2nd Gen headlight thread....Let's see what you got
 

Ok so I ve read countless threads on what headlight housings and bulbs everyone is running but we need a thread with all the info and some pics.

Post up your pics of reflector, projector or whatever you have and some info about them:

-what brand the assemblies and bulbs are
-what type of bulbs you used (HID, halogens....)
-what wiring harness you used
-what the light output is like
-what kind of cash did you have to drop on the setup
-what you would change if you did it again
-and whatever other info you think is useful

Hopefully we get a large range of set-ups and some good info because I know the stock headlights suck and people are always looking for different set-ups.

Thanks to all that can contribute

cheap taiwanese euro style headlights
 

the title sums it up, they were 90 bucks and easy to install. I didn't feel like spending the money on the conversion right now but had a cracked lense. These give off pretty good light for what they are, I am actually quite happy with the amount of light, If I wasn't aware of the lack of lighting trouble these trucks have I wouldn't complain about these lights. They are made in taiwan and should be treated as such. I am wondering what would happen if I added a relay (I might melt them,lol) But a cheap and easy short term fix. I should mention that the originals come out WAY easier if you split them from the mount. feel free to pm me if you need more info or where to get. A couple of people have mentioned that it makes the truck look newer (they don't know better), I'm undecided now on whether or not to upgrade further, like I said happy with the lighting, not happy with how plastic they are. I'd rather spend money on the 12 valve I guess.

Mr.Vicious....where did you purchase?

While this provides no info that you are asking for it does provide some good info on lighting your vehicle. Is simple and fairly easy to understand. You can read through all the sections and links fairly quickly.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/about/about.html

I am trying to decide whether I want the oem or the tiawan knockoff sport lights. 400-500 from the dealer vs under 200 for knockoffs (plus the harness for either set for the conversion). Most seem to be fairly happy with the knockoffs but from what I have read the oems are definitely better quality.

From my emails with Daniel he states
" Far and away the best 9007 bulbs presently on the market are the
>> Philips Xtreme Power items:
>> http://store.candlepower.com/bfcopo90hbpo1.html
>>
>> The best 9004s are the GE Night Hawk 9004NH items, which you can get
>> from www.amazon.com .
>>
>> Do not buy blue or "extra white" bulbs (Silver Star, Crystal Vision,
>> TruView, Hoen, PIAA, etc.); despite the heavy advertising push and
>> claims of "brighter and whiter" light, they actually produce _less_
>> light due to the blue glass they use."

Anyway the above site is informative and worth reading.

I have lights very similar to the ones VICIOUS is talking about. Ebay for $110 I think. Was disappointed in the difference they made to be honest. They are not designed with a good reflector and you get what you pay for. Sport headlights are still better IMO. They DO provide a more narrow beam straight ahead, but not much fill in in front or to the sides beyond what the stockers gave.

I would not do it again, but instead just buy some sport headlights. What I still need with these cheap ebay set is extra fog lighting so I've added some CATZ MSRs which do an excellent job filling in what the headlights don't.

The good thing about them tho is they are nice looking and do improve the "newness" look of the truck. Just like VICIOUS said.

But to be taken with a grain of salt, as they say. Silverstars do NOT put out less light nor do they have a blue tint. And contrary to Daniel's assessment, PIAA bulbs and the OSRAM Sylvania Silver Stars are consistently rated the best in performance and light output in direct DOT compliant bulbs. I put Silver Stars in my stock, aged/yellowed housings and got back the light output I used to have with clear lenses...can't wait to see what they look like with clear lenses! Also, I have heard nothing but complaints about the longevity of the GE nighthawk bulbs from another forum of auto enthusiasts.

What he's trying to get across is adding a blue filter layer to the bulb as the majority of them do does not increase light output, it only filters the light and thus reduces some of it, but gives it that blue tint.
Googleing the Phillips I found nothing useful on their website, but this tuner forum post has some good pics for comparison and even references Daniel.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...e/bad/bad.html

There is tons of great info on daniel sterns website.

People claim there piaa's are way better then stock, but the big problem I have with them is its a temporary fix. The bulbs burn out and who wants to spend $90 on bulbs more than once.

Sport headlights imho are the best solution, the clear housings make a huge difference, as well as having four lights well on high beam, and also the upgraded wiring makes a big differnece.

