4 Hi Headlight Mod

wheezin said:

My questions about this hi4 mod is, I have a 92 C 1500 with drls will this mod affect the drls and do i need to rewire to draw power from the battery instead of the switch ordoes my 92 already do this?

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kennythewelder said:

You need to do away with your DRLs. You can pull the fuse for the DRLs and that is all you need. As for wiring, yes the supply wiring needs to come directly off of the battery. The issue is that the OE wiring to the headlights are a small Gauge wire. By coming off the battery with a larger supply wire, it gives a larger supply to draw from. There is no need to replace all the wiring from side to side. All you need to do is make a tie in from the battery with a larger size wire. 12 GA is plenty big enough.

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Both of my trucks have the 4 Hi mod and functional DRLs, no issues there.

You will essentially be wiring up a relay to draw power from the battery. It's very quick and easy.

df2x4 said:

Both of my trucks have the 4 Hi mod and functional DRLs, no issues there.

You will essentially be wiring up a relay to draw power from the battery. It's very quick and easy.

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Now that I think about it. I had to do away with my DRLs because I added a second relay for my dim lights also. The DRLs was enough to make the second relay switch on. If you just do the 4 headlight mod, you will be OK.

Just to be clear. I have 1 relay that switch on when the high beams are on so that the low beams are on at the same time ( this is the 4 headlight mod). I also have a second relay that works my low beam headlights all the time. This makes them a lot brighter, because it supply's the headlights from a much larger wire (12 GA)

Sorry to reply to such an old thread. But I just recently finally did this mod.

I'm adding HID's for the low beam.

Anyone have heat issues / melted housings from running 4hi with the HID's?

Stock lamps are 55/65 watt.

Most people put either 35 watt or 55 watt HID's in, in which case the heat given off will be the same or less than the halogens.

michael hurd said:

Stock lamps are 55/65 watt.

Most people put either 35 watt or 55 watt HID's in, in which case the heat given off will be the same or less than the halogens.

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I meant moreso with all 4 bulbs burning at the same time. I imagine if it were a problem I would have found something in my searching..

Just figured I would add I did this mod today in the parking lot while my kid was at football practice, took about 20-30 minutes. I tapped in to the low beam and high beam wires on the drivers side in front of the fuse box and pulled power directly from the box with an inline fuse. I also mounted my relay right by the box. I found that an old headlight wiring pigtail I had fit the relay perfect and matched up exactly for wire colors so I used that for three of the relay terminals and then just ran the power lead to the feed on the relay. Works great and should have been this way from the factory.

I have done the 4 hi mod on my 1997 k1500ecsb. But, need to investigate if I can do this to the 99 suburban I just got. It has a Fisher minute mount plow(2 plug)

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in my humble little opinion, this is all that is required to a have good, serviceable headlight system. one that actually lets you see the road and potential hazards at night.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

when i look back 35+ years ago, i come to see that i did things without knowing just WHY i did them.....i did things because i WANTED to do them......what i wanted and what i NEEDED where generally two completely different things......as i get older, so do my eyes. glare is becoming a big problem with night driving.....that particular issue is exacerbated by people that modify their headlights without thinking of the potential repercussions and safety concerns of oncoming drivers.

i see this a lot in my industry....my hobby and my lifestyle. i ride Harleys. Harleys never had good headlights.....and the nswer to that is people putting in much brighter bulbs. 55/65 watt bulbs are "legal" to use. when you put in an "offroad" bulb of say 80/100W it becomes much BRIGHTER down road......the biggest problem is the REFLECTOR in the bucket is not always able to focus this safely......the "cutoff" is raised (not properly aimed) and the result is blinding the oncoming drivers......those are the ones that "flash" their brights at you.....
On a bike, all you are effectively doing is helping to make yourself a fu@kin hood ornament. the same principle applies to our trucks.

i see lots of people putting these HID kits in because they WANT "cool lookin" headlights...."modern" if you will.
cool looking and modern were not designed into the SYSTEM when this trucks were built....they weren't even built with a PROPERLY working system......if anyone reading this now has ever read anything i've ever posted on this forum, you know i mostly talk in terms of SYSTEMS.....things designed to work correctly TOGETHER.

HID tech was available before LED tech....so i'll run with the latter
LED lighting is fantastic....but these bulbs were not designed to work PROPERLY in our reflective buckets. case in point; me trying different LED bulbs in the stock buckets on my newest Harley......i even put the auxiliary "driving lights" on her......they're NOT really driving lights, but that's what they call em......anyway, all i was able to determine was i had gotten a MUCH whiter light, brighter with horrible "fill" on the road surface. my stock halogen bulbs produced MUCH better beam pattern than the "replacement" LED's i spent money on.....so i spent money on different "better" bulbs about a year later......same ****, with a little better fill.

same applies to HID.....or at the least, very similar results.

bottom line is this.....i CONFIRMED that i couldn't build a better lighting SYSTEM by simply changing to a "better and brighter" technology bulb.....you want LED's? buy quality LED HEADLAMPS to drop in your mounting brackets.......the good quality companies actually spend MONEY on R&D.....that R&D is what makes sure you get a "better mousetrap".......

a very similar topic was discussed in the BRAKING section......on how to upgrade the brakes on these older vehicles......

the bottom line....and i said all that **** to say this:

what we see from the driver's seat, is very different from what people see when we are driving TOWARD each other on a road.......improper lighting is very DANGEROUS......and on a bike.....often FATAL.

let's at least agree to disagree......food for though only.

safe travels

here is a perfect example of what we're(me) wanting to do, attempting to do(most folks) or actually get done......read the thread, understand the similarities......especially the inferior chinajunkebay type headlight housings.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/f112/im-upgrading-the-road-lighting-on-my-380qs-105468.html

incidentally, this(and other RV forums) are a great resource for answers to lots of our various questions.