Headlight relay

[OregonNed]

Installed this wiring kit a couple of years ago - pleased with how it turned out. I do keep a couple of extra relays in the glove box just in case.

[mrein3]

Originally Posted by Stocker

Nope, just the old standard sealed-beam headlamps. Not sure when halogen bulbs became the norm.

I wore glasses from age 7 until I got contacts at 19. Since cataract surgery several years ago, I now just use readers. Improved lighting has always been a good thing for me, no matter my age or vision correction.

Originally Posted by Wrenchbender Ret

Halogens became popular in the early to mid 80's.
I can't see any advantage to using relays with LED lamps.
George

Originally Posted by biketopia

Some LED set up's pull decent amperage. Mainly in headlight applications, some sort of load to build up heat is used to help keep them from fogging or icing up in poor weather conditions.

Originally Posted by skokie

Thanks for the ideas. I will look into both the LED headlights and the relay conversion.
This is why this board is AWESOME!!

FWIW, if you install a relay system into your headlight circuit you really don't need trick headlights. I'm running halogens with a relay system I rolled myself.

When you install one of these kits or roll your own all you are doing is turning your headlight switch into a relay controller. This has two benefits.

First you get a good 14+ volts (engine running) to each headlight straight off the battery where the stock system only gets around 10.8 or so volts to each headlight. Before you install your system measure the voltage at the headlight. You're going to be surprised at what is there.

Second thing is all that current drop has to go somewhere. It is turned into heat. This heat is what takes out your headlight switch. By installing relays to run current directly from the battery you are done replacing headlight switches which get killed from the heat generated from the voltage drop between the switch and the headlights.

Think about it. In a stock system, you have current running from the battery, into the cab, to the headlight switch, to the dimmer on the floor, then out to the headlights. With one of these relay kits the headlight switch tells the relay to turn on the wire from the battery to the headlight.

If you're simply looking for brighter headlights, install one of these kits or roll your own. Drive it at night like that for a while then decide whether $200 headlights are worth it. In this economy I'm guessing you are going to put that $200 light idea on the back burner for a while.

[72SB]

^^^ spot on advice