4 Hi Headlight Mod

[Eveready]

I thought those were only issued on Canadian trucks. If you have a Canadian truck I doubt your inspector would know that it should have daytime lights. Might be worth asking around to find out. These trucks are so old that it might not be something that would come up.

 

[Schurkey]

I thought those were only issued on Canadian trucks. If you have a Canadian truck I doubt your inspector would know that it should have daytime lights. Might be worth asking around to find out. These trucks are so old that it might not be something that would come up.

My '97 has DDRL, I'm guessing they were standard equipment a year or two prior.

My DDRLs have been disabled--one of the first things I did to enhance the vehicle.

How anyone can think that headlights in the daytime could be a safety improvement is beyond me. This is a matter of GM arrogance and Govenment ineptitude.

 

[sewlow]

I havent tried this, but I think this should work. You need to find the out put wire on the DRL box. This will be the wire that ties into the head light low beam wire, so that it comes on at lower level brightness. Snip this wire, and tie this in to a new wire. Fish this new wire through the fire wall, and tie it in to the low beam wire on the other side of the relay. So this wire will be hot by the DRL control module even with the lights off. Just like it would be with out the relay to start with. But being that this new wire, is on the light bulb side of the relay, it wont matter that the relay is on, or not. The new wire will be hot, feed by the DRL just like it was before you added a relay, but will now go around the OE low beam wiring on this new wire. When I did my 4 high mod, I noticed that the DRL would trip the relay I added. So my lights were always on at full power. I thought about doing this to mine, but we dont need DRLs here so I havent done the extra new wire mod.

Both my trucks have DRL's. '97 & '98.
I made up my own 4-High kits with heavier gauge wires. Way less expensive than buying a pre-made.
Installed them as per the instructions for trucks that don't have the DRL's.
No probs. DRL's operate normally.

 

[Eveready]

My '97 has DDRL, I'm guessing they were standard equipment a year or two prior.

My DDRLs have been disabled--one of the first things I did to enhance the vehicle.

How anyone can think that headlights in the daytime could be a safety improvement is beyond me. This is a matter of GM arrogance and Govenment ineptitude.

An idea for those in your situation (who don't care for DDRL) or like the earlier poster who must have it at least for inspection would be to install a switch leg across that particular fuse (or the wire to DDRL if the fuse serves something else) and hide the switch in an out of the way place. This would enable easy passage of inspection chicken**** and also immediately turning it off once done. You would need to remember where the switch is for next year but easy enough to do an inspection check list to keep with the truck.

 

[Brother Al]

I thought those were only issued on Canadian trucks. If you have a Canadian truck I doubt your inspector would know that it should have daytime lights. Might be worth asking around to find out. These trucks are so old that it might not be something that would come up.

Sadly, I dont think they were actually mandated in the US.... BUT all the manufacturers jumped onto this safety bandwagon because they likely figured it was coming, seeing there was a Safety-nut **** going on in the 90's...

In Socialist ***** Republic of Massachusetts, we have yearly safety and emissions inspection, Comrade. (Said in a Russian accent)
It used to be no big deal, guys would "overlook" certain things and pass you... Big tires? Eh. No emissions equipment on that '84 Cutlass w/a 455? "Looks bone stock to me, here's your sticker! wink wink".
It wasnt usually a terrible experience unless your vehicle was a complete toilet. Then the "Libtahds" got savvy to the emissions and safety game, mandating chassis roller-dyno-emissions testing... And because it would be overly expensive to open State Inspection Stations, the politicians told all current inspection station owners to upgrade to a new system or get locked out. Cost the private inspection station owners over 10K to buy & install. Quite a few told them to piss into the wind. The system didnt work right, some terrible accidents occurred, and after a long, protracted fight, "we" won a huge battle, releasing all OBD-2 and prior vehicles from emissions testing. The chassis dyno-roller tests went buh bye.... although they kept the clause "must retain all emissions equipment" in the laws.... To add insult to injury, these dynos were proprietary, so you couldn't just modify them to run as a proper dyno system, making them huge piles of scrap.
The libtards soon responded with super safety & emissions inspections... They passed a new law forcing Shop owners, who do inspections, to install multiple cameras, a whole new emissions test system, all tied to the state inspection network. They made sure there were huge penalties for any violations by inspectors.... so most everyone covers their butts now. Cant blame them....

