Least expensive way to bright headlights?

[Big_John]

Yes, the halogens do use more power, so I would NOT use the halogen bulbs unless the relay conversion described above is in place.

Sorry, gotta disagree on that. Unless you are putting headlights with a higher wattage, the draw will be the same. Ohm's law, plan and simple. Amps = watts divided by volts. A 55 watt bulb operating on 12 volts will be 4.58 Amp draw.

The only big difference in halogen bulbs is there is halogen gas inside the bulb. That let's the tungsten filament get a little brighter and it also stays brighter longer because the tungsten doesn't boil off and stick to the inside of the bulb. That basically makes a mirror to reflect the light back. With the halogen, the tungsten doesn't do that. Basically the old, conventional headlights start getting dimmer from their first use. Halogen lights stay bright.

 

[Big_John]

Some reading. You'll want to skip down to "Light Sources" with the first. Headlamp - Wikipedia

And generic halogen lights. You want to read about the "Halogen Cycle" which explains it better than I did. Halogen lamp - Wikipedia

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Thanks - I was only repeating what I've heard with no knowlege to back up or conflict. Good to know!

 

[Gerald Morris]

I didn't realize I'd get so many good posts. Thanks for all the help. I'll post the difference once I get into it. I took a quick pic. I'll clean them as you guys said but I don't think it looks too bad for 54yrs old.

Doesn't Halogen consume much more power? I'm not sure my 54 year old wiring can handle it.

I think my headlights are the originals. How do I find out if they are... and are they dim just due to their age?

Thanks!!

You can easily rig a pigtail with a new headlight connector, connect it direct to your battery, and see if the lamp shines any brighter. Incandescent filaments will slowly burn down, and have a finite life expectancy. Get some good contact cleaner to that old plug.

I use such a plug only for activating my relays. This minimizes the current demand on it and the rest of the 54 yr old original circuit, leaving the high current to the fat 10 AWG leads I use from the relays. Again, at 12VDC, voltage drop over length of conductor becomes significant.

 

[Northcoast300h]

So I guess we all in agreement that I should clean up the connections and replace with halogens, then aim them properly. If I'm not happy with that, then rewire directly from battery as Morris states above.

Again, thanks to everyone for posting.

 

[Gerald Morris]

So I guess we all in agreement that I should clean up the connections and replace with halogens, then aim them properly. If I'm not happy with that, then rewire directly from battery as Morris states above.

Again, thanks to everyone for posting.

The halogens will do better if you do run them off the battery via a couple relays. I prefer the old sealed beam light. It didn't BURN ONE'S RETINAS OUT OF THE BACK OF YOUR SKULL when using it. I admit to having considerably better night eyes than most folk though.

Do clean up all your wiring. Dirty contacts lead to failures and fires. You don't want to find out about such the hard way. Very damned inconvenient that....

 

[lemondana]

I have a 38 Plymouth project car that's been on the back burner for close to 30 years. Getting ready to dig it out. I too-wanted some extra brighter driving lights, I was going to use them in my fog light housings. I found some 7" 100W, 225,000 candlepower sealed beams, The description is Marine Searchlights. I was going to hook them up to an extra dimmer switch, on and off. I haven't plugged one in yet, to see how bright is is. I'm tired of all of these new vehicles blinding me with their powerful lights. A lot of my driving is rural country at night. Will I go to jail?

 

[twostick]

I have a 38 Plymouth project car that's been on the back burner for close to 30 years. Getting ready to dig it out. I too-wanted some extra brighter driving lights, I was going to use them in my fog light housings. I found some 7" 100W, 225,000 candlepower sealed beams, The description is Marine Searchlights. I was going to hook them up to an extra dimmer switch, on and off. I haven't plugged one in yet, to see how bright is is. I'm tired of all of these new vehicles blinding me with their powerful lights. A lot of my driving is rural country at night. Will I go to jail?

Definitely want to run those off relays.

I put a set of 55w LEDs on the high beam side of my W900, 4 light system. 6000 lumens. Fkn BRIGHT!!! Every bit as bright or brighter than the 100w aircraft landing lights I used to run years ago with no more electrical load than an incandescent halogen.

I left the low beam halogens in and they look like parking lights beside the LEDs on high beam, dull orange. almost.