I have sport lights, I have the cheapy taiwan ones, they work great but they tend to fog up from time to time. I think I have found the issue, there is a small plug on the back that leaks. I put silicone in the hole and they don't seem to fog up anymore. I am using just regular phillips bulbs and the light output is excellent.

pm sent

I agree, foggers would improve lighting in front. my stock lights were so bad it was somewhat unsafe. If you follow all of daniel sterns recommendations it's a 500 dollar bill. I have an extensive email he sent me, which recommends dodge sports(not knockoffs) relay harness and bulbs (4)
Have you tried adjusting your bulbs/beams? I haven't yet, but will give it a whirl eventually

Sport headlights here. With the harness that provides power with direct connections to the batteries. MUCH better lighting than the original headlights, even when I had the high beam mod in place.

I have a set of tractor fog lights mounted in that gap where stock fog lights would go,

I also have some true blue headlights from JC Whitney. They were like $25. They aren't real bright but looks pretty neat. Also i have the fog lights that i use for headlights because they are really bright. I will post pictures when i get home.

Great thread guys, keep it going as this will be my next purchase

Ya a great start, lots of good useful info.

Lets see some more complete set-ups

I converted my '95 2500 to Sport Headlights in 2003 and I was amazed. I would recommend this conversion to anyone. I had to cut a little sheet metal inside with a sawzall, and then I primed the edges of the cuts. I made up a couple of wiring harnesses, and installed two relays, one for the Hi beams and one for the Lo beams. I soldered all the connections. When I pull back on the multifuction switch allllllllll the elements light up and it REALLY illuminates the night. On Lo beam I have 4 headlights burning, and occasionally an oncoming driver will flash me, but not very often at all--maybe once every couple of months.

The brand is Depo. I don't know if they make them anymore, but if not any Sport Headlight set will work. They have a slight bit of clouding on them--need to polish them again I guess.

http://www.pbase.com/image/122645893.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/122645900.jpg

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...820091116a.jpg

I swore I had a pic of it lit up at night, but can't seem to find it. Stock headlights, 2 round fogs in place of where they would be stock (didnt have em before) 2 rectangular fogs in the air dams. 2-4" round tractor lights, normally one side amber, one side red, but I took the 2 reds out and put ambers in, and 4 markers across the bottom of the bumper. I recently put neon on the backside of the bumper to light the grille up. Then a bunch of markers along the sides and tool box, and lights up in each of the fenders

I like the ones you have fisher, i might have to check those out

heres mine

first is before the blue head lights. Second is of the fog lights.

Attachment 69292

Attachment 69293

Sport lights, factory foglights, and piaa foglights
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7199/s6000767.jpg
Added led marker/turn lights
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/5746/dsc01060c.jpg

I was thinking about starting a thread on headlamp replacement when I noticed this one. I am tech savy, and understand how to properly handle high intensity lamps. Silverstars appear to be COMPLETE CRAP! Installed SILVERSTINK's 14 months ago. First one died two months ago, other one last week. NOT a reasonable life span. I will try Phillips next.

Yeah, Silverstars are not worth half of what they charge for them! I think I went thru about four of them in just over a year in the little Ranger I used to drive! I've heard good things about the GE Nighthawk bulbs, but haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Well I ordered the upgrade harness from Daniel Stern (what a wealth of info this guy has on vehicle lighting), the Phillips Xtreme Power 9007 bulbs and the GE Nighthawk 9004nh bulbs as well as the sportlights. I ended up not getting the oem sportlights from Dodge. I just couldnt bring myself to spring for the $400+ setup so I went with the depo headlights. I know tiawan but they were only 149.00 + 14.25 shipping for the pair from Headlights Depo through Amazon.com and seems everyone who has used them has liked them. Looking forward to putting them in once they get here and the weather cooperates.

From searching around on the web I found nothing but good on various car forums about the Phillips Xtreme Power bulbs. Apparently relatively new at least in the 9007 series but from what I have read they seem to be the gold standard of bulbs (at least for now) as long as they make the type/model you need (they dont make the 9004). Great reviews on the Nighthawks as well. We shall see though, no pun intended.

