I have a friend that works at Hella in Peachtree City Ga, so My girlfriend got me these lights as a gift a while back! They go right in and are a direct replacement but now when a bulb goes out, you dont have to disassemble anything to replace them. You just pull them out from the backside. Got some new headlight doors while I was at it from BG. They look great!

 

How do they work at night and are you running the head light relay kit?

I did not have Hella but another brand that were like that ona 86 H5 Blazer and hated the low beams.
I could not tell if the low beam head lights were on or not but the high beams worked pretty good.
Thing was where I lived I did not use the high beams all that much.
Dave ----

 

No relay kit and they work great. I would say the beam that is cast is the same distance wise as stock, which on my truck is pretty good. These are noticeably brighter though.

Previously on my old Samurai, I used some cheap ebay lights like this and they were terrible as well. I then switched to IPF, which are good quality, and they worked great. Maybe they just werent good ones. It happens. I need to aim them but I can get a picture later.

 

I did see they were "DOT" so that helps a lot.

I would do the relay kit as them 4H bulbs are pulling a lot more power through the head light switch and if it is old it could trip the breaker that's built into the switch.
Dave ----

 

I have been using the Hella Sealed beam replacements on various vehicles for over 40 years (yes they have been around that long and longer) and there is no way I would ever go back to using sealed beams. I have not bought a sealed beam lamp since the 70's But as noted do not even bother with some of the other brands unless you find a vintage set of Marchals or Cibies as they are good as the Hellas. And no you do not need a relay kit for them the stock system if in sound condition is quite happy powering them and well within it's design parameters.

 

NO the H4's do NOT pull more power they pull less. The typical H6054 type lamp is 65 Watts on the primary ( the high draw side), H4's are 60 Watts on the primary. The headlamp circuit wire sizing and protection is done based on the primary side amp draw. The secondary side amp draw is lower than the primary.

The stock headlight switches and factory-installed wiring on ALL 12V Ford vehicles with sealed beams is more than capable of driving H4 lamps.

People that add relay kits in vehicles that are getting a full 12V at the headlamps and running stock draw lamps and have no switch issues (weak circuit breaker) are uneducated fools that are just making themselves feel good. It is doing nothing but wasting money adding complexity and butchering the factory harness.

 

OK call me a fool for running the relay kit but I have been in Fords at night pulling trailers when it trips and that's no fun.

Now I guess you have not even tried the kit to know what it dose or installs have you?
It takes the head light load off the switch so it will not trip the breaker.
It makes tmakes lights brighter as they are now getting a full 13 volts from the battery. Tsme a volt reading at the lights to ground then battery to ground and tell me what you get?
Also you are not butchering any harness.
You unplug both lights, plug in the relay plugs to the lights. Take 1 of the trucks light plugs and plug it into the relay kit plug made just for this.
Battery power & ground plug in relays and you are done.
If a relay goes bad you can swap in the other till you can get one and only have either low or high beam lights.
And if that dode not work for you just plug back in the trucks plugs and you got both beams..

It made my normal sealed bulbs brighter and I do a lot of night driving no street lights with my truck.
Dave ----

 

I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum. On my old Suzuki Samurai, the starter solenoids have a tendency to just click instead of engaging the starter. The most typical fix for this is to install what is called a clicky starter fix. All it is is a relay kit that gives full power from the battery to the starter solenoid. What happens on those vehicles is that the connection at the ignition switch corrodes over time causing too much resistance in the circuit. Its easier to install the relay kit than it is to take the ignition switch apart to repair. Finding a replacement switch that is good is also nearly impossible. The kits work, they just add some clutter under the hood which is undesirable.

On the other hand, when I bought this truck, the horn wouldnt work due to some corrosion on the clock spring. I couldve installed a relay, but it was easier and cleaner looking to tidy up the contacts and it works great now.

My opinion is relays have their place, but I would only use them if it made more sense to do that than try to attempt a rare part replacement or to service a difficult component.

 

I know exactly what the relay kits do. And how they work.

What ALL of them do is remove the circuit breaker that is required by the NHTSA to be there and instead install nothing so you can be a candidate for an underhood fire or a fuse that does not reset or a relay that fails leaving you in the dark till you get stopped. Not to mention the potential liability
And again in a factory system with no issues and no factory built-in volt drop to lengthen the life of the bulbs you get Bat Voltage at the head lights. If not then there is a fault in the system.
And in many of these sets ups, the factory harness has been butchered.
These relays install is another one of those instead of fixing the factory system correctly let's modify it instead of scenarios.

Furthermore depending on the region, this install may be against the law. And if modifications to safety system (which includes lighting), in many cases you personally will on the hook for the damages as basically, ALL insurance policies have caveats absolving them of any responsibility or liability if the vehicle owner modified safety systems and that modification that contributed to the accident.

So do tell me what do you think the smart thing to do is, modify the factory install or actually fix it...

 

Low beam



High beam! I need to aim them. Have a little possum hunter action right now. 🤪

 

As I said you can swap relays to get lights back OR plug the factory harness back in and don't tell me how do you pull over in the dark to do that?
That same way you do it when the breaker trips and hope it resets!

