Halogen Head lights

[Jason Wiechec]

I was thinking of installing Halogen Head lights on my 85 Silverado. C.an anyone suggest a brand and how much work would this take

[81_Chevy]

the ones im getting are off ebay, type in 7x6 halo led headlight some guy called chevyracer. now im pretty sure there projector headlights, but the bulbs he includes with them are the H4 (whatever that means) so i think there kinda close to halogens(?)

[Jason Wiechec]

thank you i will give them a look

[Tx_Phil]

I might have to check that out also. I thought "projector" headlamps were HID lights which require a ballast and such. H4 is the bulb size / style I thought.

[81_Chevy]

yeah, the H4 bulb he includes has the same prongs on the back as the factory headlights, my friend got some too and it was a direct replactment. except the wiring for the Led halo rings.

[ehjorten]

Your truck came from the factory with halogen headlamps! 

Have you got the 4 lamp vertical stack headlamps?  4x6" lamps?

If so...the Hella Vision Plus ones don't perform very well, but the Sirius ones do pretty good.  These are sealed-beam conversion lamps.  They have a replaceable bulb in the back of them.  You can expect around a 30% improvement in low-beam visibility with them.  High-beams are not much improved because a 4-lamp sealed-beam system already puts out a fair amount of light.

[Jason Wiechec]

yes I have the stacked four head light hi lo set up i will give them a look

[ehjorten]

We did some light output and light pattern testing of 4x6 sealed-beam conversion lamps at work and that is what we found.  Hella didn't do much redesign on the 4x6 for their Vision Plus lamps in the 4x6 size.  They are basically just a sealed-beam copy.  The 5x7 (2-lamp system) ones however are very good performers.  The Sirius ones in 4x6 were pretty good.  Now I just wish someone would (again) make a sealed-beam conversion for the H4703 (3-5/8" x ~6) that I have on my 4-lamp Crew!!

[rich weyand]

Another thing you can do for brighter headlights is to put in a headlight relay.  On my '78 K-10 I used a "H4 9003 P43t relay harness" from this page: http://autolumination.com/headlights.htm.  This does not require any wiring changes, as it has a connector that mimics the back end of the stock headlight.  The existing truck wiring controls the relay, and the relay drives the bulbs right off the battery.  For a double stack, you may need two of these, or there may be an alternate relay setup.  The point is to get the wiring from the battery to the bulbs as short as possible, with as few connections as possible, and get all the stock wiring and the headlight switch out of the power circuit, and just use that stuff to control the relay.

They have headlights and baskets and bulbs as well, but I was unimpressed with the ones I got and pitched them for some Hella E4s, which are 7" round bulb replacements for the 73-78 round-eyes.

[ehjorten]

One thing to note that nobody ever talks about with relays is that the higher voltage kills the life of the bulb.  This is more of an FYI, than a don't do it speech.  I realize that most of us don't drive with our headlamps on all that much, so bulbs do end-up lasting for quite a while.

The average B50 life (B50 means the statistical point at which half of the population fails) of a GE sealed-beam 4x6 (H4656) is about 320 hours.  This bulb lifetime is quoted and tested at 12.8 Vdc.  When you add relays you are basically getting rid of all that extra run of wire for the headlamps that has to go from the battery, through your headlamp switch and back to the headlamps.  This reduces the amount of resistance in the circuit and in a vehicle that is running you are able to get very close to alternator voltage.  Generally alternator voltage is around 14.7 Vdc.  If we take the case where we got say 14.1 Vdc to the bulbs then you are over-driving the headlamp by 1.3 Vdc.  Doesn't sound like much, but that is 10% (14.1/12.8 ).  What does this do to bulb life?  There are very well documented graphs relating bulb life, bulb current and light output to voltage; and a 10% increase in voltage equates to about a 70% decrease in lifetime and about a 40% increase in light output.  So that sealed-beam just got brighter, but now the 320 hr lifetime is now about 96 hr!  Not a problem if you never use your headlamps.

There are of course other benefits to using relays for your headlamps...by not sending headlamp voltage through your headlamp switch you have decreased the wear and tear on your headlamp switch and now that will last longer.  The ~40% increase in light output usually trumps bulb lifetime, but just be aware that when your bulbs go out more frequently...it is something that you should expect.  You can get high-output bulbs which usually have better lifetimes.  In the case of an H4656 that has 320 hr lifetime, you can get an H4656HO that has a 700 hr lifetime.  So if you pump up the voltage by 10% you can expect 210 hr.

Anyways...just dumping out some facts for anybody that is interested.

[bd]

Erik, Have you done any testing/evaluation of the Truck-Lite LED headlamps?

[ehjorten]

Yes we have and I don't have a lot of good to say about them!  I don't want to say too much because they are a supplier of ours.  My perspective comes from OEM Heavy Truck.  This is a completely different world than someone's personal vehicle that is either a daily driver or a weekend cruiser.  For improving your light output from current sealed-beams with an aftermarket conversion...it will!