Which Headlight bulbs

[deadman1474]

I know that there are tons of companies claiming to have the best "Performance" Headlight bulb. My question is which ones are? I do tons of country road driving late at night and early in the morning and usually have the bright on but when trying to look ahead for deer and other animals (Got to love the country huh?) What would you recommend for my purpose? I hard the Silver Star ultras were great by one guy online and another said that they suck. I have a 2008 Dodge Ram Power Wagon. And I’ve already got one deer going slower then the speed limit on a road with a canopy of trees covering it so its always very dark and by the time I saw him and slammed the breaks I slid into him. I was just wondering your guy’s opinion. What ever I buy I will post pictures of the difference that it makes.

[DDA52]

The Dodge factory fog lights and low beams work tons better than the highs. I do nothing but country driving at night and that is all I use on my '07 Dodge Ram. FWIW BUT, there is a company that makes a switch or something that will allow the Dodges to run with the brights and low beams on at the same time. That might help ya. I can't remember where I saw it....probably on the Dodge diesel forum. www.dieseltruckresource.com

[deadman1474]

I do not have the fog light package and that sucks. I am thinking about going to the junkyard and just getting the lamps them self and the switch I beleve that the wiring is all the same.

[DDA52]

Even without the fog lamps, having both the high and low beams on at the same time is a huge increase of light. That may be what you want. It will shorten the bulb life a good bit, but you will be able to see with minimal investment or installation.

[MoonRise]

Having the highs and lows on at the same time does make more light (technically, more lumens). You can check it out by turning the low beams on and then using the 'flash-to-pass' function if it's available on your model vehicle (for me, just PULL the headlight high/low stalk for the flash-to-pass as opposed to PUSH the stalk to get high-beams only).

Although having more lumens/light with both the highs and lows on at the same time is a little better than either high beams or low beams, it really doesn't get the light to reach out farther. For that, you need driving lights. Real driving lights like a decent set of Hellas, not poser pieces of junk. Check your local regs for the use of such while on-road.

If the bulbs are 'whiter and brighter', without having blue tint stuff in the bulb or lens, then OK. Blue tint on the bulb/lens glass does make the output light whiter, but at the cost of reducing the output lumens coming out of the bulb.

The Sylvania Silverstars (don't remember which exact version) seem OK to me. A little whiter light than typical 'stock' bulbs, without blue-tinted bulbs and the resultant lumen loss.

btw, we are limited in the light output allowed from the bulbs themselves, by some fed regulation(s). So unless some bulb maker is seriously short-changing the lumen output from their bulbs for some reason, all bulbs for on-road vehicles (motorcycles get some exemptions IIRC) make pretty much the same amount of lumens. Different lens and reflector designs can make better (or worse) use of those lumens though, by getting them down the road where they can do some good for the driver as opposed to streaming out at useless angles.

Oh, step one is make sure your lights are aligned decently. I always laugh and cringe when I see someone's headlights putting the light down into the ground six feet in front of the bumper or up into the sky at a 30 degree angle. Light fog/mist or snow really let you see where those beams are pointing.

[farmersamm]

Those blue headlights are murder on drivers coming in the opposite direction.

Hey? Has anyone had good luck with those whistler things ya put on your bumper. Supposed to alert deer before you get there. Don't know if the things are snake oil, or really work.

[MoonRise]

Samm,

Misaligned headlights, and especially misaligned HID projector headlights, are murder on oncoming traffic.

It's not the blue-tint, it's the misalignment.

[DDA52]

They aren't misaligned...they are looking for aliens.

[steve45]

Originally Posted by farmersamm

Has anyone had good luck with those whistler things ya put on your bumper. Supposed to alert deer before you get there. Don't know if the things are snake oil, or really work.

Snake oil. If anything, they disturb the deer when they are grazing along the side of the road, which would probably make them more likely to run into your path.

[David R]

All headlights are limited to so many watts. (Just like MoonRise said) Some appear to be brighter because of the color of the light or the lens in front of the bulb, but still all have the same watts. That is why halogen works better than the old sealed beams. I have found the expensive ones don't last as long.'

David

[MoonRise]

David,

It's not just a limit on the wattage of the bulb. It's also a limit on the lumen output of the bulb and max and min 'brightness' values within the projected light.

IIRC, the limit is around 2000 lumens or so.

