What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

opinions on LMC euro style headlights

Cornfield creations

Cornfield creations

1/2 ton status
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Posts
1,283
Reaction score
0
Location
Jasper, Indiana
Just looking for ways of getting more light out of the headlights. Currently have wagner "brite lites" they do quite well but could always use more. I was looking at the 7" round tripod headlight in the newest LMC. Anyone convert their's using these lights? If so how did they do?
 
Dont know about the round ones, but a buddy of mine replace the sealed beam square lights in his 87 Honda Accord with the Euro ones. The difference is awesome. But they also come with a little bulb that you can change the color in them for the ricers that light up the light without the headlights on. Leave the little bulb alone and dont use it, it looks stupid.
 
Hella also makes these, although I forget what they call them.

JCWhitney.com has several makes and models available, some with very bright (130W) bulbs. You can't use those on the street, but you could swap before you go offroad.
 
Not to hijack, but I remember seeing a wiring diagram a while back that shows how to rewire your headlights using relays, elminating about 17 miles of useless wire. Anyone have it?

Kris
 
mud390 said:
Not to hijack, but I remember seeing a wiring diagram a while back that shows how to rewire your headlights using relays, elminating about 17 miles of useless wire. Anyone have it?

Kris
Click to expand...

Not really sure how that would reduce wiring. You don't seperate wires running to each light from the fusebox or anything. It would let you run more powerful lights, plus auxillary lights, etc. and not overtax the factory headlight wiring.
 
Wouldn't running the relays reduce the overall load on the circuit allowing more current to the lights, thus, making them brighter though?

Kris
 
Possibly. But probably not noticably. It would just be the difference in resistance between the factory wire and (what I would assume you would use would be) higher quality wire now carrying the current. 16 gauge wire is resistive 4.015 ohms per 1000 ft. 12 gauge (considerably thicker) is 1.588 ohms per 1000 ft. Considering you probably only have 30ft or so of a run, even with this it would be considerably trivial. Don't forget you have a few hundred watts of lights on there too. So you would only lose a watt of resistance maybe, in 100. 1% gain, maybe if you're lucky.
 
Thats some pretty in depth stuff right there. I've never really looked at it that deeply before. It all makes perfect sense though.

Kris
 
mud390 said:
Thats some pretty in depth stuff right there. I've never really looked at it that deeply before. It all makes perfect sense though.

Kris
Click to expand...


Sorry, I'm an engineer. :D But when you asked the question, I wanted to see just how insignificantly the difference would be. I wouldn't want to tell you wrong. :p:
 
I wouldn't call myself an engineer per say, but I've engineer things in the past. :rolleyes: I work with wiring on a daily basis though. I honestly thought there was more to gain with the relay rewire that I had seen before. I sit corrected. :D Thanks for the indepth insight!

Kris
 
the benefit of running relays isn't really based off the resistance of the wires. it based off voltage at the fusebox being below battery voltage due to so many things drawing off it. My headlights only got 11.4 volts run through the factory wiring and when rewired off a relay got the full 14.4 volts from the battery and were substantially brighter. My race car runs only a few things off the fuse box and everything else is wired off relays for the same reasons. a good schematic of how to wire them up is in the tech articles on www.thirdgen.org
 
no problem i've been a senior member of that board for 5 years now and am always happy to help out. i have the same name under that board too, if anyone ever needs any help it's a free site and they can PM me as needed.
 
Relays, H4 conversions

If you have gazillion-year-old wiring, you almost certainly will notice a difference in headlight output if you run relays. The problem isn't necessarily one purely of wire gauge or length. After 30 years or so (not sure of the age of your truck, but mine's celebrating its 36th birthday- 1970 K5) the wiring corrodes, the terminals get gunked up, and the switches especially become resistors. Take a DMM and check your voltage at the battery. Then check your voltage at the headlight connectors. I would be surprised if you see much more than 9-10V at the headlights given an engine-on battery voltage of 11-13V. The advantage of running relays is that you are no longer routing the voltage for the lamps all the way through the electrical system. The power to run them will be drawn straight from the battery (mine was basically a few feet of 12ga wire with an inline fuse in each circuit), while the long, corroded, worn-out circuit through your switches will only need to bear enough current to actuate a relay, something that even a prehistoric headlight circuit can easily do.
I rewired my old truck (67 K10) with a relay circuit for the headlights before installing Hella's H4 conversion lamps (similar to the LMC Euro Style lamps in concept). I also replaced the headlight connectors at the same time- no sense in running new wires to old, corroded connectors. Whole project cost me about $20-$25, and the difference in lamp output was huge. I also felt a lot more confident installing the high-output Hellas (which themselves made an even bigger improvement in light output) because I knew I wasn't running too much current through wiring older than myself.
 
xpndbl3 said:
the benefit of running relays isn't really based off the resistance of the wires. it based off voltage at the fusebox being below battery voltage due to so many things drawing off it. My headlights only got 11.4 volts run through the factory wiring and when rewired off a relay got the full 14.4 volts from the battery and were substantially brighter. My race car runs only a few things off the fuse box and everything else is wired off relays for the same reasons. a good schematic of how to wire them up is in the tech articles on www.thirdgen.org
Click to expand...
Bzzzt! Sorry, wrong answer. :rolleyes: If you have low voltage at the fusebox, then it is because the wiring to the fusebox is not in good condition.

Low voltage at the headlights is caused by resistance in the wiring and connections. GM gets power to the headlights via: battery cable to the starter -> power feed wire from the starter to the firewall -> power feed wire from the firewall to the fuse box -> wire from fuse box to the circuit breaker in the headlight switch -> internal connection from the circuit breaker to the headlight switch -> wire from the switch to the firewall bulkhead connector -> wire from the bulkhead connector to the headlight connector. :eek1: That's 10+ feet of wire and at least 7 connections that can get loose, corroded, etc.
 
Real world answer, Voltage drop. Before I did the relay mod from DP's schematic, I only had 12.5 volts at the light bulbs with 14.1 coming out of the alternator. 1.6 volts has a large impact on the brightness of halogen sealed beam lights. The difference on mine were huge. Comparing my truck with relays to my buddies truck without (both having the same halogens) my lights were defineatly brighter. His were a dingy yellow output and mine were much brighter and less yellow. After that I swapped in some H4 conversion bulbs GE h4 bulbs and the light output is white and the beam goes for darn near a mile. Low beams are bright enough for 90% of the driving and High beams are rarely needed on the street.

Best 20 bucks I spent to add the relays. You want to see the brightness check this out: (low beam)
151683.jpg


As Harry stated the output to the bulbs with stock wiring is compremised with the length of small wires, many connections and the possible likelyhood of bad/loose/corroded connections. Bottom line it's a bad design and all that crap was providing enough resistance in my case to knock 1.6 volts off of the available voltage to the bulbs. My relay setup added 6 total feet of wire of which was larger than the stock stuff and only has one job to do, carry all the voltage to the relays for the lights. It works, Peroid.
 
Convert to H4 halogen replaceable bulbs. I have seen the kit for as low as 49.99. Then you can do the relays and really see a difference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom