Which 20a relay is easiest for the mod? There seem to be loads with a different number of pins etc

Ta

You're better off with a 30A relay and fuse it down to 15A.

£2.35

thunderace wrote:You're better off with a 30A relay and fuse it down to 15A.

£2.35

cheers, 4 pin best to go for?

You need a 4 pin one.

85 is your 12v feed direct from the battery, fused down to 15A.
86 is the feed from the switchgear
87 is connected to earth
30 is the load to the bulbs.

thunderace wrote:You're better off with a 30A relay and fuse it down to 15A.

Why exaclty?

Neosophist wrote:

thunderace wrote:You're better off with a 30A relay and fuse it down to 15A.

Why exaclty?

It'll last longer.

What I want to know, why are 4 pin relays so big, surely we must be able to make a smaller one?

Big? They're smaller than the OEM flasher relay, about 25mm cube. That's not big at all.

thunderace wrote:

Neosophist wrote:

thunderace wrote:You're better off with a 30A relay and fuse it down to 15A.

Why exaclty?

It'll last longer.

How do you reach that conclusion?

The relay is just an electromagnetic switch, since stock bulbs will not draw 20 amps of current they are in no danger of overloading a 20amp relay (an overcloadcould indeed shorten its life).

The contact inside the relay will probably wear out over a length of time but the deciding factor would surely be down to quality of manufacturer rather than size of the relay providing they are both being used without overloading them?

For example, I use a 20amp 4 pin Japanese made relay on my bike.

I have no figures at hand but I should imagine the time before faliure is higher than some of the cheaper chinese ones that you can buy.

Also its very small.

just got a cheapo 20A one, can always buy another if it burns out