The old-style sealed beam bulbs made the legal-limit in lumens when new, but the filament boiled off slowly during use and the bulb would get black/dingy and thus dimmer over time. The old bulbs also had a color temperature around 2300K-2500K, and thus had a pronounced yellow tinge/tint to the light.

An improvement is by going to a halogen bulb. This type of bulb uses a small amount of halogen in the bulb shielding gas'inside the 'glass' of the bulb. The result is that the boiled filament metal doesn't deposit to much onto the bulb glass, but instead reattaches to the base of the filament itself and thus the bulb stays cleaner on the inside during use. This type of bulb also is able to make the tungsten filament get hotter without burning up as fast as the old-style bulbs, and that lets the light not be as yellow. This type of bulb can have a color temperature of about 3200K or so.

By using different mixes of shielding gas in the bulbs, the makers can further raise the color temperature of the light output. Silverstar-Ultra bulbs claim a color temperature of around 4100K.

Like many things, it is about trade-offs. The fancy gases used in the fancy bulbs are more expensive, and running the bulbs 'hotter' shortens the life.

HID bulbs don't use a filament, but instead have a small arc going on inside the bulb. Again, fancy gases and fancy electronics to control the arc. HID bulbs typically have color temperature outputs from 4100K to 5000K.

For reference, the color temperature of direct mid-day sunlight is around 5000K. (it is usually actually closer to 6500K a lot of times, and in the shade may skew towards 10,000K with a pronounced blue bias).

HID bulbs are more energy efficient than halogen bulbs in that they deliver more lumens per watt of energy used. IIRC, an HID bulb of about 35W gives about the same amount of light as a 55W halogen bulb. The color temperature of the HID light is typically much higher than the color temperature of most halogen bulbs. Sylvania claims their Xenarc HID auto 'bulbs' use 42W (IIRC, that would be 35W to the bulb and 7W used by the ballast) and make 3200 lumens at a 4200K color temperature.

[tanglediver]

It used to be that 55 watts for a set of driving lights was maximum around here.
http://www.kchilites.com/
http://www.grote.com/prodcat/perlux/
http://www.autoanything.com/lights/p...ad_lights.aspx
https://www.bajadesigns.com/net/main...S&category=375

http://4wheeldrive.about.com/od/ligh...ghtingkits.htm

[Dualie]

I have PIAA headlight bulbs in my excursion and tried silverstars in my F-350. THE piaas perform much better than the silverstars and last twice as long.

There are two things you can look into, The device you were talking about that puts the lows and highs on at the same time is called the "BRIGHT BOX"

Second is a Headlight harness that uses relays to put full battery power to your headlights instead of trying to route all current to your headlights from the battery/Alternator through a pathetic 12ga wire all the way through the firewall into the dach through the headlight switch back into the engine bay and power the lamps.

[MarkBall2]

I have fog lamps on my '01 Ram & when driving at night, I routinely have them on with the low beams only. The truck didn't come with them, but a company called "Carolina Products" or something like that had a kit that fit 55 watt fog lamps in the factory location. I had to cut the plastic piece in the bumper, but the bracket, wires, relay & switch were all included for around $75-80.00

I used to drive a lot of state highways at night & the fogs would help illuminate the sides of the road without blinding the oncoming traffic. Might be worthwhile to check out an aftermarket supplier for your particular vehicle.

[assassin_works]

Silver Star ultras and get some rubber tractor light housings and add some h7604 bulbs it is a spot bulb made by wagner they work great

[Dualie]

I forgot to mention if you have a BIG alternator and Plenty of battery reserve, GE 4522 12 volt aircraft landing lights. They will fit a standard Par 46 5" housing. Better make sure its an all metal housing though as these things get HOT! same light is used on police cars for their A pillar lights.

they run 250 watts a piece. I had 4 of them across the headache rack of my Kenworth for loading equipment on the lowbed at night. I ran them strait off the battery with 2/0 welding cable through a stancore contactor and then up to the lights with two sets of #1 twin cables.

[BruceTS]

For my mains I rewired the headlights to have both high and low at the same time, but for times when I need more lighting I modified a pair of Hella 4000 and added HID kits to them, now I get plenty of lighting and only use 35 watts each, compared to the 100 watt bulbs they used to use. Needless to say those drivers coming at me with their high beams on, turn them down fast.....