Also the Silverstars - there are two Silverstars the Sylvania Silverstars are junk from my own experience as well as countless threads here and other car forums. However the OSRAM Sylvania Silverstars (as Just Me stated earlier in this thread he was using) are supposed to be very good. Osram (a german company iirc) bought Sylvania a while back and they already had a bulb called the Silverstar. So they continue to sell both but they are different bulbs.

On those taiwain housings there is a plug on the back top inside corner, mine were fogging up and I believe that is where they were leaking from. Might be a good idea to put some caulking in there I did on mine and they stopped getting wet inside. Also from daniel stern that is a kit to build your own harness, its not a complete harness, just a heads up but it is alll top quality parts and the harness is fairly easy to wire up.

I remembered reading something about that maybe even from your previous post in this thread or the other one and had planned to seal them up before I put them in.

On Daniels website he just sells the harness kit. However he will make one if you ask him. It was about $12 more than the suvlight harness I think.

FWIW... my Sylvania Silverstars lasted far beyond my expectations. I bought and installed them in early 2004 and they both blew out within a month of eachother just three (and two) months ago. Go figure!

I added the harness from LMC truck about 2 years ago and didn't notice any difference.

I replaced the light housing with the eBay single 9004 version about 3 months ago and was not that impressed still.

Added one of the bulbs that Daniel Stern recommends - the Philips VisionPlus and they have a noticeably larger bulb size and the light output was whiter than the lone Silverstar I still had installed. Good bulbs. But the housing is the issue - doesn't aim the light or spread it where needed.

So the Catz MSRs do the rest.

i had enough of my oem non-sport headlights. i now have sport headlights, but it took some trial and error to get there.

i first tried the lmc harness - helped out with the light output in the non-sport housings. i was impressed with the difference - but un-impressed with the build quality of the harness.

on to the next - i simply replaced the non-sport housings with the one-piece housings shown earlier in the thread. the light output was improved - but the beam pattern was horrible - i had scattered light all over the place. the one piece housings are also very difficult to adjust as there is only one (hard to get at) screw.

on to the next - i replaced the stock bulbs with $$$ piaa bulbs - light got whiter, but not brighter.

on to the next - i did the high/low mod to allow the lows to stay on when high beam is engaged - but not the other way around. this was done simply by putting a one-way diode in the unused passenger stock harness (the lmc harness does not use the stock passenger side headlight wiring.) this did not last long, and one of the bulbs physically blew up and spread shards of glass, and gases around the inside of the housing. the reason i believe it blew is because the one-piece housings have the capsule which directs light backwards into the reflector housing. the little capsule is quite close to the bulb, and i think the extra heat from both filaments had nowhere to dissipate, whereas a stock housing does not use that capsule and the bulb is not covered, allowing more heat to dissipate.

on to the next - after all of the above, i finally decided to do the sport conversion. i built my own harness from scratch with 12g wire, relays and hd bulb sockets. i also went the oem route with the housings. i built my harness so that a 5-pin relay would allow full-time use of all four bulbs when on low or high, and if needed, a 4-pin relay would not allow the inner bulbs to come on during low beam operation. i have ended up using the 4-pin relays because when driving in fog with the low beams on (and all four bulbs lit) the inner bulbs direct the light quite high, making it difficult to see. my sport lights now operate as they would've from the factory (low = outer bulbs only ; high = inner and outer)

i am by far more than happy with the final result of the sport conversion - if knew in the beginning what i know now, i would have done it first and saved lots of $$$.

as for bulbs - i am currently using philips vision+ for all 4 bulbs. light output is excellent. as it is now, i wouldn't see the need for extra driving lights - just fog lights.

i am planning on switching bulbs to the high wattage style. there are two types - 100/80w or 100/55 or 65 what (9004 or 9007). i am plannig on using the second type so i am not blinding oncomers when in low beam mode.

HTH

Recieved my harness from Daniel today. Holy cow it is impressive, very heavy duty. Looks to be 12g wire all around but may even be 10 and some nice relays that are even in a little mount. He also used ribbon wire (kind of like romex) tying the 2 lights together nice and neat, the inner wires on that appear to be 12g as well. Just waiting for the housings to get here now.

Completely agree with the above... would have done the same. Dangit![duhhh]

I decided the other day to build a relay harness...built the harness just fine, used 12AWG wire and 40 amp relays (5 pin). problem is I cant get the relays to trigger, all 3 wires at the head light show as positive,(neg switched) it could be because I have daytime running lights, and I pulled the DRL because it was fried and was causing the headlights to stay on all the time, once its pulled. headlights work normally except the hi beam indicator does not. I'm guessing I'll need to source a DRL module before I can get my relays to work.

