Aux. front end lighting; Can we see photos of truck front ends with additional lighting?

[DennisT]

That's about it. What have you all done for extra road lighting in addition to whatever flavor headlights you ended up with. Thanks, Dennis

 

[BNielsen]

Kind of rough, but this is what I had on my old 97 Suburban. Cheap Harbor Freight lights that were insanely bright for cheap halogens.

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I've got a set of factory fogs to install in my 96 K2500 now, just need to find suitable LEDs and order the pigtails to wire them in.

 

[slovcan]

Well, I bought a piece of 1" or 1-1/8" x 1/8" thick angle iron, a couple of 8" corner brackets and some stainless nuts and bolts at Home Depot. Then I used a cutoff wheel on my angle grinder to cut some reliefs to bend the angle iron to match the bumper. The lights are Hella Rally 500 driving beam rather than fog beam. There is a good fault with one of them, though, in that it throws a wider beam similar to a fog light. That one is one the right to show animal eyes in the ditches while the left goes further than the high beams.

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[DennisT]

Thank you. This is beginning to look like it will be really helpful. I, as with many others of us, have the composite headlights, and I'm getting rid of them. The best alternative for good lighting I feel is the Daniel Stern W/T single 5.7 front end set up. So for between $300 and $400 I can get really good lighting. I got just exactly that from him for my '99 Cherokee a few years ago. Wonderful lighting. However, I don't care for the single light front ends for my GMC and while I think over making that decision, this aux. light photo thread looks to be helpful. No substitute for seeing what others have done that works.

 

[slovcan]

Regarding the composite lights - with a dremel mounted long skinny grinding stone it just takes a few minutes to eliminate the two internal "guides" in the 9006 headlight bulb plugs. Then, by trimming a couple of mm's off the top locating tab of a 9005 bulb (the high beam bulb), you can have a 60 or 65 watt low beam instead of a 50-55 watt low beam. That gives you much brighter low beams. After that there is a pretty simple mod with the addition of a relay that makes ALL FOUR headlights come on when on high beam. I've done all this and with the Hella Rally 500's I have very good forward lighting.

 

[Grants 98]

All lit up

 

[DennisT]

slovcan....interesting. I was thinking of switching, (said to be easy), to the 4-quad glass 88/89 lamps to give me individually adjustable lamps. Of course, the lamp options are really, really limited. I already that the LMC high beam glass pair with replaceable bulbs. What you did makes a lot of sense. I talked to LMC about their direct feed via relay harness. I asked what wire gauge they used. They could not answer. Ready to plug in harness can be found for around $175 to $200. A little high for my retirement budget right now. I figure the concept there is to take the 12V headlight lead coming from the headlight switch factory wiring and re-direct it to operate just a relay. After that running 12ga. strand or better direct ought to be straightforward. Maybe trying to find ceramic plugs if a correct part number can be discovered. Then I'd have full 12V voltage to whatever lamps I choose to run. Those 88/89 glass quads alone are said to be just as poor as factory ceramics. I'll have my truck inside these next couple of bad weather months so can take my time with grill work and lighting. I have no heat inside where it will be so I like to do homework first.

 

[slovcan]

slovcan....interesting. I was thinking of switching, (said to be easy), to the 4-quad glass 88/89 lamps to give me individually adjustable lamps. Of course, the lamp options are really, really limited. I already that the LMC high beam glass pair with replaceable bulbs. What you did makes a lot of sense. I talked to LMC about their direct feed via relay harness. I asked what wire gauge they used. They could not answer. Ready to plug in harness can be found for around $175 to $200. A little high for my retirement budget right now. I figure the concept there is to take the 12V headlight lead coming from the headlight switch factory wiring and re-direct it to operate just a relay. After that running 12ga. strand or better direct ought to be straightforward. Maybe trying to find ceramic plugs if a correct part number can be discovered. Then I'd have full 12V voltage to whatever lamps I choose to run. Those 88/89 glass quads alone are said to be just as poor as factory ceramics. I'll have my truck inside these next couple of bad weather months so can take my time with grill work and lighting. I have no heat inside where it will be so I like to do homework first.

I can't remember if I found it here or on another forum like GMFullsize or somewhere, but I got specific instructions on the 4 headlight mod. I used a $5 relay and some wire I had on hand (I always keep lots of wire on hand with a car, truck and 2 bikes). I never saw the point in spending big bucks on a harness relay kit I could do myself for under $20.

Here's a blurb about the bulbs. I trimmed the locating tab on the 9005 with side cutters - way faster than a soldering iron.

9005 vs. 9006 vs. H11: Can they be interchangeable?

Trying to figure out the differences between 9005, 9006, and H11 bulbs? This article will help you understand each bulb’s peculiarities.

gmundcars.com

 

[BNielsen]

slovcan....interesting. I was thinking of switching, (said to be easy), to the 4-quad glass 88/89 lamps to give me individually adjustable lamps. Of course, the lamp options are really, really limited. I already that the LMC high beam glass pair with replaceable bulbs. What you did makes a lot of sense. I talked to LMC about their direct feed via relay harness. I asked what wire gauge they used. They could not answer. Ready to plug in harness can be found for around $175 to $200. A little high for my retirement budget right now. I figure the concept there is to take the 12V headlight lead coming from the headlight switch factory wiring and re-direct it to operate just a relay. After that running 12ga. strand or better direct ought to be straightforward. Maybe trying to find ceramic plugs if a correct part number can be discovered. Then I'd have full 12V voltage to whatever lamps I choose to run. Those 88/89 glass quads alone are said to be just as poor as factory ceramics. I'll have my truck inside these next couple of bad weather months so can take my time with grill work and lighting. I have no heat inside where it will be so I like to do homework first.

I've got the LMC "HD" harness on my truck; it's less than impressive.
I highly suggest a harness from @5vortec7. They're a little pricey and I've been unable to order one for myself, but I've got his Big 3 battery kit and it's amazing quality. I need to free up some cash so I can replace my janky harness and 4Hi.
The 4Hi mod is another top notch light thing to do on these trucks.

I can't remember if I found it here or on another forum like GMFullsize or somewhere, but I got specific instructions on the 4 headlight mod. I used a $5 relay and some wire I had on hand (I always keep lots of wire on hand with a car, truck and 2 bikes). I never saw the point in spending big bucks on a harness relay kit I could do myself for under $20.

Here's a blurb about the bulbs. I trimmed the locating tab on the 9005 with side cutters - way faster than a soldering iron.

9005 vs. 9006 vs. H11: Can they be interchangeable?

Trying to figure out the differences between 9005, 9006, and H11 bulbs? This article will help you understand each bulb’s peculiarities.

gmundcars.com

I've also done the 9011/9012 bulbs and I absolutely love the light output. I've been debating going with LEDs but have concerns on blinding other drivers
I do however plan on doing 880/881 LED bulbs in the factory fogs as a little extra boost, they should be low enough I won't have any major issues with the light pattern being casted funky.

 

[BNielsen]

Here's a good thread; you'll have to sift through on some pages but it's chock full of really good lighting info.
https://www.gmt400.com/threads/spyder-headlamps-my-take-on-em-and-lighting-in-general.36647/