Low beam headlight upgrade. Options?

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1990Z71Swede

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After installing one of thoose curved LED light bars, my high beams now has incredible and borderline eye melting light output :waytogo:

As I suspected, dimming down to low beams, in contrast to the high beams new output now is more like turning the headlights off altogether

What I've done in the past on other cars is to get brand new headlights to get perfect reflectors and glass and then pair them with good quality high output bulbs (mostly standard 55W power though, did try some cheap 80w bulbs once and was not super impressed).

In the Case of a 1990 Gmt400 Truck that would mean bulbs something like the 9006 Philips X-treme vison Pro150. They are somewhat pricey which would be absolutely fine if they lasted as long as the standard bulbs.


But If Im looking for something even moore better? :head3:

Are there ANY LED dropins that has an acceptable light pattern. Today in the year of 2023?

What about HID. Is there anything out there that works and does not blind oncomming traffic?

The light output is impossible to catch with a mobile phone, and it's snowing but here goes:
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The LED bar is pretty much invisible. (Dirty? K1500's are supposed to be dirty) :)
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df2x4

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^ X2. Long story short, you're never going to get a good light pattern using a drop in LED in a housing designed for a halogen.

The best possible upgrade I'm aware of for the composite housing trucks like yours is to buy or make a new wiring harness for the headlights that powers them straight from the battery using relays and wiring that's larger than factory. This will result in around one extra volt of output at the bulb sockets, which translates to quite a bit more output. Combine that with some high output halogen bulbs (you're on the right track with the Philips you mentioned) and you'll have a pretty large improvement. Bulb life will suffer as you pointed out, but that's the trade off.

@5vortec7 sells nice plug and play headlight harnesses, but I'm not sure if he can ship to Sweden. Here's a link to his thread.

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/hd-headlight-harnesses-w-4-high-mod.45669/

If you want to take things a step further, @1998_K1500_Sub has made it possible for anyone to purchase the Brazilian Arteb composite headlight housings for these trucks. They were previously only available in Brazil, and have a much better design than the standard composite housings that most of these trucks got. More info here:

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/oem-...w-gmt400-gm-brazil-arteb-e-code-export.57899/
 

Caman96

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X3^^ I scored some NOS headlights last summer. These were a big upgrade over my Spyder Glass and with @5vortec7 4 High harness, that should be the final piece.
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Supercharged111

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Artebs FTW. I have drop in LEDs in them in my 3500 and they're bright, but I still think my HIDs are brighter in my 1500. The 1500 has glass housings from LMC Truck. The HIDs cast the light 360 unlike the drop in LEDs. Both are miles and miles better than anything in a weathered 20+ year old housing.
 

1990Z71Swede

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Artebs FTW. I have drop in LEDs in them in my 3500 and they're bright, but I still think my HIDs are brighter in my 1500. The 1500 has glass housings from LMC Truck. The HIDs cast the light 360 unlike the drop in LEDs. Both are miles and miles better than anything in a weathered 20+ year old housing.
What HID bulbs did you use?
Artebs with HID might be just overkill enough to match the highbeams.
And It so happens one of my workmates is half Brazilian...

But the Artebs use a different bulb don't they?

Edit: It appears the Arteb lights still use 9006 Low Beam bulbs but also an additional smal DRL bulb socket, european style.... sweeeeet!
 
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Supercharged111

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What HID bulbs did you use?
Artebs with HID might be just overkill enough to match the highbeams.
And It so happens one of my workmates is half Brazilian...

But the Artebs use a different bulb don't they?

Edit: It appears the Arteb lights still use 9006 Low Beam bulbs but also an additional smal DRL bulb socket, european style.... sweeeeet!

Artebs still use 9006/9005 as you found out. I got my HIDs from DDMTuning back in 2010. I have yet to lose a ballast or a bulb. Highly recommend if they'll ship to you. If not, have you considered a service here that reboxes and ships overseas to you?
 

1990Z71Swede

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Artebs still use 9006/9005 as you found out. I got my HIDs from DDMTuning back in 2010. I have yet to lose a ballast or a bulb. Highly recommend if they'll ship to you. If not, have you considered a service here that reboxes and ships overseas to you?
I have used a Service like that once (MyUS.com). Not totally happy with their service though, hence only used them once.

More Normal ways of shipping has worked great though.

USPS many many times.
(Bought a Z28 inlet manifold from a guy on the H.A.M.B once :) )
Fedex has been pretty good too.
(Last time for some K1500 parts from Max Trac....)

How would you say the Low beam light pattern is with those HID bulbs?
Regular 35W units?

Edit: DDM Tuning does ship to Sweden. Their basic 35W HB2 kit was just over $33. Shipping was $60. So that is not too bad.
It is also likely I will have to pay a little over 25% on top of that in Swedish taxes when It arrives here. That is pretty Normal nowadays.

So worst case I may have spent close to $120 before I have them in my hand. Again not a total disaster ( the Phillips Extremes are $50 for a pair and they will have to be replaced repeatedly)

But it makes trying to find something on Amazon a little bit more interesting...

Any good brands to look for?
 
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