Headlight thread

[Codez67Chevy]

Sorry for the whole "HID" thing I know lots of people don't like them. But this company actually makes a kit with a projector in it so it gives a better than factory light cut off and focuses the light so it's not scattered everywhere.

I'm with ya on the morons who put HID'S in a reflector housing as they blind oncoming traffic and scatter light. HID'S are and only should be put in a housing that has a project or to focus the light and give it a good cut off.

By any means I didn't mean to disrespect anyone here.

[Codez67Chevy]

Here's the kit 7" projection. Theretrofitsource.com








This is the correct way to have HID'S in any vehicle.

[skorpioskorpio]

Like I said though, at this stage HIDs have no place anywhere, it's the plasma TV of the automotive lighting world. It'll be completely obsolete and just a strange retro oddity in a few years. It was a heavily marketed product that's real purpose was to allow engineers to reduce headlight size and frontal area and make housings out of injection moulded low temperature composites. Even implimented correctly it has all sorts of issues, bad color, slow starting, no real focus point. Projectors were just a way to resolve the issues of what is really a poor automotive lighting source. HID is rapidly disappearing as an OEM lightsource, and I would be very surprised if it were available on any new car by the end of the decade.

[Hugh Mongus]

I agree. I installed an HID conversion on my Jeep and the night driving on country roads is not as good. The light is not as focuses on the road as the halogens were. Switching to brights is a waste of time. They are nice and bright and can be seen from a long distance, but the light on the road not so great. They also take a few seconds to "warm up" and get to their full brightness.

[Jerryrig]

Ok....I think we all get that:

HID = BAD
HALOGEN = GOOD

I think every light thread I have EVER read (on all different forums) has had good momentum until somebody chimes in about what a piece of junk the HID kits are. And how they blind people and they are slow to 'warm up'..... And after that, it seems it becomes 1 of 2 things. Either it's a thread that continues to bash on HID, or it becomes a debate between people that love them and people that hate them.

And to tell you the truth.....they all end THE SAME WAY...

LEAVING THE READERS THINKING THAT THESE PEOPLE HAVE MAJOR PROBLEMS BECAUSE THEY GET SO MAD OVER SOMEBODYS LIGHT CHOICE.

Here is a little lesson......you can post as much as you want about how HID kits suck and are dangerous and blah blah blah. But at the end of the day, if somebody likes the way they look, they are going to buy a set and install them.

I myself have never seen the "Cool-ness" factor behind them...but I firmly believe in the saying 'to each, his own'.



.....WITH THAT SAID......

Let's get back to the reason I started this thread....

Let's see and hear some more of what you guys did for your headlights. I mean because after all

Haha!

[skorpioskorpio]

Originally Posted by Jerryrig

.....WITH THAT SAID......

Let's get back to the reason I started this thread....

Let's see and hear some more of what you guys did for your headlights. I mean because after all

Haha!

Fair enough...

What's going on the front of my Jimmy Project, from outer to inner: Marchal ECode dip beams (5 3/4", 55W Philips H1), Marchal Main beams (5 3/4", 90W Philips H1), Marchal 909 Driving lamps (8", 90W Philips H1), Marchal 901 Pencil Beams (8", 90W Philips H1), and below Marchal 750 Amber lens Fog lamps (55W Philips H2). All NOS. Capable of a combined range of over 10,000 ft or about a mile and a half of focused light.



...and a Photoshop render of what they'll look like on the truck:

[Redline novdog]

I'm in subscribed 'cause can't find it

[outlaw 3454]

here's ya some 35.00 ones! and i might add they work just great, alot better than originals!!!

[Redline novdog]

Anyone have a picture of their relay installation??? where and what?

[Steve Cole]

Originally Posted by outlaw 3454

here's ya some 35.00 ones! and i might add they work just great, alot better than originals!!!

Hey Outlaw, those look great! where did you get the headlights? What are they? Details man!

[outlaw 3454]

i was at a swap meet and the guy had alot of them, he didnt know anything about them at all, i thought 35.00 what the heck i'll try em, lol they work great, alot better than original, you do have to cut the bucket the oem headlights set in but no relays or anything.
ive got some more that i'm gonna put in that has the turnsignals in the bottoms of the headlights..they were 35.00 also, bought them from a vender at the frog frollies in evansville .

[Already Gone]

Originally Posted by Redline novdog

Anyone have a picture of their relay installation??? where and what?

Heres a link to the one I used in 2005 and it has worked great.


http://www.madelectrical.com/electri...adlights.shtml

[basketcase]

Originally Posted by outlaw 3454

i was at a swap meet and the guy had alot of them, he didnt know anything about them at all, i thought 35.00 what the heck i'll try em, lol they work great, alot better than original, you do have to cut the bucket the oem headlights set in but no relays or anything.
ive got some more that i'm gonna put in that has the turnsignals in the bottoms of the headlights..they were 35.00 also, bought them from a vender at the frog frollies in evansville .

