LED Headlight Bulbs in lieu of Relay

[BrianX128]

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This isn't mine but I found a dude online who did what I was thinking just not with an led 5x7 from amazon and I don't think he put the lenses back on for some reason.

 

[chillman88]

Just put some plastic trim around them and you have a cheap alternative to the Aussie housings. I'd consider running them like that!

 

[BrianX128]

Yeah exactly. I think you could sand and polish the factory lenses enough to make them clear through and through once you have them off. The corners would be the only trouble spot for sanding.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

My personal experience with LEDs (in my 85) are that they're not great. Yes they will light up road signs 1/2 mile down the road at night like day time. Yes they look brighter that the sun up close. After 150 yards or so, they seemed to have a dark area that no light was in. I only felt safe driving less than 50 MPH with them installed. The next payday, I ordered some regular halogens from LMC Truck. These have a "special" crystal lens and are brighter than stock. They have replaceable bulbs and I'm going to order the even brighter optional bulbs soon. I prefer them over LEDs. I have some "projector beam" headlights in my 1981 and actually prefer the ones in my 85 over them. I am running the relay kits in both trucks. I have never seen one from Bronco Graveyard, but wouldn't be surprised if they're made by the same manufacturer. I admit that I was nervous when I went to install the first relay kit on my 85 a few years back since it didn't come with any instructions. It all lays out where it's supposed to go and there are paper tags wherever a connection needs to be made telling you wher eit needs to be made. I installed the relay kit, new headlights, and changed the oil in my 81 a couple of weeks back. It all took me right about 1 1/2 hours so the relay kits are a breeze to install.

 

[Oledirtypearl86]

I ended up redoing some of the stock wiring and that made a world of difference and added 2 fog lights now I have some nice led fog lights to add to that if that don't work I'll add a decent light bar but I'll put that on the headache rack I'm fixing to build if it ever gets cold so I can turn it to face front or back depending on what I'm doing

 

[renjaminfrankln]

Just FYI building some relays was not the only reason I decided to try some LED lights. I'm not bad at soldering and wiring, and i've set up headlight relays before. Actually LED lights are more of an uncharted territory. I'm really hoping for a better than halogen performance. The pattern on my garage wall looks promising

 

[nelstomlinson]

Yeah exactly. I think you could sand and polish the factory lenses enough to make them clear through and through once you have them off.

Unless you can put on fancy anti-reflection coating inside and out, you are going to have reflections that mess up the factory optics of the sealed beam. It would be both simpler and better to just remove the lens and leave it off.

 

[austin92]

I don’t know if I have different vision than most people but the stock sealed beams on my bullnose and factory bulbs in my obs is more than enough for me, I rarely use high beams. They probably get used to more to bright people running these types of aftermarket lights just to find out that was their low beams and when their high beams come on I can’t see anything past my A pillar gauges lol. I’m not putting anyone down for using aftermarket lights but I think there’s a lot of lower quality lenses that make it hard for other drivers to see at night. Are their brands/styles that you guys notice are easier on other drivers? What is usually your deciding factor on looking for aftermarket headlights?


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[IDIBRONCO]

Since I live in a very rural area and meeting oncoming vehicles at night isn't the most common thing, I just look for something to help me see the deer as far down the road as possible. I know that not everyone is in this situation, but that's my deciding factor.

 

[nelstomlinson]

Austin92, most aftermarket lights send their extra brightness everywhere, including into the oncoming driver's eyes. Apparently designing an emitter/reflector/lens/cover arrangement that actually doesn't blind oncoming traffic is hard, and we can't just slap in random parts and make it work.

Idibronco, I need the same thing. I'm probably going to wind up with bumper mounted HID driving lights, powered from a relay controlled by the highbeams. Click off the highbeams and the driving lights go off, too.

 

[Thewespaul]

That has been my solution as well, I live in a rural area with a lot of deer so I mounted a cheap light bar behind my grille. I wired it on a relay so it comes on with the high beams automatically, but I wired the ground for the bar into the cab on my switch panel. This way I can cut off power to the bar separately and still retain my high beams by themselves for annual inspections.

 

[nelstomlinson]

Good idea. I keep forgetting we can switch the ground. That's bad practice in the AC power world.

 

[86.9]

Instead of sanding the stock plastic lenses a quick and easy way with excellent results is to use Mothers aluminum polish on them. Best results are obtained with a buffer, but you can still get amazing results by hand. Afterwards some 303 protectant will make it last for awhile. I have tried one of those kits that was supposed to be good and involved a lot of sanding etc. Wasn't worth it. You tube is your friend.

 

[chillman88]

That has been my solution as well, I live in a rural area with a lot of deer so I mounted a cheap light bar behind my grille. I wired it on a relay so it comes on with the high beams automatically, but I wired the ground for the bar into the cab on my switch panel. This way I can cut off power to the bar separately and still retain my high beams by themselves for annual inspections.

I was planning on the same thing. Hadn't thought of switching the ground though. Not sure if I want to because I want to be able to turn them on by themselves. I think I'll run a two position switch for (on|off|auto)

Instead of sanding the stock plastic lenses a quick and easy way with excellent results is to use Mothers aluminum polish on them. Best results are obtained with a buffer, but you can still get amazing results by hand. Afterwards some 303 protectant will make it last for awhile. I have tried one of those kits that was supposed to be good and involved a lot of sanding etc. Wasn't worth it. You tube is your friend.

Really? Aluminum polish? Never would have thought of that, thanks!

 

[nelstomlinson]

Chillman88, what's your reasoning for wanting to switch them separately? I'm thinking I want them on the dimmer switch, so I don't have to remember to turn them off separately when there is a car coing at me.