I found the 50 watt bulbs at an autoparts chain called "AutoZone".
I replaced my turn, brake, and reverse lights with the 50 watt bulbs. No
indication of melting yet.
I did spot in an "Pep boys" a QH reverse light bulb. I am tempted to get a
pair of those to try out. The 50 watt bulbs were a noticable difference
when backing up at night!

Matt!

> Alistair,
>
> Good tip on the bulbs - where'd you find them? I agree that rear
> fog/driving
> lights are the only way to go. The stock reflectors just won't do the job.
> My
> '82 came with dual rear fog lights, but on a separate switch... great for
> tailgaters too! :-)
>
> On 30 May 2005 at 9:09, Alistair Bell <albell@UVIC.CA> wrote:
>
>> I have been running 50 W halogen bulbs in my back-up lamp sockets for 3
>> or more years now. No melting of housing evident. These are German made
>> bulbs that fit into the bayonet mount socket.
>>
>> While an improvement over the stock back-up lamps, they still don't
>> really provide enough light when backing up - and I don't have dark
>> tint on windows, god only knows how those with dark tint can see out
>> through rear window at night.
>>
>> So I mounted a cheap (as in found at Sally Ann) "driving light" , with
>> a 55 W H3 bulb, to top of back bumper, relayed it, tapped activating
>> wire from relay to stock back-up light wire. Much better light now.
>>
>> I took the 50 W bulbs and swapped them into the brake light sockets. I
>> do like how much brighter they are now. Wondering though if i should
>> relay this circuit too, but seeing as the back-up light circuit
>> survived the load...
>>
>> Tip 'O the hat to Terry K for his consistent proselytising on the
>> improvement to brake lights with higher wattage bulbs.
>>
>>
>> Alistair
>>
>>
>> '82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94
>> http://www.members.shaw.ca/albell/
>>
>
> Shawn Wright
> http://zuiko.sls.bc.ca/~swright
> '85 Jetta D
> '88 Westy 2.1L, soon to be 1.6TD 5 speed
>  (see progress at http://members.shaw.ca/vwdiesels)
> '82 Diesel Westy
>

--
Any opinions stated here are my own, otherwise someone else would have
said them.