I too have the single clear headlight assys, scattered light output, but better than the OEM's were, also have 2x50w fogs and 4x 100W fogs, when they are all on I have about a 1/2 mile of well lite road. my 50W fogs give more light than my 80w100w headlights do (modded so both are on when on high)

Here's a DO NOT buy story.

Found these projector beam lights on ebay. They have the eyebrow lights and LEDs. They're cool looking, but the light output leaves a LOT to be desired:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../Headlight.jpg

actually that is correct operation i believe. you need to have the DRL unplugged in order to run a relayed harness. you can put a jumper wire in the harness side of the DRL plug to correct the high beam indicator issue. i don't remember which pins need to be jumped - but a creative search on here may yield a good result for you . . .

if you are worried about not having DRL - you can buy a kit from daniel stern which activates the ambers on 100% as the DRL, then normal operation as soon as the headlight switch turns from the 'off' position.

bottom of the page here: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/p.../products.html

When my driver's side lens separated from the body of the headlight, I looked at a whole bunch of ebay lights for our trucks, and alllllllllmost bought some projector beam lights... but after some digging I discovered that they weren't true Sport Headlights, with 2 bulbs in each light pod. Luckily I just dug out some contact cement, and glued the lens back in place, replaced the bulbs, and everything is fine. I'll never give up my Sport Headlights--they just illuminate the road so beautifully.

I did the relay mod with sport upgrades to mine as well. Used Daniel sterns RIK-RAM kit. Mad a HUGE difference. I was not able to afford OEM at the time and got the ebay units, but am saving my pennies to someday get OEM housings. I just used normal everyday headlamps. I had the ones from my stock housings, and the replacements came with bulbs too. Plus I already had a set of spares in the truck. That was about a year and a half ago and still have not had to change the bulbs. I figure when I finally do have to get bulbs I will take Daniels recommendation, he hasn't steered me wrong yet.

FWIW, I would highly recommend Daniel Sterns kit. It comes with 10 guage fused leads for the battery connection to the relays, then I used 12 guage wire in three different colors for easy identification (high beam, low beam and ground). I had to build the darn thing twice cause I didn't know that our trucks are negatively switched. Kinda dumb I know, but live and learn. All in I think I had about 300 into it. Off hand I can't remember what Daniels RIK-RAM cost, the housings were 110 each and the wire was about 30. Then there was the black wire loom but it was maybe 5 bucks at napa. I did make sure to solder and heat shrink all of the connections though, figured it would help with vibration.

Don't know how much the dents on my forehead cost me after I had to rewire everything, but my wife sure got a good laugh out of it!!!

I'm going to order his Park light DRL,
is yours hooked up with the DRL missing??
I read a wiring diagram, and see what colors need to be connected, just never got that far yet

I did send him an E-mail and he send me back a crap load of info. even how to disable a functioning DRL (and keep hi beam indicator.

i will probably order his DRL kit also.

yes, i run my truck right now without DRL. but i have the jumper wire to correct the high beam indicator.

everytime i send him an email with a simple question i also get a ton of info back. all good info too . . .

I think my mistake was I used the ground/hi/low signal from only 1 headlight, gonna try using low signal off right headlight and the hi signal off the other head light, I did try using a shared "ground" and not enough current to solidly trip the relays....
gonna give another kick at the cat.
thanks

I think I may have found the problem, actually 2 of them... once I finish fixing it I'll update it.

I fixed the hi-beam indicator, just had to jumper pin #3 and #6 together. that I think was the reason for the relays to start working properly, once I've finished it I'm gonna un jumper the Hi-beam, and see if the previous issues return, that should confirm that the hi-beam issue need to be addressed first

I built my own harness after I found at the local AutoValue a set of high temperature 9004 plugs for use with high wattage bulbs. DojDewd had a thread long ago about buying plugs to build his harness and these ones came with 16 gauge wires on them already. 2 relays and plugs into the harness at the DRL module plug for all the controls and the light improvement in the stock lenses was noticable. The stock harness is junk. I did ground each light harness closest to each light/battery negative connector instead of running a ground across from the drivers to passenger side.