How hot is your headlight?

[davetherave]

My headlight seems to gets very hot!
It had a 60W H4 Halogen bulb in it which got so hot it melted a plastick bulb holder (hi beam indicator bulb at top of the housing). So I fit a 35W but it is still getting very hot to touch the outside!
Is this normal?
Not sure what headlamp make it it so here is a pic.

 

[candy man]

Looks like an old bates headlight and no it's not normal to get that hot

 

[davetherave]

I have no safety relay or reserve lighting unit!
The bulb is just connected to the battery through a hi/low switch, 10A fuse and on/off switch.
So I'm thinking 35w/14.5v puts about 2.4A through the bulb.
Does that sound about right or should the current be limited somewhere?

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[gggGary]

I'll guess you don't have a good ground from the headlight to the battery, and some funky ground circuit loop is heating up a wire or three inside the shell.