renjaminfrankln
Full Access Member
The inadequacy of the stock wiring to support the current draw of halogen bulbs was very obvious on my 30 year old truck. Even after replacing my headlight housings and bulbs with new, and replacing the headlight switch in the dash which had some connection problems (and was getting HOT) my lights were pretty dim and sad.
I thought about rigging up relays and keeping the stock halogens, but the time it takes to do this job right is not insignificant, and I am trying to eliminate extra wiring under the hood, not increase it. And we have options now that draw much less power and could be supported by the stock wiring.
HID bulbs draw less than stock, but also come with extra wiring, and mounting a ballast. I have installed a few sets of these before with great results in vehicles with projectors.
I ended up purchasing a set of $40 Hikari LED bulbs from Amazon. 2 year warranty, very good reviews. I put these in the truck last night. While I haven't had a chance to drive with them yet, they look good illuminating my garage wall! The beam pattern looks pretty good as well, with a nice cutoff both above and below the beam. These bulbs can be rotated in the headlight to adjust the beam if needed. They fit just fine and I doubt i'll have any issues with them. High/Low works, with the high beam throwing light off at a higher angle than low. You'll want to rotate them so the wiring pigtail points straight down at the ground.
Someone on Amazon did a pretty thorough review of these and clocked them drawing 1.77 amps per bulb at 13.8v. A 45w low beam halogen should pull about 3.26 amps at 13.8v. So they use roughly half the power of the stock bulbs.
https://www.amazon.com/HIKARI-Headl...70&sr=8-3&keywords=hikari+9004+led+headlights
I'll update in a week or three when I get the truck back on the road. Its in my garage with new carpet but no seat and no injectors (waiting on seat upholstery to ship for my new junkyard seat).
Pics to follow
I thought about rigging up relays and keeping the stock halogens, but the time it takes to do this job right is not insignificant, and I am trying to eliminate extra wiring under the hood, not increase it. And we have options now that draw much less power and could be supported by the stock wiring.
HID bulbs draw less than stock, but also come with extra wiring, and mounting a ballast. I have installed a few sets of these before with great results in vehicles with projectors.
I ended up purchasing a set of $40 Hikari LED bulbs from Amazon. 2 year warranty, very good reviews. I put these in the truck last night. While I haven't had a chance to drive with them yet, they look good illuminating my garage wall! The beam pattern looks pretty good as well, with a nice cutoff both above and below the beam. These bulbs can be rotated in the headlight to adjust the beam if needed. They fit just fine and I doubt i'll have any issues with them. High/Low works, with the high beam throwing light off at a higher angle than low. You'll want to rotate them so the wiring pigtail points straight down at the ground.
Someone on Amazon did a pretty thorough review of these and clocked them drawing 1.77 amps per bulb at 13.8v. A 45w low beam halogen should pull about 3.26 amps at 13.8v. So they use roughly half the power of the stock bulbs.
https://www.amazon.com/HIKARI-Headl...70&sr=8-3&keywords=hikari+9004+led+headlights
I'll update in a week or three when I get the truck back on the road. Its in my garage with new carpet but no seat and no injectors (waiting on seat upholstery to ship for my new junkyard seat).
Pics to follow
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