HID Hellas only.......

[SundownIII]

It's really funny what the Feds have done in the name of "Public Safety".

In 1982 I was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. Bought a year old 7 Series BMW with the idea of driving it for 3 years in GE and then converting it to US Specs and shipping it back to the US.

The standard headlights on that car were awesome. You COULD NOT overdrive your headlights even on the autoban at 130 MPH.

Come 1985 I had the car converted to US Specs. Part of the conversion included replacing the headlights to meet US standards. Try as I did (high dollar "driving lights", etc) I never found a solution that was near as good as the standard German spec lights.

Just another example of our government "taking care of us".

[summerscheifer]

hi guys apology for making this thread up had a problem with my headlight bulb. but its for my honda accord headlight bulb. i went bought a replacement low beam bulbs expecting to come home and replace the bulbs in 5 minutes, easy fix like in my Maxima and my uncles Acura, and the most cars out there. So I start on the passenger side first, easy come, easy go. I go over the the driver's side is crowded by the intake assembly, battery, coolant reservoir, etc. i do the same thing as on the passenger side only to not being able to even turn the latch. I tried over and over to push in a counter clockwise motion and still nothing. There's no room to remove the screws either even though I read that you don't even need to remove them, it should just unlatch and you pull it out. please help.

[summerscheifer]

Originally Posted by summerscheifer

hi guys apology for making this thread up had a problem with my headlight bulb. but its for my honda accord headlight bulb. i went bought a replacement low beam bulbs expecting to come home and replace the bulbs in 5 minutes, easy fix like in my Maxima and my uncles Acura, and the most cars out there. So I start on the passenger side first, easy come, easy go. I go over the the driver's side is crowded by the intake assembly, battery, coolant reservoir, etc. i do the same thing as on the passenger side only to not being able to even turn the latch. I tried over and over to push in a counter clockwise motion and still nothing. There's no room to remove the screws either even though I read that you don't even need to remove them, it should just unlatch and you pull it out. please help.

hello guys really need your help. please help me regarding on that problem.

[1_black_z28]

I got a $25 silverstar bulb on my old suzuki bike, WAAYYY better than the standard one the P/O had in there.
I love it........no problems, everybody keeps flicking their high beams at me, signaling me to turn off MY high beams.
Problem is....that's just my normal Low Beam, hahaha.

I've also learned, cleaning your battery posts and wiring connections helps A LOT on some of the slightly older cars/bikes.

I did that on my suzuki, and my camaro, and both of them got MUCH brighter as a result.

[Rick V]

Originally Posted by Dualie

Second is a Headlight harness that uses relays to put full battery power to your headlights...

I used to live in the Boonies... and to start a week at work, I had to drive through a large Provincial Park on Sunday mornings 2AM - 4AM. Headlights were a real problem.
Back then, my car was a 1987 K-car!

• I replaced the standard square sealed-beam headlights with I think it was Bosch lamps using 55 watt H4 bulbs. Better!
• I replaced the 55 watt H4's with Philips 90 watt H4 rally bulbs - illegal for on road but I didn't care - I needed light. Better!
• I replaced the headlight wiring harness with my own heavy wire/relay harness - a might better.
• I added big 7.5 inch diameter 'spot' driving lights using 55 watt H3 bulbs and a separate heavy wire/relay harness that I made up. These lights came on with the high beams - and were extraordinary! They lit up the road way, way out in front of the car - just amazing.

However, there were some winter related problems!

• The 90 watt H4 bulbs made the glass lens on the front of the light housing - 'Hot'. Salt spray from other cars that would normally wash across the lens and 'mostly' drain away now evaporated on the lens. In heavy spray, the lens would quickly get obscured with a thick salt film.
• The 55 watt H3 lamps worked great when they were clear. BUT... try passing a transport truck on a crudy park road at 3:00AM and the salt/sludge spray quickly covered the lenses! I had to drive like hell (with dim salt covered lights) for several minutes to hopefully get far enough ahead to be able to pull off the road, run around the car cleaning the lights, jump back in and tear off before the same transport truck passed me again!

I tried hooking up those after-market spray nozzles that 'clean' your headlights... just crap.
What I really needed was wiper blades on the headlights - like you see of some European cars (e.g. Volvo).

If I had to do the same again today, I'd go for HID driving lights with a wiper blade system.