Spyder headlamps.....my take on 'em...and LIGHTING in general

Well I got my new Phillips lights install, one thing I did notice,one of the bulbs was sloppy fitting in the holder. Once I had it back in and shinning against the wall it had all sorts of light wiggle. We have some dense foam and my son cut a chunk and ended up putting it in there to try and hold it in place, as this first picture shows.

That seemed to do the trick, at least for now. Before we started doing the change I took a picture of what I would see as I am pointing out of my driveway. Hopefully you can see the blue-ish color of the light that is right in front of the vehicle to near the top of the drive, and yes it is a slanted drive.

The rest of the pictures will be off the wall, this is what I saw after I got them both installed.

I wish, I had to put this one in, we just got a work light and was pleased at the amount of light that two 500 watt halogen lights could through.

This is with the Philips 9006 VisionPlus in the left and the SYLVANIA 9006 SilverStar Ultra on the right.


My son did some playing with the camera in phone so he could dim down the light and color balance it for the Phillips bulb.
My phone is color balanced for the right hand bulb, the Phillips, so you can see the one on the left in the picture does look blue, that one is the Sylvania bulb.

The last one is after both Phillips bulbs are in, but after I got back in and uploaded the pictures, it was then I noticed it was out of focus, sorry but I did try to get into as close of a position as I was in the first one.


I also took a picture of the back of the Phillips bulb, I hope it is readable, if you are interested.

n8pu said:

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I also took a picture of the back of the Phillips bulb, I hope it is readable, if you are interested.

You must be registered for see images attach

Click to expand...

it appears you need to aim those headlights......they seem to be pointed at the ground 30' in front of you......that's what it looks like from my house.


and as far as the bulb in the socket.....that's the downfall of these lenses....the ****** way they capture the bulb......i changed mine yesterday and my right low beam is not right......looks ok from looking in, but i have to take it out again....and the assemblies that bolt to the rd support suck. i need to see if these Spyders fit properly in the OEM brackets....they wobble around too much for my liking. they make real good LIGHT in my opinion, i'm happy with that, but the rest of em suck......it pissed me off yesterday when i was done.......i didn't trim the tab...and i thought that changed the indexing of the filament,but the left side is fine.....next day off i have to take out a lens and fit it to the stupid DEPO bracket....that may be better, stronger anyway.....maybe rip out the grill again and do it all over once more.

can anyone say Arteb?

shovelbill said:

it appears you need to aim those headlights......they seem to be pointed at the ground 30' in front of you......that's what it looks like from my house.


and as far as the bulb in the socket.....that's the downfall of these lenses....the ****** way they capture the bulb......i changed mine yesterday and my right low beam is not right......looks ok from looking in, but i have to take it out again....and the assemblies that bolt to the rd support suck. i need to see if these Spyders fit properly in the OEM brackets....they wobble around too much for my liking. they make real good LIGHT in my opinion, i'm happy with that, but the rest of em suck......it pissed me off yesterday when i was done.......i didn't trim the tab...and i thought that changed the indexing of the filament,but the left side is fine.....next day off i have to take out a lens and fit it to the stupid DEPO bracket....that may be better, stronger anyway.....maybe rip out the grill again and do it all over once more.

can anyone say Arteb?

Click to expand...

I'm at a disadvantage, I don't know who or what "Arteb" is...

When I got my spiders I had a OEM replace headlight set I got from a local auto part store, because the ones that were on the truck when I got it were trash. So when the Spyders came I didn't even take the back plate off the wall, I just took the two screw / bolt thing, whatever it's called and put in my bulbs and stuck the new into the older bracket mounted to the radiator support wall, for the lack of a proper name. So I don't have any wiggle.

Almost forgot, from the picture I would agree it does look like the lights need to be aimed up, but the driveway is sort of "U" shaped, or at least goes up a small rise to get out on the road that is in front of my place. That picture is somewhat deceiving because of the pitch of the drive.

n8pu said:

I'm at a disadvantage, I don't know who or what "Arteb" is...

When I got my spiders I had a OEM replace headlight set I got from a local auto part store, because the ones that were on the truck when I got it were trash. So when the Spyders came I didn't even take the back plate off the wall, I just took the two screw / bolt thing, whatever it's called and put in my bulbs and stuck the new into the older bracket mounted to the radiator support wall, for the lack of a proper name. So I don't have any wiggle.

Almost forgot, from the picture I would agree it does look like the lights need to be aimed up, but the driveway is sort of "U" shaped, or at least goes up a small rise to get out on the road that is in front of my place. That picture is somewhat deceiving because of the pitch of the drive.

Click to expand...

Arteb is the company that made the headlight assemblies for the Brazilian trucks......and by all i can find, and think, they were designed by Hella......but that's just MY opinion based on research and the lens itself.

shovelbill said:

it appears you need to aim those headlights......they seem to be pointed at the ground 30' in front of you......that's what it looks like from my house.


and as far as the bulb in the socket.....that's the downfall of these lenses....the ****** way they capture the bulb......i changed mine yesterday and my right low beam is not right......looks ok from looking in, but i have to take it out again....and the assemblies that bolt to the rd support suck. i need to see if these Spyders fit properly in the OEM brackets....they wobble around too much for my liking. they make real good LIGHT in my opinion, i'm happy with that, but the rest of em suck......it pissed me off yesterday when i was done.......i didn't trim the tab...and i thought that changed the indexing of the filament,but the left side is fine.....next day off i have to take out a lens and fit it to the stupid DEPO bracket....that may be better, stronger anyway.....maybe rip out the grill again and do it all over once more.

can anyone say Arteb?

Click to expand...

Here is a daytime picture of where the truck was sitting when the out of focus picture was taken, I think you can can see the angle of my driveway and why it made it look like the lights needed to be reaimed.


The truck is a GMC, even though the tail gate say different. I suspect the original one must have met with some misfortune, but whatever the reason, it was like this when I got it. No it didn't come with dual exhaust either, I had that work done by a local repair shop that I have learned to trust. They tried to talk me out of spending the around $500 to do it, but since it came with dual catalytic convertors, why not. I like the way it talks too, they did use stainless steel pipes so it should last a while.

i can see why your headlight looked like they were aimed like the HID crowd......LOL

I went out tonight to move the truck, but before I did I took a couple more of pictures, in focus this time, from the same spot as the daytime picture. First is the low again and the second is the high (Phillips 9011 HIR1).

those HIR's are impressive......are the lights aimed too close together?

in heavy rain, does that become a swimming pool?

shovelbill said:

those HIR's are impressive......are the lights aimed too close together?

in heavy rain, does that become a swimming pool?

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Don't think they are, the way we try to adjust them is to sit on the road that is at the end of the circle drive and see where the beam sits, first blocking one side then the other. Once we get what we like, we might go for a drive and try to see where the top part of the beam hit opposing traffic, sometimes that's easy and sometimes it's not. As a last resort we'll try to find a parking lot and see where the beam sits on the side of a vehicle. I have always tried to get the passenger beam to shine right down the lane straight in front of the vehicle, and the left or driver side to favor just to the passenger side a little bit. Haven't gotten around to doing a little better check yet.