ajg617

Anyone know if highbeams should also keep lowbeams on? Mine don't. Low beams are great but high beams are terrible. When I hold the lever manually to flick the beams, both stay on and visibility is great. When I lock the high beams on, lows go off.

AggieJustin

No, the low beams don't stay on with the high beams. That's what the Brite Box will do for you. You can get it from Geno's Garage. I think there are also some less expensive wiring workarounds for keeping both low and high on with the high beams, but I'm not familiar with them.

Lil Dog

Do a search on these topics.. I remember a thread where you buy a $0.35 Scotch lock wire jumper and pin 2 wires in the column together to achieve the same result.

OutlawStorm

You would have to diode isolate the wire that way, or you would always have all 4 lights on. IF you do it this way have the diode band facing the low beam light wire. THis way it will let power flow to both lights when on high beam, but when you switch to low beam it will not let the power flow to the high beam lights

I personally would not do it this way,. as i think it would put ALOT of strain on the headlight switch and cause switch failures etc. THe Bright box idea works 100times better as it uses relays under the hood to take the extra power needed and not use the switch to do it all,,, just my opinion is all

VinDiesel

That's the way they work. There's a simple kit with a relay available from many sources (Geno's, Summit Racing, etc.).

If you know anything about relays, use a 30 amp "ice cube" or "Bosch" relay available at just about any parts store, or cheaper from an alarm installer. All you have to do is tie the coil to the highbeam supply (and ground, of course) and the "common" terminal to the lowbeams. "Normally closed" to the original low beam supply, and "normally open" to a new fused hot wire. That way you don't back feed the original low beam supply. This should be able to be done under the hood, just back of one of the headlight assemblies. Somebody help me out here- I don't remember, but I believe one side just crosses over to the other along the radiator support. I think the left (driver) side just feeds over to the right (passenger) side.

I fried two headlight switches before I added two relays- one to carry the low beams, and one the highs. Though I still have mine operating in the normal fashion (Hi or Lo, not both). My "*******" didn't put in the factory overlay relay harness as part of the recalls like they should.

ajg617

Been reading through the forum. Seems like folks with the standard 9004 bulbs complain about the low beams being too dim and the high beams OK. I have just the opposite problem. The low's are OK and aimed correctly but the highs just diffuse so far ahead and are so dim that I consider them useless without the lows being on at the same time. Anyway am going to try a wiring work around for the short term.

But has anyone upgraded to the newer style headlight Euro kits with the complete headlight and corner assembly?

I NEED MORE LIGHT!

hink

The place i work for has a shop truck that is the same way. I don't even use the bright lites because they are worthless. I was thinking about upgrading the bulbs, but some of them are very expensive. If you wire up something, don't put more strain on the headlight switch, like they said, it will burn it up. I've replaced 3 switches on different trucks. Granted, the new switches are better, but it makes a mess when you burn up an older one. It stinks to high heaven also!! I had to wire my headlights directly to the battery one night just to make it home. What a pain in the a$$ that was!! Let us know what you figure out.

VinDiesel

This is the subject of this thread. Keeping the low beams on when using the high beams. The description of how to wire in a relay to do it is in my post directly above.

infidel

The relay solution is excellent, have done it to both of my trucks. Costs about $10 and takes less than a half hour.

ajg617

I'm going to try VinDiesel's mod but first I have to take both headlight assemblies out and replace the height adjustment screws which are rusted solid. I wish they were as easy to remove as my wife's 02 Suburban - that is almost embarrassingly easy.

Lt.B

Beware Safety Inspections....That stuff will not fly in some states. Here in Va it will get you a rejection.

VinDiesel

That's an interesting thought- one might want a way to defeat the relay.

Easily accomplished, just interrupt the coil circuit. Either "hot" or "ground" side, wouldn't make any difference. An in-line insulated spade connector could just be unplugged to do this, returning the lights to original operation. Actually, you could just pull the fuse on your new battery positive feed wire (you did fuse it, right?). The relay would still switch, but since it wouldn't have the power feed, the lows would stay off with the brights on.

A few years ago, the Oklahoma government "brain trust" did away with vehicle inspections, go figure!
I'm sure it was because everyone here was already so conscious about keeping up there vehicles...