Productshttps://www.haizerusa.com/products

Kevin

 

[Gerald Morris]

I have a 38 Plymouth project car that's been on the back burner for close to 30 years. Getting ready to dig it out. I too-wanted some extra brighter driving lights, I was going to use them in my fog light housings. I found some 7" 100W, 225,000 candlepower sealed beams, The description is Marine Searchlights. I was going to hook them up to an extra dimmer switch, on and off. I haven't plugged one in yet, to see how bright is is. I'm tired of all of these new vehicles blinding me with their powerful lights. A lot of my driving is rural country at night. Will I go to jail?

Penalties for violating DOT regulations vary from State to State these daze. The DOT doesn't have the regulatory authority it originally was conceived with.

You probably would do better to cop some 7" reflectors for some HID European lamps or some LED's made to Euro specs. One must take care with LED quality though. The Chinese make plenty of them, most of which are sub-par.

I started researching LED headlamps in the early 2000s, looking for EFFICIENT lamps which would provide the same intensity as the old incandescent stuff at lower power, but the americaan appetite for Infinite Piggery insured that the market got flooded with high luminosity lamps which use as much or more power than the old stuff instead.

To wit: you can doubtless find PLENTY efficient lamps which will light up rural back roads well, and teach a lesson to oafs who get off blinding folks with their PhotonBlaster 9000 SUX lamps too. For REALLY obnoxious sorts, one can always enlighten them with a double pumped 1 W green laser, though THAT certainly could draw the ire of the Authorities....

 

[Northcoast300h]

I have a 38 Plymouth project car that's been on the back burner for close to 30 years. Getting ready to dig it out. I too-wanted some extra brighter driving lights, I was going to use them in my fog light housings. I found some 7" 100W, 225,000 candlepower sealed beams, The description is Marine Searchlights. I was going to hook them up to an extra dimmer switch, on and off. I haven't plugged one in yet, to see how bright is is. I'm tired of all of these new vehicles blinding me with their powerful lights. A lot of my driving is rural country at night. Will I go to jail?

From my years working with the government, I've found they and lawyers don't look kindly to most types of modifications. If you get in a wreck even if it wasn't your fault, lawyers love to pick mods apart by asking, "Are you a lighting engineer?", "Are you ASE certified". Most mods, on such old cars are ours, makes our cars safer, however best to check your state laws and get entire car state inspected. That way, I think you'll be covered.

Some states allow a light tint, which acts as anti glare, on the front windshield. It won't totally solve the problem but helps if lights at night are too bright.

 

[Northcoast300h]

So it seems my headlights might be the originals. They state "Power Beam" in middle with a "2" above and above that "B23".

It's weird because I think they still give off a decent light while in the city, but where there's no city lights, they seem dim on the sides, kind of difficult to see people walking beside the road, animals, naked women, etc. Do halogens have an overall wider beam?

(Pic is of low beams, Low with High beams aren't any better.) Wasting money is my specialty which I'm sick of, so I think I'll start with just cleaning the contacts and deep clean the headlights and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Gerald Morris]

So it seems my headlights might be the originals. They state "Power Beam" in middle with a "2" above and above that "B23".

It's weird because I think they still give off a decent light while in the city, but where there's no city lights, they seem dim on the sides, kind of difficult to see people walking beside the road, animals, naked women, etc. Do halogens have an overall wider beam?

(Pic is of low beams, Low with High beams aren't any better.) Wasting money is my specialty which I'm sick of, so I think I'll start with just cleaning the contacts and deep clean the headlights and see if that makes a difference.

DO clean those contacts. You simply must anyway, so embrace that task enthusiastically. Try hotwiring a low beam bulb direct to your battery to see if it does any better. I suspect it won't make MUCH difference, because tungsten filaments slowly lose their metal with use, which COATS THE SURFACE OF THE INSIDE OF THE BULB, including the reflector and the lens.

You should replace those venerable antiques, ideally with some others which haven't been used yet.

NOS Vintage General Electric GE Headlamp 4001 High Beam OE Mopar Past Jan 1972 | eBay
heres a nice pair:
(2) NOS GE 4000 Low Beam Truck lamp Sealed Beam Headlight 5.75" Round 12v Bulb | eBay

They still can be found, though not so easily as when I hoarded my stash.