Under safety, if your vehicle was equipped with a safety device, of any kind, it must function. All lighting must be compliant to the original design.
- DTRLs No Workie? You Shall Not Pass!
- Clear aftermarket lens instead of factory amber... FAIL. (Even if the bulb is Amber).

When this stupid thing launched several years ago, I was hassled about my "3rd Brake Light" on my '92 Z71... Yeah, exactly.. no such thing exists. I had to show the guy the owners manual for my "Clear Cargo Light" and plus a quick Google of the US 3rd Brakelight mandate. I was also hassled about my front turn signals... which again, had to show the guy pictures of them. He didnt believe me until he looked at a dead GMT400 out behind his shop...
This is why I want to be careful.
I did the quad 4 and Direct Battery power and Spider headlight (non-glass) upgrade on my '92 Z71 and it made a HUGE difference...

 

[kennythewelder]

Both my trucks have DRL's. '97 & '98.
I made up my own 4-High kits with heavier gauge wires. Way less expensive than buying a pre-made.
Installed them as per the instructions for trucks that don't have the DRL's.
No probs. DRL's operate normally.

I know my truck was built in Canada. If that makes any difference or not, IDK. Its been in South Louisiana all of it life, and was sold new @ our local Chevy dealer in Lafayette Louisiana in 1997. The DRLs were working when I bought the truck in 2002. But for some reason had quit working. When I did the 4 high mod, they started working again, tripping the relay, and keeping the headlights on full power all of the time, but when I did the 4 high mod, I also added a 2ed relay for the low beams, once I saw how much brighter the headlights were. Feeding the headlights from a bigger wire, rite off of the battery makes them SOOOO much brighter. Once I added the 2ed relay, this is where the DRLs would trip that relay, making the low beams come on from the DRL box. It takes so little current to trip the relay. Like you, I made my kits my self. Very easy to do, if you understand how a relay works. My headlights are feed with a #10 wire that is fused rite off of the battery and my relays are rite next to the battery.

 

[Brother Al]

I know my truck was built in Canada. If that makes any difference or not, IDK. Its been in South Louisiana all of it life, and was sold new @ our local Chevy dealer in Lafayette Louisiana in 1997.

My '95 Caprice LT1 aka RPO B4U, has DTRLs and I cant recall ever seeing any post-'95 GM vehicle I've owned or driven without DTRLs... and I e owned quite a few.

 

[Schurkey]

Once again...typical incandescent headlights are rated for service life at 13.2 volts. You supply more voltage than that, you'll have brighter lights--but they burn out much faster.

With the alternator operating, system voltage can be way above 13.2 volts. 14.2 is typical, the ancient mechanical voltage regulators might go as high as 15.5 in the winter.

 

[kennythewelder]

Once again...typical incandescent headlights are rated for service life at 13.2 volts. You supply more voltage than that, you'll have brighter lights--but they burn out much faster.

With the alternator operating, system voltage can be way above 13.2 volts. 14.2 is typical, the ancient mechanical voltage regulators might go as high as 15.5 in the winter.

My headlights have been relaied for 4 or 5 years. Im still on the same set of bulbs. Nothing special about the bulbs. Your missing the point. Electricity flows like water. The bigger the hose, ( wire) the more current will flow. Not volts, current.

 

[Schurkey]

More volts pushes more current.

Too much electrical power is hard on equipment, can cause overheating and failure.

I didn't invent this. I found it on the web-site of a headlight manufacturer, I figure they ought to know.

Their claim is that 5--6 percent more voltage above 13.2 gets you 20% more light (but cuts service life of the headlight in half.)