooking
up a 6V bulb to a 12 V system.
 
Well you could hook them up to a 6 volt battery, if they are bright, they are 6 volt. If they are dim then they are 12 volts.
 
Keith, Your calculations are correct for once the bulb is up to operating temperature and is drawing 35 watts, but the resistance of a bulb filament increases as it heats up. Depending on the material of the filament and the application, the hot resistance could be more than 10 times the cold resistance.
 
Sean,
I was concerned about that, not sure how to calculate that though? I question the ten times figure? if you watch an amp gauge when you turn on the lights, I don't think it would go to 60 amps then down to 6. Of course then the change in ohms would happen very fast as the light comes on.
Keith
 
Hard to tell for sure without empirical data for the specific bulb. Most information I can find through Google say that the resistance of a 110 volt household bulb with a tungsten filament increase by around 15 times when they heat up to operating temperature.

Best answer for the original question, I think, without blowing the bulb, would be to connect it to 6 volts with an ammeter in line and see how much current it's drawing when it's hot. If it's marked 35 watts and it's a 6 volt bulb it should draw around 6 amps when connected to a 6 volt power source and if it's a 12 volt bulb it should only draw around 1.5 amps when connected to 6 volts.
 
I use my old battery charger with the switch set to 6 volts.
works pretty good.
dim? switch to 12 volts on the charger.
 
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