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

[deejaaa]

wanna hear someting real Al? Just tonight me and deejaa were talking about his Aussie headlight detup.....LOL....no joke. he never put them in!!!!!

okay, now i HAVE to pull em out of storage!

 

[Parker]

wow alot of good information here.

so the question is for us with the factory 9005/9006 setups that are now faded and worn out, what is the best option?

purchase new spyder housings and then a quality hid kit? Led?

Or does someone make a quality all in one replacement?

 

[83GMCK2500]

wow alot of good information here.

so the question is for us with the factory 9005/9006 setups that are now faded and worn out, what is the best option?

purchase new spyder housings and then a quality hid kit? Led?

Or does someone make a quality all in one replacement?

If there was anything to be gleaned from this thread and others: DO NOT drop HID bulbs into housings not meant for them eg: a projector designed/engineered for them. The same goes for 99.9% of the LED replacement bulbs, there are a very select few that are designed to produce light at the same point as the halogen bulb they are replacing e.g.: Philips Ultinon LEDs. The best option, swap to a work truck grille and put a set of Trucklite 5"x7" LEDs or a similar quality product in. The '88-'89 bracket with LMC lenses, a harness upgrade with relays, & HIR/HIR2 bulbs is a good option to keep the nicer grille. Somewhere there's a thread (it might be this one, I don't remember, there are a lot of tangents in here that detract from the useful information) that provides a followup review of the Spyder headlights and how they hold up after some time, look for that and see what the longer term opinions are. Whichever lens you choose the light output should be from an upgraded halogen, or better yet an HIR/HIR2, with a beefed up harness.

 

[88GMCtruck]

I bought a quad setup to test them out.....I have the Bosch high beams, but there was NO, none, nada low beam Bosch's left in the world after I bought mine......there is a whole section of this thread on it, and the link to the gent had first started his documentation of that particular conversion and upgrade.....88GMC? maybe....my brain is fukked and i'll have to go back and check.

Yup, that was my thread. I think I have 6-7 full sets of high and low T84 Bosch lights in a box somewhere. Saving them for a rainy day.

 

[df2x4]

wow alot of good information here.

so the question is for us with the factory 9005/9006 setups that are now faded and worn out, what is the best option?

purchase new spyder housings and then a quality hid kit? Led?

Or does someone make a quality all in one replacement?

The answers to all your questions are in this thread... I'll post it once again for those who don't want to read the whole thing. This info is for people wanting to keep a composite housing with 9005/9006s.

1. New OEM housings if you want the absolute best, Anzo 111004 if you want non diffused clear plastic lenses, Spyder HD-YD-CCK88-C if you want non diffused clear glass lenses.

2. Philips X-tremeVision +100 9006 low beams, Philips 9011 Standard HIR high beams (in place of 9005s). You can run Philips X-tremeVision 9005s for high beams if you don't want to modify the 9011 tabs to fit your sockets. Sylvania XtraVisions are a more readily available halogen that you can find easily at parts stores and WalMart but they're not as bright as the Philips X-tremeVisions.

3. Upgrade your headlight wiring with relays. This should really be number one, it makes a huge difference.

As stated previously, don't run LEDs or HIDs in housings that aren't designed for them, you'll be blinding people. HIRs are fine in the high beams because the filament is in the exact same spot and orientation as a 9005. You don't want to use HIRs in your low beams unless you have a glare shield in your housings, though. Here's a tutorial on how to modify HIR bulb tabs to fit our sockets.

https://sep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-91565365470012/how-to-modify-hir-bulb-bases-1.jpg

 

[Parker]

Understood about the housings.

On the bulbs even something like this that places and focus's the light beam in the correct spot are still no good??
https://headlightrevolution.com/putco-nitro-lux-9006-led-headlight-bulbs/

 

[df2x4]

Understood about the housings.

On the bulbs even something like this that places and focus's the light beam in the correct spot are still no good??
https://headlightrevolution.com/putco-nitro-lux-9006-led-headlight-bulbs/

Correct, no good. There are quite a few companies making these plug and play LEDs which claim to be 100% equivalent to halogens. From what I've seen none of them actually are, even the "clockable" units that allow you to rotate them within the housing.

The only acceptable (and street legal) LED headlights for these trucks are the 5"x7" TruckLite/GE/JW Speaker housings that fit the W/T grilles. Like these. Their reflectors are designed from the ground up with the LEDs in mind instead of traditional halogens.

https://www.amazon.com/Truck-Lite-27450C-Headlamp/dp/B007ED7HNY

 

[homesick]

Yup, that was my thread. I think I have 6-7 full sets of high and low T84 Bosch lights in a box somewhere. Saving them for a rainy day.

What about the rain at MY house? Does it count?

joe

 

[Parker]

Good info and advice.

Issue I'm having is other than painless performance I dont see any plug and play HD headlight wiring harness's with the 4 HI built in that aren't made in china.

Links?

 

[98chevy2500SS]

@Parker, the ones that are sold at LMC are good quality. Bought a 4-HI and HD harness kit from LMC and are still working great, definitely worth the money.

Harness: http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cd/full.aspx?Page=2
4-HI: http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cd/full.aspx?Page=103