I saw these at Auburn and thought that they were pretty nice for the price. Was probably the same vendor.

Tom

[csfields]

I went with the 35.00 tri-bar's as well.

[71C10SWB]

Hmm, interesting comment about why HID was developed, becuase of wanting to package cooler light source in cheaper plastic housings.

I was a lighting engineer at a major OEM supplier for 17+ years. I designed multiple different HID headlamps that you probably see everyday. the reason for HID was for the incredible amount of light that comes out of them versus halogen. Plus they last longer because there's no filament to burn out.
Just for your information, it takes more space and higher temperature materials for HID due to the importance of an accurate reflector optical design. Cheap plastics warp and cause glare. You can't make a legal, good performing headlamp with cheap plastic reflectors. and you can't change the lens material due to impact resistance.

Now, that being said. Yes, LED is the new deal. HID's will phase out. Mostly due to the high cost and the difficulty packaging the HID bulbs. Plus, you block most of the light coming out of the bulb (actually called a burner) to avoid it hitting unwanted internal surfaces and causing illegal glare. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T PUT THEM INTO REFLECTORS THEY WEREN'T DESIGNED FOR.

There's a couple of guys on my way to work that I meet on a regular basis who have illegal HID's in their vehicles. Looks stupid, probably isn't creating a lot of useful light and if there was ever a cop who understood how to check for DOT compliance they wouldn't have them.

That's my $.02

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by 71C10SWB

....Now, that being said. Yes, LED is the new deal. HID's will phase out. Mostly due to the high cost and the difficulty packaging the HID bulbs. Plus, you block most of the light coming out of the bulb (actually called a burner) to avoid it hitting unwanted internal surfaces and causing illegal glare. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T PUT THEM INTO REFLECTORS THEY WEREN'T DESIGNED FOR.

There's a couple of guys on my way to work that I meet on a regular basis who have illegal HID's in their vehicles. Looks stupid, probably isn't creating a lot of useful light and if there was ever a cop who understood how to check for DOT compliance they wouldn't have them.

That's my $.02

It would seem that it would be difficult for a policie officer to know if a light was DOT compliant. Perhaps only a DOT stamp on the outside would be enough, I'm not sure. Don't mistake that for disagreeing with you though. Something has to be done to better control what people are putting on the front of their vehicle as a light source. They may think that they can see better for all the reasons already stated in the previous posts in this thread, but their disregard for oncomming traffic should be dealt with. I too cross paths with some hot-shots with very blinding headlights. It stinks when they go by you and you can't hardly see for a few seconds.

[skorpioskorpio]

Originally Posted by 71C10SWB

Hmm, interesting comment about why HID was developed, becuase of wanting to package cooler light source in cheaper plastic housings.

I was a lighting engineer at a major OEM supplier for 17+ years. I designed multiple different HID headlamps that you probably see everyday. the reason for HID was for the incredible amount of light that comes out of them versus halogen. Plus they last longer because there's no filament to burn out.
Just for your information, it takes more space and higher temperature materials for HID due to the importance of an accurate reflector optical design. Cheap plastics warp and cause glare. You can't make a legal, good performing headlamp with cheap plastic reflectors. and you can't change the lens material due to impact resistance.

Now, that being said. Yes, LED is the new deal. HID's will phase out. Mostly due to the high cost and the difficulty packaging the HID bulbs. Plus, you block most of the light coming out of the bulb (actually called a burner) to avoid it hitting unwanted internal surfaces and causing illegal glare. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T PUT THEM INTO REFLECTORS THEY WEREN'T DESIGNED FOR.

There's a couple of guys on my way to work that I meet on a regular basis who have illegal HID's in their vehicles. Looks stupid, probably isn't creating a lot of useful light and if there was ever a cop who understood how to check for DOT compliance they wouldn't have them.

That's my $.02

If you are referring to my comments, I never said cheaper plastic housings, I said molded composite housings, which is true. It's also a high level of lumens with a minimal amount of heat (compared to a filament or arc lamp) but you could push halogen to the same light levels and beyond, you just can't do it in a practical package. 1000W halogen capsules are common and 5000W+ ones exist, just not for automotive. Focus has always been the problem of vaporized metal lighting, it's been around longer than the Edison bulb and almost never used as focused lighting source.

But yes putting HID "conversion bulbs" in a housing designed for halogens and expecting it to produce anything remotely resembling focus is ridiculous. The housing is designed for a lighting source that focuses a filament that is about a 1/4" by 1/16th and replacing it with a source that fluoresces a tube that measures an inch by a 1/4"or more, focus of any sort isn't gonna happen.

