I'm still not ready to move to HID yet. Still too expensive. But, I am playing around with different super white, super bright 100/80 watt bulbs, and I have several sets laying around. It's called experimenting.

Recently, I put my Brights and Dims on seperate Relays and it really makes them bright. But, I am thinking about wiring the Dims to stay on, when I switch to Brights. You can do it manually by pulling back on your Bright/Dim Switch, but it's a momentary switch, and not intended for driving any length of time. I wonder how long my bulbs will last. Of course, driving normally, I don't ever get to leave my brights on for more than about 12 secoonds at a time it seems. So, wno knows, they might last forever. On the other hand, if it blows up and I have to limp home with my flashlight hanging out the window, I will have saved you guys from suffering a terrible midnight experience.

BillVoyles

 

I don't know about using the bright and dims at the same time. But i have tried many different headlight bulbs such as GE's superblue bulbs which are supposed to be bright and blue but not be expensive as the HID lights. They really sucked they werent bright at all, i could barely see where i was going. So far the oem replacement bulbs are the best i can find.

My solution was to hook up (4) 100w offroad lights to the brushguard.

-Jon

 

I think for the most part all the replacement bulbs are all pretty much the same. The only real difference is the color. You could get a whiter color, but brightness is more or less OEM. Everyone claims PIAA Superwhites or Nokyas are more or less the brightness, so I forked over $70 for PIAA Superwhites, and guess what, pretty much 0 change in effective visibility from my new OEM bulbs. It sucked. I may as well have installed a set of cheap driving lights for that price and doubled my light output.

If all you want is a whiter color, I'd advise buying the Nokya brand ones (Artic White or Purple), they are reportedly more or less as bright as PIAA and 1/2 to 1/3 of the price. They are both also whiter because the color temp is higher. I may buy a set of one or both of these because they are so cheap just to mess around with bulb colors....

If you really want to get hardcore though you have to upgrade your wiring harness to one that can support 80/100W without frying, but with that cost and effort you may as well just install aux. driving lights and use those IMO.... I've heard 80/100 bulbs with fry the stock harness. Tell me if you find otherwise... one race (ricer) shop recommended Hiper as having the brightest 80/100W lights.

Laurence

 

Well, I'm a little bit smarter than before ....

OK, I really did it right. I installed a completely new wiring harness with relays. I used huge No. 6 wire from the battery to the relays and then back to the battery negative side. It works like a charm. You can hear the relays "click" on and off when the engine is shut off. I used No. 12 wire to to the lights and I found some new 9007 light sockets that were pre-wired with No. 12 wire.

Of course, now all the tiny OEM wiring does is "trigger" the relays. It sweet because it only takes a few millivolts to turn the relays on and off, which puts no load at all on my Light Switch or my Brights/Dims Switch. So, they should last virtually forever.

At the same time, my new lights are pulling 33.3 amps. That kind of amperage would eventually fry the tiny OEM wiring.

Now, with heavy-duty wiring and relays, I can use any voltage bulb I want. Because the wiring is really up to it now. Now, I'm looking for the brightest, whitest 9007 bulb on the market. Right now I have 100/80 Hella's in there but I'm not particularly impressed. They don't seem much, if any brighter than the 65/55 watt OEM bulbs.

Of course, my third relay turns my KC 100 watt Driving lights on in conjunction with my bright lights. They're HOT!!! Lots of light!So, I am almost satisfied. But not quite. (I have the "L" 2001 Clear Lens Lights so there is no difussion. The cut-off of the bulbs is like with a knife above the mid-portion of the light. My only option now is going to 130/100 bulbs and making both the brights and dims run at once.

I may play with running these 100/80 watt bulbs on brights and dims all at once to see how long they last. If you're interested, I'll let you know what happens. Maybe I'll pop them like popcorn. Maybe not. It's an experiment with trying.

BillVoyles

 

keep in mind that 80/100 watt bulbs are illegal in most jurisdictions. 100/130's are equally illegal and more likely to get you a ticket. There is a maximum candlepower that is allowed to come from your headlights... why do you think its illegal to run around town with your highbeams on? Or to run around with a rack of offroad lights? Beacuse you blind the other drivers and will cause an accident. Buy these bulbs and they will tell you "for offroad and show only"


Spend your money on some good foglights or driving lights.