Here are some nice 5001s for your high beams:

Vtg GE Lighting H5001 Hi Beam 5 3/4" Round Headlight Halogen Bulb 12V Car-Bike | eBay

See? You DON'T have to drop a wad of $$ to get decent lighting going on your land-yacht! Eventually, you can pick up a pair of real Bosch 30 amp 5 prong relays, sockets for them if you like, a pair of breakers, some #12 AWG wire, and cruise in style. I used #10, because I REALLY want every damned charge hole available in the circuit to move through my lovely classic lamps when I need them, but, if you're pinched for $, even #14 gives better ampacity than the #16 the beancounters at Ma Par cursed us with. But so Corporate Crapitalism goes....

 

[Northcoast300h]

Are Hella's direct replacements or do they need a conversion kit? I read today on a couple other forums that almost all other halogens made today are junk. GE, Sylvania XV, Wagner - all junk. So bad, that there's no difference between non halogen and halogen other than a whiter light.

I copied a little of a long post from another forum:

"There are no good 5 3/4" sealed beams currently manufactured. All of the halogen ones (H5001/H5006) are junk—pathetic 35/50w burners and sloppily-focused optics made on decrepit tooling that should've been scrapped and replaced many years ago but hasn't been because there's no way the expenditure would ever be made back, given the almost-nonexistent market for lamps of this size format.

The low beam performance of the non-halogen high/low beam 5 3/4" sealed beam (#4000 or heavy-duty #4040) was markedly superior to the H5006 in every objective way, though the light color of the non-halogen lamp was obviously browner, a point of subjective (dis)preference and of much marketing babble regarding "whiter" light."

Is this true?

 

[tbm3fan]

Long ago I made my own relay system for the Polara. Tyco relays, 12 ga. wire, new headlight sockets that had 12 ga. pig tails, and fuses. Before relays the headlights got around 9.5V and after got 12V. Just in case have about a dozen old NOS GE 4000 and 4001 stored away in a couple of places for the last 20 years. Ironically I don't really drive those cars all that much at night for what it is worth.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Are Hella's direct replacements or do they need a conversion kit? I read today on a couple other forums that almost all other halogens made today are junk. GE, Sylvania XV, Wagner - all junk. So bad, that there's no difference between non halogen and halogen other than a whiter light.

I copied a little of a long post from another forum:

"There are no good 5 3/4" sealed beams currently manufactured. All of the halogen ones (H5001/H5006) are junk—pathetic 35/50w burners and sloppily-focused optics made on decrepit tooling that should've been scrapped and replaced many years ago but hasn't been because there's no way the expenditure would ever be made back, given the almost-nonexistent market for lamps of this size format.

The low beam performance of the non-halogen high/low beam 5 3/4" sealed beam (#4000 or heavy-duty #4040) was markedly superior to the H5006 in every objective way, though the light color of the non-halogen lamp was obviously browner, a point of subjective (dis)preference and of much marketing babble regarding "whiter" light."

Is this true?

Yes. I get good results from my 4000/1 pair because they're as old as the car I put them in. All the "Old Guard" brand name 5 3/4" sealed beam lamps now are **** precisely for the reason given on that other forum, (which I too have read.) namely, the FACTORIES which made the Good Old Stuff 50-60 yrs ago were stolen, for pennies on the dollar, by chinese capitalists with the full connivance of greedy politicians and corporate shareholders in this country. Neither the equipment or the workers have been invested in since that Great Robbery now 30 years ago...

AVOID SYLVANIA! This brand name gets the most marketing at Low Budge Big Box-marts. None of the others are much better. Get the Old Stuff, as I recommended if you want real sealed beam lamps.

 

[marty koirtyohann]

As some of you know, bought my Hurst for $1000 in 2003 sitting over 10yrs in a junkyard and have been slowly restoring it ever since. Front headlights don't look too dim looking at them, but if I'm on a street without street lights, then its difficult to see the road. When I turn on the highbeam, they work, but no difference in brightness. My alternator's output is good, battery is good. I think the old wiring might be the problem or maybe the switch is corroded since water dripped down behind the dash for years.

I'm willing to replace wiring if possible or rewire somehow directly from the battery but I'd like to keep the OEM headlights if possible. I like the old soft white look. Any tips or help is appreciated.

halogen on a 4 head light sysem its all u need oo many younger folks r going t the led but they r more of a flood light to me than abeam do u have a good chargeing system do u have a small pulley on the altenator what is the voltage @ the battery wih th motor running & THE head lights on ?

 

[i_taz]

I had much improvement using the Sylvania Xtravision H5006. Nice clean white light without the hassle and harshness of LED conversion. I did do the relay upgrade before hand for another reason and that didn't help the quality of light but kept the car from catching fire...