[Jerryrig]

Back on topic......

Since nobody has posted anything about these. Maybe il post something to get a couple opinions of people that may know a little bit more about these lights

These are the trucklite led lights that I mentioned.....They are led. It looks like they have a great cutoff so the oncoming drivers aren't blinded. And they look like they are bright as ****! lol

And they come in a couple different sizes...

here is a pic of the light


I know its not a c10, but these pics are just to give you the idea of what the light looks like with the low beams on and the high beams

Low Beam (notice the bottom of the light is not illuminated)


High Beam (bottom of light is now illuminated as well as the top)


here is a comparison between halogen and led


and another comparison


and another


some more



and a link to the company website
http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs...roductId=92025

What do u guys think.....

[BlackedOut67shorty]

Mayo put led headlights on his rig, they don't look so bad but to me they sit out a lol too far, maybe some fan work can be done to make them sit in more. I just can't deal with that price tag though , http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=525871&page=2

[full foot notch]

these are the ones I just installed on my truck, got them along with a basic HID kit for $60 locally. these have the little city lights/turn signals/ whatever you want to call them but I had no use for them, so I clipped the socket and the rubber grommet and only put them in for aesthetics looking thru the glass

[skorpioskorpio]

I know the photo comparisons of the LED vs halogen above makes this white LED light look all clean and modern, but human vision is evolved to best adjust to amber light at night. Our eyes are arranged to see by firelight at night not by a narrow patch of white light. We have a very hard time adjusting away from light like that.

[Jerryrig]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

I know the photo comparisons of the LED vs halogen above makes this white LED light look all clean and modern, but human vision is evolved to best adjust to amber light at night. Our eyes are arranged to see by firelight at night not by a narrow patch of white light. We have a very hard time adjusting away from light like that.

I guess I can understand your thinking behind this.....

But I just did this test yesterday on a jobsite (actually before I read your reply). But I was in an abandoned building trying to find my way around. My site contact and myself had the same exact mag light flashlight. But mine had the led bulb conversion. We both saw how much brighter mine was compared to his....we even changed his batteries and it still didn't hold a candle to mine...no pun intended. Lol. I know that a headlight is a little brighter than a maglite flash light (or I HOPE it is....haha), but I think the comparison is definately relevant to your last statement.

But I think I may buy one of these trucklite 's for my Harley a few months down the road and let u guys know how it functions.

Keep those good posts coming! I like seeing what you guys are running...I'm still not 100% on my c10

[skorpioskorpio]

Oh, don't get me wrong I used to carry a small Maglite around with me all the time. Then I found the little LED tacticals and now the Maglite is long retired and I carry a single AA cell Fenix LED tactical around everywhere I go, it's a great light. However.... one of the reasons I carry a light is to read the labels and printing on cables and wire and to read serial number tags and stamped markings in metals, and a Maglite did this well, the brighter the better, but with the tactical you have to turn it down to dim, or even use it on an angle because the bounce back glare makes all this writing unreadable. Same thing that LED and HID lights do on the road, a lot of the "brighter" light you see is light bouncing back at you from light colored objects in your field of view.

Here is a good experiment for you, try and read some of the small writing on a dollar bill in a dimly lit room with your LED converted Maglite then try it with a regular Maglite. Also note that focus is pretty ineffective with the LED vs the Krypton bulb and I don't know about the Maglites that come already LED but the conversions I did on some of my old 2 AA ones came with a non-adjustable focus reflector to replace the original one.

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

Same thing that LED and HID lights do on the road, a lot of the "brighter" light you see is light bouncing back at you from light colored objects in your field of view.

Interesting point, and it reminded me of something I read decades ago -- reflective road signs in the US have a high amount of, well, reflectivity to compensate for the relatively low output of our (then) sealed-beam headlamps. Because Europeans were allowed much brighter headlamps, their road signs were not as reflective as ours.

Upon reflection (pun intended), I have noticed that running a good set of E-code lamps will result in too much glare back from many of our road signs, so there may be something to it.

[skorpioskorpio]

This is specifically why E-Codes (European Headlights) cut off below the horizon so that you look down into the light. It's also the reason the French took it one step further and required amber tinted bulb or reflectors or lenses in an effort to decrease the effects of night blindness and particle and bright object bounce back. E-Codes also are designed to illuminate roadside signs enough to give fair warning and keep them in the peripheral vision, aimed correctly they do not illuminate signs far down the road (not by low beam anyway) when they are in your central vision.

I wasn't aware there was specifically more reflective material in US signs, though that would explain why road signs with E-Codes seem to explode with light when they come into the beam field.