Value of aftermarket Xenon Headlamps

double post

I just bought factory HID's from VW in the Touareg, which I tow the TT with. The 2015 e-Golf SEL, however, just came with factory LED's, headlights and DRL's both being LED's.

Sharpness of cutoff is something the Germans do not scrimp on, in any way, shape or form. If it can be driven at night on the Autobahns, the lighting is adjusted to function at such speeds and levels of nighttime driver visibility.

Screaming, throwing things, groserias (swear words in Spanish), and finally a trip to Harbor Freight to buy a Dremel type tool. Removed old headlight bases. Spot welded. Had to be drilled.

Now looking at ugly holes, on a curved sheet steel surface. Used Dremel tool after Mexican body man said he intended to cut holes with oxy acetylene. Went back to where (School District) where I bought the bus and went to cannibalized Crown and with Dremel tool cut (2-recharges) in exact same spot two discs 1/4" diameter larger than on Quicksilver. Hand ground new discs to precision fit. Spot welded Door glass U-channel across inside of Quicksilver old holes. Fit new discs. Micro torch and lead filled seams. Got world class sunburn. Body man used green micro filler to correct spot weld and solder dimples.

This is about the most difficult model I can imagine doing this to. Fiberglass is a thousand times easier to work with.

Great degree of triangular hypotenuse lighting is excellent for fog and rain. It sucks for normal roadway lighting. Straight line illumination reveals dips and mounds in the pavement surface, the dips are deep shadow, contrasted with bright mounds.

I was fortunate enough to find stainless steel Per Lux lights. Those are mounted atop the front bumper about a foot BELOW the sight line of the original bulbs. For a few years a pair of 250 watt aircraft landing lights wired in series (like the Per Lux lights) were my Mexico driving lights.

Going to go with a 55" CREE 320 watt light bar across the prow (overhead) if I can just only find an unwanted satchel of money somewhere.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I'd sure go through any new model motorhome and make sure it does not have Samauai technolgy - at the first sign of trouble it sticks a knife it its belly and yanks upward. The power goes off and the rig mimics a 1940's travel trailer. Check for adequate battery space, the roof area for solar panels, and if the headlights are more than four feet lower than the driver's eyeballs I would try them at night before I bought a rig. One of the modifications I made to my Crown was to raise headlight height 12".

I have new and improved Projector type Headlights installed on My 98 Dutch Star.

That are much better than the Dull ,Yellowed 96 Ford Pickup Originals but still could be better?

I haven't measured them to see if they are 4 Feet or more below My Eyes, but that is a good point . I have suspected for Years that there is a correlation between sitting on top of the Headlights and sitting behind them.

Just might be worth while doing some Mods to the Front end!

How did You do Yours?

I'd sure go through any new model motorhome and make sure it does not have Samauai technolgy - at the first sign of trouble it sticks a knife it its belly and yanks upward. The power goes off and the rig mimics a 1940's travel trailer. Check for adequate battery space, the roof area for solar panels, and if the headlights are more than four feet lower than the driver's eyeballs I would try them at night before I bought a rig. One of the modifications I made to my Crown was to raise headlight height 12".

Well guys, I guess I can make an informed decision now. I kinda felt that the kits were really junk or just an expense and not that great an improvement. Special thanks as always to Chris Bryant, Landyacht318 and Mexicowanderer, collectively you outperform my experience in this field. I know a lot about residential, office and traffic signal wiring and equipment but I've never worried about the technicalities of much to do with Motor Homes other than the house part.

For NinerBikes, sorry about leaving out the HID. I did learn about Xenon gas lamps as well as Xenon HID lamps, so I knew better than to just say Xenon.

It does seem at the moment that it is all going to be academic soon anyway. This evening we received an offer on our second home in Mammoth Lakes, CA and part of the proceeds will go toward buying a late model MH. We've looked at A's and C's in the two to three year old range and "I" have looked at DPs as far back as '08. We aren't paying cash but having a loan with a payment about $275/month. Our tax guy keeps saying we need the deductions, I keep saying I need the money in my pocket and the DW says, buy as new as possible so I don't have to find jury rigs for crumbling plastics and parts that are no longer available. So I guess I'll follow her advice and go newer used and have a loan to satisfy the tax guy. Everybody is happy that way.

Thanks again to all who replied.

It takes awareness and intelligence to actually end up "upgrading" light output to see better. My rule for me was to no 1 NOT INCREASE GLARE for oncoming drivers with low beams. The final proofing of this is driving a few hundred miles, pass by say a thousand cars and not have a single one flash me down.

Choosing a spot with no traffic - find a road sign or hydrant or whatever, then drive well out of optical range at night. New lighting should illuminate the target or it is a failure. Look at the quality of side lighting with original lighting. New lighting cannot FLARE side lighting or it is a failure.

New lighting hot spots 100' ahead of the vehicle make new lighting a failure.

I chose Hella 80/100 9004 bulbs. Low beam lighting forced me to lower beam angle maybe 20 degrees to avoid oncoming glare. But relationship of the 2 elements allowed me to see my triall target and then some on high beam. High beam is also wider to the right side.

Now the fun began. The contact pins of these bulbs are aluminum which mate to brass wire terminals. The results for thousands of these high wattage conversions down here is predictable. But instead of Hella the parts stores sell Chinese knock-offs. The 80/100 knockoffs are built so bad even my bad eyes can see crooked and misplaced filament supports. It's a cruel joke.