How do you fix factory wiring that is just large enough to do the job when new, do you think any car or truck manf. is going to add any wire larger than they have to?
Now add 40 years of corrosion to the small wire how do we fix this?
Oh I guess I could put a less out put bulb in, 60 watt over the sealed 65 watt bulb then again more resistance from corrosion and we are right back where we started.

What is nice is we have options we can pick from and each can go his or her own way as they see fit.

LXER96
That is a lot of light, I could live with that on a dark road going to work between 12am & 3am LOL
Dave ----

 

The CB will reset in a few seconds (or less) and is a fast-acting thermal bimetallic that has about zero chance of not resetting. So nice try on that one but fail.
And the factory wiring is MORE than large enough to do the job by like 150%. Again not much clue what you are talking about. And wiring does not corrode (unless it is breached) terminations do. And wattage is NOT a measurement of light output. It is ONLY a measurement of power consumption. Again you apparently do not have basic knowledge.

It's quite clear you do not really have a grasp on this. And pretty much explains why you seem to think that installing a relay kit is somehow a solution for not doing it properly by fixing the factory wiring to maintain the built-in safety mechanisms, liability and reliability. Do what you want, but do not encourage others to do stupid and potentially expose them to the liability risks that come with it.

 

Would one of you gentlemen be so kind as to post up a part number or a link to the correct Hella housings to buy?

Also, what bulbs?

I've tried some upgraded bulbs over the years in different vehicles and was only ever mildly impressed, but it seemed like the thing to do.

This mod has been on my to-do list for a while, but I'm not really unhappy with my stock sealed beams. The truck is just a toy that doesn't get a ton of night time driving. Once a week usually in the spring and fall on the way home from the weekly Thursday night cruise in.

 

Pick your poison. See below.

But before you do consider the following...

Technically the European ECE versions and H4 halogen lamps are not legal for on-road use in the US as they are not DOT approved, in Canada ECE approved headlights are fine to use on the road as the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards recognizes and approves the European ECE standards.

So that begs the question what's the difference. between DOT and ECE lamps. In short, the lighting pattern is the main difference. (there are other things like aiming lugs dot embossing etc etc, but the primary thing is the lighting pattern)

In the US, the current SAE/DOT regs for headlight lighting patterns date from the 1960's. US DOT regulations for the lighting pattern mandates a dispersal that puts a percentage of the light output upwards AND to both sides so that NON-reflective overhead or roadside signs are visible and legible.

This was reg was put in place BEFORE the requirement for highly reflective or lit roads signs was implemented. Today all safety, direction, and speed roadsigns are required to be lit or highly reflective. So this throwback in the DOT lighting pattern regulation is for all intense purposes obsolete, redundant and serves no practical purpose. (Other than to help blind oncoming vehicles)
The European ECE standard allows for all the light to go on the road, and has a height cut off, the Europeans changed their headlight lighting pattern regulations when they mandated either highly reflective or lit road signs. The effect is that the Euro ECE lights actually put way more light on the road for you to drive with, and offend oncoming traffic MUCH MUCH LESS because of the sharp cutoff in the lighting pattern. So not only is there more light on the road with your low-beams, the high-beams are more precise as well and you will offend oncoming traffic much less.

Given that you are in Canada Corey, and are not bound by outdated useless headlamp pattern regulations. I would opt for the ECE units (what I always use my self) either 003427811 (2 lamps) or 003427861 (1 lamp) they are the same units just the quantity is different.

As for bulbs take your pick there a hundred if not thousands of H4 bulbs on the market.
So any H4 or 9003 / HB2 lamp

The difference between the H4 and the 9003/HB2 is the 9003/HB2 is an SAE/DOT approved lamp while the H4 may not be.
When H4 lamps were submitted for DOT approval for use in the US, the DOT decided the engineering blueprints for H4 bulbs allowed too much variance in the position of the filaments within the bulb (Ya not kidding). So new blueprints were made, with all the electrical and dimensional properties the same, but with stricter limits on filament placement variance. These are the 9003/HB2 lamps, still, H4's but just with DOT approved filament placement tolerances. (Many 9003/HB2 lamps are also stamped H4)

So pick your favourite brand of lamp and go to town. For me, it has always been Hella, Bosch, but most commonly GE, but now with Savant's purchase of GE lighting no idea where that leaves their product as GE Lighting automotive products seem to have dried up.

Bosch lighting catalogue
https://www.boschautoparts.ca/docume...c-27ad71804e46

Hella
https://www.hella.com/hella-us/asset...20_EN_LRes.pdf


As an addendum, the ECE light pattern units with the factory wiring will put more usable light on the road than ANY DOT sealed beam could ever hope to achieve even if fed directly from the battery. So no need to modify the factory wirings, built-in safety or liability.

 

Thanks for all the details and info Matt, that's just what I needed. I filed it for now as I have a bunch of other things ahead of it on my priority list, but I would like a set of these lights. The power usage info is great too...I'm still running the original 40amp alternator that the truck rolled off the assembly line with...lol. I don't drive the truck often at night, but both early and late in the season, my drive home from the Thursday night cruise-ins is probably 35km...mostly city driving. Once in a while I do a Friday night that is 100+ km away, so I'm almost guaranteed to be driving home in the dark from that one.