I'm contemplating upgrading the headlights on my truck. I already swapped the stock sealed beams for e code h4 housings with cheap 55 w bulbs. The pattern is much better , but I'd like to increase my light output as well.

What I'm considering is adding a relay harness and staying with halogen bulbs of 100 W or more rating. The other option is a drop in HID kit.

The cost of the two is relatively comparable but I'm leaning towards staying with halogens because if they burn out I can get off the shelf replacements almost anywhere. On the other hand, HIDs supposedly last much longer so getting replacements should be less of a concern.

Thoughts?



I'm not here to argue the legality of putting HIDs in reflector housings (yes, I know it's illegal) because going to higher rated halogens is also illegal.

 

If you're going to do HIDs, do it right by retrofitting projectors. HIDs in reflector housings is fine if they're auxiliary lights, but not your main headlights. You don't want to be blinding everyone where ever you go.

My advice: Upgrade the wiring harness and install 100w or 130w bulbs (if you're going to jump from 55w to 100w, you might as well go straight to 130w) and then install a set of aux. lights and do the HIDs in them if the halogens still don't put out enough light for your liking.

 

With 100-Watt bulbs, do Not just consider a harness upgrade - DO IT. IF NOT, your future post would be about burned out dimmer combo contacts and/or headlight wiring.
Cheers!

Amen to 93Extra-Cab!
Don't be like those freakin' inconsiderate ricers whose lights flood other peoples' eyes and not the road.

 

Well, yeah, the harness is a given with higher rated bulbs.

I'm considering ordering one like but I've been told that it may not work because Toyotas are switched ground and the low beams stay on when the high beams are on.



I'm running e code h4 housings which already have a distinct cutoff, so neither would be blinding

 

You've been given wrong information... maybe by those whose headlight wiring was hacked. Too many trucks out there like that

Just verify that:

• You have stock wiring, and
• harness takes switched-ground control from one of the stock headlight connector.

Only potential concern is that, depending on resistance of the relay coils, high-beam indicator may get dim or not work (slim chance).


Relays will take power from fuse directly connected to battery.
When low beam is on, only the coil of low beam relay will get +12V AND ground via the stock connector. Only that relay will energize, close its contacts and send power to low beam filaments.
When high beam is on, only the coil of high beam relay will get +12V AND ground via the stock connector. Only that relay will energize, close its contacts and send power to high beam filaments.

See Grego92's thread. He recently did it on his truck.

Good Man.

 

Pretty sure all the wiring is stock, it's like 20 gauge.

Thanks for the info and the thread reference. Good to see that the concerns about the plug and play aspect is true (except power and ground obviously).

 

On my 95, Power goes on with headlight switch. All are open or ground when off. Low beam is on as long as the switch is on. The High beam is grounded when you turn on the high beams on. the low stays on.
You need the harness that had a low beam cut-off. It is kinda like an extra relay or diode that cuts the ground to the low beam relay when your higs are on.
Before you get new bulbs, try the relay first. It may just be enough to make it bright...

 

Good point. Stock wiring is pathetic. Running up to 10Amps on 15 feet of AWG 20?

See Voltage Drop Comparisons between stock and retrofitted Wiring (with Sealed Beam & Engine off):

Stock Wiring
Low Beam:
Batt: 12.05V, Across low beam filament (pins 1 & 3): 11.15V
Voltage drop in wiring: 0.9V
volt drop = 7.5% of battery voltage
High Beam:
Batt 11.94, Across high beam filament (pins 2 & 3): 10.07
Volt drop: 15.7% of battery voltage!

After Retrofit:
Low Beam:
Batt: 12.31V, : Across low beam filament (pins 1 & 3): 12.11V
Volt Drop: 0.2 = 1.6% of Battery voltage
High Beam:
Batt: 12.24V, Across high beam filament (pins 2 & 3): 11.78V
Voltage drop: =0.46V = 3.75% of battery voltage

Note that H4 conversion is better than my retrofit (My retrofit leaves a few inches of thin stock wiring. H4 conversion does not.
Above are with stock sealed beams.
Now upgrade your bulbs with good bulbs and you'll see much better results.

 

Decided to order a relay harness over the HID kit. and I'm pretty sure it's the same that Grego92 used albeit from a different vendor.

If the cheapo 55w bulbs still aren't bright enough after I install the relay harness, I'll pop some brighter ones in there

 

Even though you already ordered what was your budget??

Just curious I always have to throw out the trucklight Led's for an option and I think the price has came down a we bit but still has pricetag shock

 

I actually just changed my mind and canceled the order. Indecisiveness is gonna kill me some day


What kind of price range?

 

You should be good to go with 55Watts. The harness will give you significant improvement already. Plus you can always upgrade to brighter halogens like Sylvania Silverstar However, note that Sylvania itself admits the brighter halogens do not last as long as dimmer ones = Simple physics and material science.

 

ordered mine from drivetrain america https://www.drivetrainamerica.com/p-...headlight.aspx

They have gone down a bit since I ordered mine but I will tell you they are worth every penny

Here is somewhat a review I did and there is a link in here that is comparing a bunch of headlights that's a pretty good read.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f131...review-265275/

 

Here's what I considered picking up locally

http://olympusoffroad.3dcartstores.c...air_p_161.html

 

Sweet they look interesting, post results if you pull the trigger

 

cash is tight this Christmas so I'll give the relay harness a shot for now. My current lighting setup is sketchy at anything above 45 mph out on the backroads so literally anything will be an upgrade.

If I'm still not happy I'll save my nickels for something better down the road

 

Good decision. A robust wiring is the foundation of a good lighting system (higher power bulbs only mask a weak wiring like the one that comes stock in our trucks). The conversion H4 harness is the simple and robust solution - regardless of what bulbs you chose to use later.
Merry Christmas, guys!

 

I just put that exact wiring harness in my truck and it made a HUGE difference. True plug and play, no issues, though I haven't tried my high beams yet. Went from sealed beams to the ebay hella knock offs and noticed only a minor gain (perhaps my 32 year old wiring had something to do with it?) but once the harness was installed I was amaized how much brighter it was. I am totally fine with the 55w bulbs that came with the kit, may go to 100w when these die, but they're fine for now.

 

YUP! 1-day old or 32-YO stock wiring is pathetic as I elaborate in my post.

Oh yeah, and going higher wattage bulb on stock wiring will kill your dimmer-combo (stalk) switch contacts. See my post, too.

 

Yeah I wasn't going to bother sticking brighter bulbs in because I've seen the damage caused by burning the wiring by doing so