Albino99

I own a factory 99 Cummins Sport with the original headlights. The driver's side main headlight housing is allowing moisture to penetrate inside and build-up on the lens. The stock Sport lenses are made of plastic and require me to polish them at least once a year to keep them from fogging/yellowing. I honestly like the look of Sport lights, but would like to upgrade to something with more modern styling and LEDs. Ebay and Amazon are full of cheap Chinese/Taiwan light housings that look cool, but are made cheaply and with low quality LEDs. I am wondering what the best method is for achieving modern lighting with my Sport pickup. I thought about buying another set of OEM style housings and installing a quality LED bulb, but I often hear people complaining that LEDs don't work correctly with the wiring and or produces a scattered beam on the road. What are my options for a factory Sport pickup? I really am looking for a "plug & play" system that doesn't require me to buy an expensive wiring harness or modifying my original wiring. If anyone on here has an original Sport truck or converted to Sport lights, I would love to see pics of your LED setups (bulbs & housings).

04ctd

subscribing to thread.

on my 2006, i put HID's in the OEM lights
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...2006-a-283380/

i think they are a forum sponsor:
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...output-327587/

can anyone compare LED to HID?

I have LED's in one vehicle, and have noticed they are great for blinding other drivers, and getting a bright reflection off road signs. but not so much for actually lighting up the road.

but HID's really put out the light.


what is the best/cheapest/brightest mod for a 2001/1999?
I am thinking OEM's with a good HID bulb?

torquefan

I bought some LED conversion bulbs for the high beams in my Sport headlamps. They were advertised as a direct replacement for a 9004 bulb, so I assumed they would work the same as a 9004 bulb, in a housing that was designed for a 9004 bulb. I found I was very wrong as I shone them against a wall to check the beam and aim. There was no beam and no aim. They just barf out random light over the whole wall. I learned that they put out a tremendous amount of light, but a factory reflector housing won't focus the light into a proper beam, they need to be used with a projector housing to make good use of all that light. There are companies that take 2nd gen Sport light housings and install projectors into them. That is the way I would go if I wanted to benefit from all the light from the LED bulbs, or an HID retrofit lamp for that matter.

Greg Reed

Check out www.mopar1973man.com. There is a thread in there on the Morimotos he used. Or, maybe it is Mishimoto, can't remember. Kind of spendy, but look good.

Albino99

Yeah, I keep hearing tons of people raving about HIDs and their incredible performance. The only thing that makes me stay away from them is the additional wiring involved, ballast boxes, special bulbs, etc needed to complete the installation. It starts to get expensive with all this additional lighting harness/equipment you have to get. I want something that is easy "plug-n-play". I like the idea of super bright LEDs, but the light focus is not there with the stock light housings. I also like how LEDs consume much less amperage than traditional halogens. If someone out there makes a good quality projector style headlight housing for the 99-02 Sport models, I would be very interested. I see it is now popular/trendy for people to open up the stock housings and replace the halogens with square "Rigid Industries" LED lights. For me it boils down to......... I don't want to modify the stock wiring and I would like to use an LED light source.

SIXSLUG

I'm converting my non sport 01 to Sport headlights and am concerned with the yellowing. Is there a clear film that can be applied and easily removed?

You are correct about the led's, the road signs light up great but the FOV isn't that great unless there is something to reflect the light....

04ctd

check out some threads on the Head Light switch overheating in these trucks.
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...relays-176263/

I think that putting in relays to provide clean reliable power to the headlights is something we just have to do. you can buy harnesses/prebuilt cables on ebay that will simplify the install & look clean

another question, where would we buy stock headlights? my OEM lense is full of water on one side.

Albino99

The link you posted above is actually something I followed and built for my old 93 first gen Dodge. The conversion worked really well. Afterwards,12 volts actually got to the lights for improved performance. I guess I didn't realize that 2nd gens were plagued with bad engineered wiring for the headlight circuit. I just figured that all 2nd gens with the Sport model were equipped with a better wiring circuit due to 4 bulbs instead of the standard model 2 beam. I also thought that one of the biggest benefits of LEDs is decreased amps, therefore putting less load on the headlight circuit?