Pickup trucks headlights evaluated

rickeoni wrote:

if you feel the need to fill in the dead spot in front of the vehicle when driving turn on the fog lights.

I have a pair of these fog lights and they are the best fog lights I have ever had. DOT Legal LED fog light

ktmrfs wrote:
our 04.5 2500 duramax had great headlights, especially when wired to have all 4 on with high beam.

Ah... the famed "ALL-ON" mod. That's the the GM truck forum guys call it anyway.

High beams are brighter in halogen bulbs because the reflector is different and the bulb usually has no cap paint, but the low beam and high beam bulbs have the same wattage, usually 55 watts. In projector style of headlights there is a flap that moves to allow more of the light to escape the lens, but uses only one bulb. If it is a H.I.D. bulb it is usually driven by a 35 watt ballast. As to the coloured bulbs, if you add a film to a halogen bulb too fool the eye into making it look whiter it actually lowers the lumens, resulting in a lower light output. H.I.D. bulbs are rated on the Kelvin scale with 4300K being the brightest and is what most O.E. manufacturers use. Once again as you go up the Kelvin scale to get to the bluer colours you lose light output.

One of biggest problems with aftermarket products now is the pnp H.I.D. kits on the market. These illegal kits scatter light everywhere because a halogen reflector bowl is not designed to focus the light of an H.I.D. bulb. The second problem is people with misaligned headlights, how many cars on the road today have on headlight aimed too high? You can always spot the ones that Marty Feldman aimed.

if you feel the need to fill in the dead spot in front of the vehicle when driving turn on the fog lights. While this actually makes your night vision worse, it fools the brain into thinking that it is brighter.

rickeoni wrote:

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
I wish the LEO's would start ticketing those drivers with the colored headlamps! Seems to me that would be a better money maker then a 7 MPH speeding ticket! The law does not allow high powered or colored headlamps and those bulbs are sold with the disclaimer "FOR OFF ROAD USE ONLY"!

Don

Earlier in this thread you wrote

"All I did was re-adjusted the headlights on my Ram. Parked in front of the garage door at night moved the right headlamp up one inch and the left headlamp half of an inch up. Truck was sitting about 20' from the door.

Now I can see just fine. The other drivers (mostly small cars) are not very happy but that's life. I try and make sure I'm over to the right a little at stop lights, otherwise the poor person in front of me get blinded (again small cars). "


Why are you against others blinding you, but have no problem blinding others?

Personally there's a difference between having your headlights aimed a little high ( a loaded trucks head lights will be high) than having high watt bulbs installed. That's why high beams are so bright, because they are a higher wattage than the low beams.

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
I wish the LEO's would start ticketing those drivers with the colored headlamps! Seems to me that would be a better money maker then a 7 MPH speeding ticket! The law does not allow high powered or colored headlamps and those bulbs are sold with the disclaimer "FOR OFF ROAD USE ONLY"!

Don

Earlier in this thread you wrote

"All I did was re-adjusted the headlights on my Ram. Parked in front of the garage door at night moved the right headlamp up one inch and the left headlamp half of an inch up. Truck was sitting about 20' from the door.

Now I can see just fine. The other drivers (mostly small cars) are not very happy but that's life. I try and make sure I'm over to the right a little at stop lights, otherwise the poor person in front of me get blinded (again small cars). "


Why are you against others blinding you, but have no problem blinding others?

I wish the LEO's would start ticketing those drivers with the colored headlamps! Seems to me that would be a better money maker then a 7 MPH speeding ticket! The law does not allow high powered or colored headlamps and those bulbs are sold with the disclaimer "FOR OFF ROAD USE ONLY"!

Don

We have projector headlights in a Land Rover and Honda S2000.
They are the absolute worst headlights. Too sharp of a cut off in low beam.

Very, very easy to out drive your headlights at night.

My Silverado has more normal beam that spreads.

My 2016 Chevy HD is a really nice truck but the lights are not as good as they should be-
I added a couple of Rigid LED lights into the front facia and these make a world of difference.

My last truck was a GMC and I replaced the fog lights with LED's and those things were the bomb-

Crazy the trucks don't come stock with much better lighting!

srt20 wrote:

BenK wrote:
D
Too high in K and not enough color. Washes out the image

You can buy HID from yellow to purple. The wiring is no bigger than any other wiring on a car. Not including battery cables obviously.

It is amazing how many colors are available now!

In my little one horse home town, there's a dodge painted with pink camo that has pink headlights, an all green f250 with green headlights and an all blue asian something with blue, not blue-white but blue headlights. There's an older guy driving around in a brown f250 with purple headlights. I don't know if he won the truck in a card game or took it away from his kid, or maybe he just likes purple!

I put some yellow HID in the fog lamps on my Subaru, it really helps with contrast in heavy rain and heavy snow. They're shut off most of the time, it was a real hassle getting to those bulbs, I don't want to be replacing them anytime soon.

BenK wrote:
DOT still does not have a good spec requirement yet...

Best are still E-Code and have been putting them on my vehicles since the 70's...but
the new free form headlights are tough to find E-Code...why my Sub doesn't have
E-Code lamps

Haven't seen any LED E-Code yet, but am sure they are out there and/or coming

Never liked HID. To welders out there...think of a plasma cutter...that
is what HID headlamps are...a tiny plasma arc inside a bulb

Too high in K and not enough color. Washes out the image

The biggie for me is their strike voltage...that can be +20,000 volts and why
there is special wiring...that the transformer is mounted away from the very
front of the vehicle...emergency responders are taught to avoid them...

You can buy HID from yellow to purple. The wiring is no bigger than any other wiring on a car. Not including battery cables obviously.

HID are a great option, but they need to be in the proper housings. Too many people putting them in reflector housings.