Recently took a 7 hour round trip in the truck to pick up a steal-of-a-deal professional gas stove that I have been looking for on Craigslist for over 5 years. Part of the drive was at night and I rarely drive the truck at night. I was really disappointed with the old technology headlights. Anybody replace the stock bulbs with LED's? Any recommendations? They draw less power, right so they'll be easier on the electrical system, especially the headlight switch, yes? School me please. Andy
The first thing to do is get the headlight switch out of the circuit with a relay. Connect the relay to the battery and actuate it with the headlight switch. This will give the headlights full battery voltage and only pass a small current through the headlight switch. A six-terminal 20-30 amp Bosch-style relay is about $5 on Amazon. Here's some instructions on how to do it-- Better yet, you can buy a complete headlight relay harness for about $20 on Amazon. A direct connection of the headlights to the battery may be all you need. I don't have any direct experience with LED headlights, but I did consider them but elected to go with Cibie sealed beam halogens on a relay. I bought the Cibies on ebay for about $40. Really good LED headlights are expensive, but the last generation of halogens are pretty reasonable and 'almost' as good, IMO. I'd avoid anything HID because they're complicated and fussy, and like LEDs, good ones are expensive and not that much better than halogen. Sylvania, Wagner and a bunch of others make halogen sealed beams for between $10-20. A good set of these and a relay is likely to do the trick. Look for H6024 size. The problem with cheap LED headlights is the light 'cut-off'. The design is usually poor and you can potentially blind oncoming drivers. They are almost always plastic instead of glass lenses (and it is just my opinion, but they look 'ricer' and out of place on an AD truck) There's very few vehicles in recent production that use round headlights anymore, with one notable exception - Jeep. I'd suggest looking at some of the Jeep forums for LED and halogen reviews and see if there's something that'd meet your neeeds
OK, (finally) something I have "experience" with... and an opinion of: Stock lighting... Just not a fan. Backstory: On one of my previous vehicles, a 52 Hudson Wasp (hence my screen name), I replaced the 6V sealed beams with a set of Hella "housings", that is to say a glass-faced metal housing (reflective on the inside) with a 6V halogen "burner" (lamp- or bulb). RAZOR sharp cutoff, and significantly more illumination. Fast forward a few light-years (pun intended), and my '14 GMC had just plain pathetic (albeit halogen) stock lighting. In the GMC I did an HID-upgrade in the stock housings with a Morimoto HID conversion kit (from The Retrofit Source). The result? EPIC, GAME-CHANGING FORWARD ILLUMINATION. Same pattern as the original halogen setup, same sharp cutoff, but just an amazing amount of light. Fast forward some more. An HID upgrade on both low- and high-beams on my Pontiac G8, again with Morimoto stuff. Another epic game changing illumination upgrade, again from The Retrofit Source. Now, slow-forward (because it certainly isn't FAST forward), and I have this old AD truck-her name is Penny (maybe you've heard her story), and she is going to need nothing short of the EPIC, GAME-CHANGING ILLUMINATION that my GMC and G8 benefited from. Well, I just happen to have those Hella housings from the Wasp-and they fit the AD truck. And Morimoto just happens to make an H4 HID conversion kit to fit them. And The Retrofit Source carries it. Your choice of light "color" (temperature), as well as ballast wattage (35w standard, 50w optional- all of mine are 50w), with a well-built relay harness. Sorry if you may have detected a slight HID-bias... but for the "inconvenience" of having to find a place to conceal (or not) the "computers" and the "ballasts", I cannot think of one single "vehicle upgrade" of such consequence as an HID upgrade. I have seen vehicles with an LED upgrade, in the original housings (referring to some late-model stuff here)- the problem is the way the LED lamp emits light. Totally different from the way an incandescent (or HID) lamp emits light. The result is a LOT of illumination, albeit poorly "focused" (Phil's "poor cut-off" comment) . Not what you want in your headlights. So, with that having been said, if you want to take baby steps, order two of these HL79562 Hella 7" Round H4 E-Code Headlamp, Each | Rally Lights (not sure if this will come thru as a link from Rallylights.com) (bulbs not included). Pick your wattage and color. A relay to bypass the headlight switch, as Phil suggested, is a good idea. If you are still 6V, reach out to me, and I will send you the 6V lamps from the aforementioned Wasp, for a stage-1 upgrade. If you then decide "stage 2" (an HID conversion- in those Hella's, but will need to be 12v) seems like natural progression, I will be happy to offer guidance on product selection from The Retrofit Source. Disclaimer: I do not work for, nor am I affiliated with The Retrofit Source (or Morimoto Lighting), beyond being a VERY satisfied customer. Wow- it's like you hit a nerve! But, if the demographic of this forum is like ME... "getting older" and needing MORE LIGHT, all of this is pertinent.
My MAN!!! You are officially a lighting nerd and I love it. Think I'm going to go with the halogens to start. Bill Hanlon put up a good description of a headlight relay install in our trucks years ago based upon a much earlier request by me on headlights. I'm probably going to do the same conversion on my Model A coupe hot rod as well but I'm going to do the truck first. Thanks so much for your rather exhaustive and informative post. I hope you are all doing well up there in NH. Andy
My relay system is still working fine. I stayed with Hella reflectors and standard 60 watt 9003 (H4) Halogen lamps. I don't do much night driving with my truck, so I haven't upgraded the lamps to HID. Plus they are DOT legal. Here is the link to the discussion with the home made relay system. https://talk.classicparts.com/threads/calling-coilover-evan.23629/#post-117685
So, you have a set of Hella reflectors already? And you are 12V? OK then. I will assemble a series of links and post them here, with recommendations. But to start, you will need to know what "temperature" (color) light you want. The human eye sees light in the around-4300K range most efficiently, and since our goal is USABLE light, something around 4300K is what I would suggest. Your options are 4300K, 5000K and 6000K (K is Kelvin). The 4300K's are a slightly yellowish light, halogen-ish. 5000K is pure white, and 6000K is starting to approach a bluish tint. But... those values are when using a 35W ballast. When the 50W ballast is selected, the temperature drops by 1,000K. So, on vehicles I have retrofitted, I have ordered 5000K bulbs, with a 50W ballast, giving me around 4000K. My brother and I both HID-converted identical trucks, and mine 5000K/50W was visibly brighter than his 6000K/50W. Links to follow!
