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General Tech Headlight upgrade

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TomMull

TomMull

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We seemed to be badly out shined on the highway coming home from Stowe VT "British Invasion" car show after dark last night. I've given some thought to halogen upgrade but wonder about increased power draw and the complication of adding relays. LED would seem a better option, although very pricey and, for most LBC applications, extremely ugly.
I did come up with an option from the Mustang people, affordable at about $230 and not too outrageous looking. I think the old Triumphs used the same sealed beams, so I assume they would fit most negative ground cars.
https://www.mustangproject.com/ProductDisplay.aspx?id=02b3718d-aa49-410c-9630-58236775e1af
Any thoughts or experience with this or other LED headlight conversions?
Tom
 
Hella has upgrades that double your light and is only $80. Have used them in Triumphs, Jags and old trucks. They do not take more power, it is their reflectors and lens cut. I get mine thru Roverparts. It is a European headlight so it will say off-road use only. Actually lights up signs and the right side of road very well and is a precise light.
 
LarryK said:
Hella has upgrades that double your light and is only $80. Have used them in Triumphs, Jags and old trucks. They do not take more power, it is their reflectors and lens cut. I get mine thru Roverparts. It is a European headlight so it will say off-road use only. Actually lights up signs and the right side of road very well and is a precise light.
Click to expand...

Perhaps a good option. Summit has them and the reviews seem to support what you say. Thanks. Tom
 
TomMull said:
We seemed to be badly out shined on the highway coming home from Stowe VT "British Invasion" car show after dark last night. I've given some thought to halogen upgrade but wonder about increased power draw and the complication of adding relays. LED would seem a better option, although very pricey and, for most LBC applications, extremely ugly.
I did come up with an option from the Mustang people, affordable at about $230 and not too outrageous looking. I think the old Triumphs used the same sealed beams, so I assume they would fit most negative ground cars.
https://www.mustangproject.com/ProductDisplay.aspx?id=02b3718d-aa49-410c-9630-58236775e1af
Any thoughts or experience with this or other LED headlight conversions?
Tom
Click to expand...
A surprising resemblance to what I'm running, except I only paid about $120 total. Bus Depot has Hella H4 conversions on sale
https://www.busdepot.com/0301600118
plus I got H4 LED inserts off flea-bay.
https://s258.photobucket.com/user/TR3driver/slideshow/Misc parts/LED H4 replacements
 
TRF has some conversion lights that use , I believe 55-60watt bulbs. They claim there is no need for relays with these. I have been using them for a couple of years and like them. I am sure there are brighter ones out there, but these work fine.
Charley
 
charleyf said:
They claim there is no need for relays with these.
Click to expand...
To paraphrase an old saying, that depends on your definition of "need". The stock wiring will certainly handle more than 60 watts each without burning up or anything like that. But, adding relays can still get more power to the headlights, for more light on the road. With the battery at 12.6, my old wiring and switches were only getting about 11.0 to the pins on the headlight bulbs (with a "60 watt" bulb installed). With the relays installed, I get about 12.3. Since power goes up as the square of voltage (assuming the resistance remains constant, which it doesn't), that would be roughly 25% more power to the bulb. I didn't bother trying to measure the actual increase, but the difference in light output was visible.

And with the relays hidden on the back of the headlight buckets, the change is more or less invisible, except for an extra wire (protected by a separate circuit breaker for each side) running out to the bucket.

(PS, that was a first attempt. I later redid the relays without the sockets for a neater installation. )
 
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I too, was not satisfied with the brightness of my stock headlights.
But now, after following advise on the forum my problem is reversed.
(aiming my lights far enough south to keep from blinding on coming traffic is my biggest issue).

i started off by getting eBay tripod knock offs.
2nd: got those LED's Randall mentioned
3rd: got a headlight wiring harness from advanced auto wire, as my old wiring was worn, patched & repatched.
(featured new correct Color coded heavy gauge wire, two relays, 4ea 20A fuses , 1 for each filament, [safer, I feel]
I placed it on the back of the battery box, inside the cockpit, but I don't have a heater installed, so it was an ideal place)

expensive: yes. Probably over $300 total.
brighter: much

& the AAW wiring harness was probably overkill, after I went LED.
But I don't worry about night driving anymore.
 
The ads on eBay can be confusing; they tend to give ratings for both bulbs together (to make the numbers look bigger) rather than for each bulb. The LED bulbs I got take 20 watts each on low beam, 30 watts on high beam. Which makes sense, as the highest rated LED chips just now are 10 watts, there are 3 chips per bulb, but only two of them operate on low beam. (Actual power draw is a bit higher, due to inefficiency in the power supply and the current drawn by the fan.)

The "standard" 6014 incandescent bulbs in the US take 50 watts per bulb on low beam, 60 on high (so about twice as much as the LED bulbs). Halogen H4 inserts are available in a lot of power ratings, the lowest power ones are generally 55/60. (I had 90/120 on my TR3A, which really lit up the night.)

The fanless LEDs are probably OK; I don't know anything about them specifically. But, I have read various articles about various LED lamps (typically home replacement types) that do not deliver on advertised lifetime, and heat buildup is usually blamed as the reason. Heat buildup also reduces light output. So the fan seemed like a good idea to me.

PS something else worth mentioning : All of the LED bulbs include a regulated DC-DC converter power supply. So adding relays for more voltage won't make any difference to light output. And with the reduced load, adding relays probably won't make much difference to switch lifetime either. So IMO there is really no advantage to adding relays if you are going to use LED bulbs. I left mine in place, though, since they were already installed (and tested).
 
Thanks, Randall. I think I now have a plan. Tom
 
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