Low beam headlight upgrade. Options?

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Supercharged111

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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?

Regular 35W units. They're way brighter than stock and I don't get flashed. I'll need to check for a definitive cutoff next time I drive the thing in the dark (likely today since it gets dark so early now) and see if I can capture it in a picture. I had my old housings aimed higher than these are now. I use halogen for the high beams and wired them up to keep the lows on. What I found wired like stock is when you came off the high beams back to the lows, they had to warm back up so you were left in the dark for a few seconds.
 

1990Z71Swede

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Good point, forgot about the warmup needed for HID.
That means I will have to run 320Watts :shocked:of lighting on highbeam since the LED bar allegedly is 140Watts.

(I'm possibly at 250W right now and the generator has no problems with that at all, supplying a solid 14V att idle so those additional 70W is probably not going to be an issue).
:)
 
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Supercharged111

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Good point, forgot about the warmup needed for HID.
That means I will have to run 320Watts :shocked:of lighting on highbeam since the LED bar allegedly is 140Watts.

(I'm possibly at 250W right now and the generator has no problems with that at all, supplying a solid 14V att idle so those additional 70W is probably not going to be an issue).
:)

If it is just get a bigger alternator from a Suburban.
 

NickP

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I just installed the wiring harness from @5vortec7 thats been mentioned along with the Philips X-Treme bulbs and also I polished the headlight lenses using a 3M restoration kit which brought them back to new condition. The lighting output from these improvements is noticeably better in my case. Before all these improvements my low beams were like a candlelight in a dim restaurant. Great mood lighting but dangerous for driving.
 

1990Z71Swede

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Relays is a nobrainer, and the high beams are on a relay already. Talked to my Workmate and he will help me out with getting a pair of Artebs. Turns out he must have went past the Arteb factory a month ago, again spooky.

So a pair of Phillips Extremes fed through Relays shining trough some Artebs will be the way I'm going with this. Its a legal upgrade and I can hook up my DRL relay to the little bulbs in the Artebs too.

But in the meantime im going to try out a HID kit as I might have another use for the drivers eventually, and the Artebs will probably not turn up until the end of this year.
 

1990Z71Swede

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I used a diode to keep the low beam relay energized when the high beams come on. Works like a champ.
Smart. That is one easy way of doing it that I might copy.

Initially I was thinking about taking the trigger from the headlight switch before the hi/lo dimmer switch(terminal/wire #10). But the diode is simpler and makes it easy to restore normal functionality when going back to Halogen lights.
 
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GoreMaker

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There are some drop-in LED bulbs that accurately replicate the halogen bulb light pattern, but they cost a small fortune. Along the lines of $200/pair. Most affordable drop-in LED bulbs use a generic placement for the LED chips that's a close average for ALL 900X bulb types, so that they can just change the connector and call it "9005" or "9006". They can get away with doing this because they advertise their bulbs only for use in fog lights, which have no real DOT standards to meet beyond "must not cause permanent blindness". There are no DOT-approved drop-in LED bulbs for 900X or HX applications.

But even the expensive drop-in LED bulbs that accurately replicate the 9005/9006 filament placement still don't resolve one of the main issues: a crappy OEM reflector design. They do resolve the other main issue: lack of voltage at the bulb socket. Non-dimmable LED bulbs don't care how little voltage they receive (within reason), they'll always be at a fixed, full brightness anyways because of their control circuits. The brightness of halogen bulbs drops with lower voltage.

I've mostly resolved my headlight issues with a headlight booster harness. The low beams still aren't as bright and efficient as a good projector unit, but they're at least usable and safe at night.

Another option is to switch to the 88/89 quad sealed beam setup, and install these:

They fit in the same space as the composite headlights, they just need a different bracket to bolt to the radiator support. You can even wire them so that all 4 are on for low beams, AND for high beams (each light is dual mode H4701/H4703). I've been very tempted to try it, but I'm not familiar enough with those units to spend money on them yet
 

GoreMaker

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Point of clarification, it's entirely legal to have 4 low beam lights on. DOT regulations state that a vehicle can have up to 4 forward-facing "driving" lights on at any time. So if you're not using fog lights, then 4 low beams is perfectly acceptable. You're just more likely to get other drivers mad at you if they're not aimed right
 

Supercharged111

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There are some drop-in LED bulbs that accurately replicate the halogen bulb light pattern, but they cost a small fortune. Along the lines of $200/pair. Most affordable drop-in LED bulbs use a generic placement for the LED chips that's a close average for ALL 900X bulb types, so that they can just change the connector and call it "9005" or "9006". They can get away with doing this because they advertise their bulbs only for use in fog lights, which have no real DOT standards to meet beyond "must not cause permanent blindness". There are no DOT-approved drop-in LED bulbs for 900X or HX applications.

But even the expensive drop-in LED bulbs that accurately replicate the 9005/9006 filament placement still don't resolve one of the main issues: a crappy OEM reflector design. They do resolve the other main issue: lack of voltage at the bulb socket. Non-dimmable LED bulbs don't care how little voltage they receive (within reason), they'll always be at a fixed, full brightness anyways because of their control circuits. The brightness of halogen bulbs drops with lower voltage.

I've mostly resolved my headlight issues with a headlight booster harness. The low beams still aren't as bright and efficient as a good projector unit, but they're at least usable and safe at night.

Another option is to switch to the 88/89 quad sealed beam setup, and install these:

They fit in the same space as the composite headlights, they just need a different bracket to bolt to the radiator support. You can even wire them so that all 4 are on for low beams, AND for high beams (each light is dual mode H4701/H4703). I've been very tempted to try it, but I'm not familiar enough with those units to spend money on them yet

Where have you been since forever? I never knew those existed!
 
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