jimbyjimb

iTrader: (1)

Hi guys,

I bought the Rampage h4 conversion lenses for about 90 bucks. These lenses work in any standard rectangle headlight application, 82 and up.

They bolt right in easy, and are well made of glass and aluminum. Had them in for a month of street use and have had zero quality issues.

The reason I wanted to put this up is that these lenses have a pretty lame beam pattern. While the construction quality is there, the reflector isn't. They're an inexpensive way to beef-up your headlights, but they tend to be rather spotty on the low beam. It isn't a nice flood patern. It works for me because the Sylvannia bulbs are very bright, but if they weren't it would be crippling.

The high beam is usable. It throws well and has a decent flood, but there are all kinds of artifacts and reflections in odd places in the beam pattern.

I would suggest another conversion lense if you are in the market.

JJ

RAD4Runner

Same can be said of Autopals (On my thread). Lousy bea pattern. Howeve, I;m glad I got them cheap ones because after looking at bulb consumption (say 2 bulbs a year), I'm now considering replacing mine with Trucklites LED lights.
To those who still want the conversion housing, try Hella's instead.

Plainview

Thanks for the review! Very timely, i ordered these and they just arrived last week but I haven't installed them yet. Think I'll return them and see if the Vision-X housings are better (Marlin Crawler sells them).

When I was researching H4 conversion housings I found a ton of them for cheap that come with a little blue LED that pokes through the reflector above the bulb for bling. I figured these housings are cheap junk so when I found the Rampages that didn't have that bling LED and they were more expensive I thought maybe they were higher quality. When I received them and looked them over I found the hole is there in the reflector for the LED, it's just not included with these, so probably the same cheap Chinese housing that all the other companies are selling for less money with the blue LED included.

RAD4Runner - have you installed a conversion relay harness? If not, check the voltage at the headlight plugs. The original wiring on these old trucks is pretty complex in terms of the path the voltage has to take to get to the light from the battery and given the age of these trucks the wiring has deterioriated some and there's usually a lot of resistance in the circuit. Compare voltage at the battery with the engine running to voltage at the headlight plugs. My guess is it will be down a significant %. This will actually cause H4 bulbs to burn out faster. They need full voltage to operate properly so the solution is a conversion wiring harness with relays that feed the headlights directly from the battery. You'll get more light output with that setup, too.

jimbyjimb

iTrader: (1)

I have been using the Putco wiring harness myself. Honestly, if I had to do it again I would make my own harness because it's simple to do. The Putco is a good harness so far, packed with dielectric grease, mounted away from potential water sources and the headlights are brighter.

The best part is that if the harness goes bad all of the old wiring just plops back in.

Plainview

I ordered the VisionX conversion housings and compared them to the Rampage housings I already have. They're significantly different. The VisionX were cheaper on Amazon.com but don't come with bulbs. The Rampages came with bulbs, so about the same cost overall.

I will post up my own review of the VisionX once I get them installed and try them out, but until then here are some pictures of the two:

All pics of both are VisionX on left, Rampage on right. Notice the differences in the reflector design. Reflectors are a different shape, too (see pics below):





Also notice the difference in the shield in the middle. Rampage has a hole in the center, VisionX doesn't:




VisionX housings are deeper, wider, and have more curvature to them:




Hole for "bling LED" in Rampage housings. Not present in VisionX


Detail of interior reflector shape differences:


Rubber boots and clips. I actually like the Rampage clips a lot better... The VisionX clips took some fiddling to get them back in place once opened for bulb replacement:


Profile/shape/depth difference:


Packaging. VisionX made in Taiwan. Rampages came in plain, generic packaging from Summit Racing:




Hope this is helpful. I'll be shipping the Rampages back to Summit tomorrow, should be another week or so before I get the VisionX installed.

My guess is that with the deeper and larger reflector that the VisionX will have a tighter beam pattern with less scatter.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

I ran H4 Hella Lenses in 3 different trucks before I went with Truck Lite LED's.
Hella's were awesome

Edit - it kind of cracks me up how the Vision X box says sealed beam on it.. can't have an H4 bulb on a sealed beam..

jimbyjimb

iTrader: (1)

I've recently swapped to Hella e-code lenses. For the same price, just buy Hella. It's not even close, the Hella product is far superior.

A giveaway on the vision x box is the SAE/DOT/ECE 'approved' labeling. Nothing I'm aware of can comply with both ECE and DOT specifications. Additionally, SAE and DOT only set standards, they don't approve or disapprove products.

Moral of the story, stick with legitimate, name brand safety equipment. It's just not worth it to do otherwise.

Plainview

Well, it's been a year and I see that I never followed up with how these work. I will say that regardless of their cheapness, the beam pattern and distribution is fine with the Vision X housings. Nice, concentrated spot of light in the middle of the pattern and good cutoff at the top. Definitely better light output than the stock sealed beams.

I'm working on putting together a relay harness now. Yes, I take my time with this truck.... LOL.