Then the high heat chars terminal to wire connections to flames and melts plastic plug bases to a glob.

I chose ceramic replacement plugs. Liberal cleaning with DeOxit D100 followed by meitulously precise application of silicone zinc oxide paste to the contacts thwarted overheating. The ceramic bulbs come with 14 rather than 18 gauge wire.

But it's a minefield out there. Vendors cheat, lie, exaggerate and huff and puff. I went into my conversion with my eyes wide open and discovered that working with lighting any other way was a sure recipe for disaster and disappointment. Plug n play my butt.

Real good post, Landy!

Cibie makes a h6054 housing into which one can place a H4 bulb of various wattages, but one cannot really do better than a Phillips extreme bulb in them.

These have the best beam pattern to assist human vision, and Will not blind oncoming drivers with too much light above the 'cutoff'.

Ensuring there is not too much voltage drop to the bulbs over the too long too thin and too many connector lighting circuit makes a huge difference in light output.

Hella has some 6054 offerings. When the low beam is adjusted correctly, the high beam is way too high.

There are no other aftermarket 6054 halogen housings that will provide anywhere near an adequate beam pattern. The Autopal and anything Ebay are absolute Junk. Avoid avoid avoid.

If you have the bucks, you can get JWspeaker LEDS, and there are extremely well designed drop in replacements for 6054 and other size formats. Their beams pattern and output are compliant with all legal parameters.

My headlamps are 6054's. I was having nearly 3 volts of drop on the original circuit as the circuit went from battery through fusible link, through bulkhead connector, through headlamp switch, through dimmer switch, back through bulkhead connector. From here the low beam went into the drivers side headlamp then back out around the firewall to the passenger side. The highbeam split closer to the bulkhead connector and went to each headlamp individually.

I made a 12awg harness and got new 12awg h4 connectors. The original circuit now just triggers Bosch relays that get their power from the nearby 6awg alternator to battery cable. the total circuit length is about 5 times shorter over thicker wiring, and the bulbs get voltage within 0.3v of alternator voltage. Light output increased a good 30%.

GE nighthawk 6054NH are the best sealed beams one can get. Sylvania/wagner and other offerings cannot compare in this size format.

I plan on upgrading to Cibie 200MM which are a direct replacement for the 6054 and using a good quality halogen H4 bulb like Phillips extreme.

Do NOT put HID or LED bulbs into aftermarket housings, or any housing designed for a halogen bulb. The reflectors simply can't properly focus the light from these light sources into a viable beam which helps the driver see better, and not blind oncoming drivers.

Extra forward lighting has different laws in different states. In general you are allowed high and low beams and fogs. Any extra forward lighting might be illegal or needs to be covered.

Do not drink the Kool aide concerning HID lights in incandescent housings. The Human brain is very poor at judging how well the eyeball can see. Often the response to an illegal HID bulb or LED bulb is WOW, so much more light.

But excessive foreground lighting constricts the pupils and makes distance vision significantly worse. So the Human thinks they can see better, but the opposite is true, and add to that the fact that improper bulbs in halogen housings will glare and blind oncoming drivers and it is a recipe for disaster.

Fog lights are also a menace to the driver's eyes above 25MPH, and fog lights should never be used above 25MPH as all they do is compromise distance vision, and give the driver a false sense of security.

So If you have 6054 sealed beams, the Best you can do is get the JWspeaker 8900 series. NO harness upgrade needed with these as they draw less juice than halogen and are regulated to have the same output on 12v as on 24V.

Trucklite also has a pretty good LED in this size format. It is rebranded by a few name brands like GE and Phillips, but is not as good as JWspeaker LED.

NExt best are the Cibie 200MM, available here:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/home.html

Everything you need to know about safe legal lighting upgrades is available to read on his website.

Reducing the voltage drop to the headlamps should be considered the first step whenever sealed beams are not bright enough for the driver

The headlamp harness left the factory undersized and too long, and Aging of these wires and connectors quickly degrades output.

My GE6054NH bulbs getting 14.5 volts give excellent illumination, compared to my previous Sylvania silverstars getting 11.8v, and when driving at night, only a few modern vehicles are putting light on the road more effectively than me.

I very much look forward to being able to afford the Cibie 200MM to replace the GE6054NH sealed beams.

Also of great importance is proper aim of the headlamps. When springs sag, most headlamps point up too high and the driver can't see the road properly.

I have some Illegal High beam assist LED's, and their output effectively doubles the light on the road and is rather impressive. I use them responsibly, except when I am blinded by someone who has put HID or LED bulbs into halogen housings. Then they get briefly blasted so that their eyes are as dazzled by my high beam lighting as my eyes are by their low beams.

Few who do the HID or LED bulb into halogen housings will ever believe that their 'upgrade', is in fact an Illegal, unsafe downgrade that not only does not help them see better, but also blinds oncoming drivers.

And they are very combative, and vocal, and Ignorant, and there is no shortage of them on the internet, and no shortage of vendors of these illegal modifications, who have no qualms about selling an unsafe illegal product. It is a shame these products somehow get through customs.

Do not become one of them.

For replacement, I would look at LED over any other technology- most of the R&D is going there. I see Grote makes a DOT approved replacement- they sure are proud of them at ~$185 each.