I need to upgrade my headlights from the oem lights. If I go with the halogen lights, do I need to upgrade the light wiring harness?
Thanks.

 

I added relays when I upgraded to some LED headlights. I changed out the sealed beam headlights for some look-a-like assemblies that use an H4 style bulb. I would probably be okay with factory wiring, but chose to err on the side of caution and add the relays instead of trying to run a potentially increased amp load through the 40+ y/o light switch on the dash.

Halogens I would be a bit more concerned about that since they will certainly draw more power than an LED bulb.

 

Halogens have been a common upgrade for decades, no problem using them.

 

I went to work one early morning in my '77, co-worker said my whole radiator was lit up. Reflector material had all fallen into the sealed beam bottoms. I bought two new 7" sealed beam Sylvania H6024 Xtra Vision Sealed Beam halogen head lights, took them home, put them in that afternoon, felt like was setting the ditch line on fire next morning. I didn't change any wire or other, but then I don't get up that early now. I did buy a plug'n'play relay kit to install. As I recall, there are the Silverstar s too that are brighter "looking" (have a blue coating on the bulb), cost more, but have shorter expected life (likely due to running hotter thanks to the coating) but same wattage I think.

Since I so rarely have it out at night, I might go with the Silverstar s next ... or a conversion that uses H-4 bulbs?

I had a '74 Triumph MC with Lucas 7" head lamp, they used a Lucas bulb in the headlight, was like 35 or 40 watts (or less). Coming home one evening after a long ride, buddy behind on his HD, I could see my own shadow in my own headlight ahead as his brighter head light behind me lit me up more. I bought a Carello 7" H-4 halogen upgrade, it was made to accept a 55/60 watt H-4 bulb. It worked too, but it worked way better when I added relays .... to save my switch too.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I noticed the LMC sells a headlight wiring upgrade kit. Do you guys suppose it is any good?

 

A few years back I bought a big box of rectangular halogen bulbs, all different brands, at a swap meet. I decided to test them, see what the brightest bulb was. Some were marked extra bright, extra vision & whatnot, some were regular halogens. I hooked 'em up to my battery charger, I forget what the voltage was. I then used my Hoppy light intensity meter to test them. All read the same, except one. The USA made Wagner Bright Lite was something like 20% brighter on the meter if memory serves. There was only one of these in the box, so I headed to the parts store for another so I could install a pair in my truck. The parts stores only had communist china Wagners, so I found another USA made Wagner on eBay. I don't drive much at night in the truck, too many deer around here with a death wish. I do like the Wagners, better than the basic halogens they replaced. I've thought abut doing a relay upgrade, but hate to tamper with the truck.

Also, find someone with a set of Hoppy B4A headlight aimers, & have your headlights aimed. This makes a huge difference. Make sure you lube & free up the adjusters before aiming, or have spare adjusters & parts on hand. Especially if you are in the rust belt.

 

If it was a problem you'd know it because your relay in the switch would be dropping out, you can't hurt the wiring because it's protected.

Never ever seen a problem. .

 

I have the LMC unit installed on my truck. It works. It’s a generic Asian brand. Barely long enough but it did the job. Hard to beat the price. Don’t know about shipping but LMC is known for high costs.

if I had to purchase again I would have gone with American auto wire. Significantly more expensive but made in America. I used AAW for the rest of my trucks harness and the quality is extremely good.

if you want cheap you might as well go on Amazon and get one there with free 2 day shipping.

 

FWIW stock headlights are significantly brighter with one of these harnesses. It might be worth adding the harness and deciding from there if upgraded bulbs are warranted.

 

do you have the 7" round headlight? Or the rectangular light? I saw over on classicbroncos the other day, some are using a toyota 7" halogen light. A pair of lights even comes with the relay kit. All for$16. I bought a couple sets.
give me a couple hours and I'll find the part number and where to get them the cheapest.

 

https://classicbroncos.com/forums/th...5#post-3566982.

Here's the thread on it.

And the cheapest place they found

https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/toyota~headlamp~assy~81110-60p70.html

 

Cool deal, I am going to hit up my Yota dealership down the road on Monday. I have a couple of rigs that run that 7" headlight.

 

He is correct, there is a lot of voltage drop with the factory wiring.

This has been my experience through the years:

Stage 1: A quality headlight relay harness.
Stage 2: 3G alternator upgrade.
Stage 3: Silverstar headlight assemblies... ( & buy a spare bulb they go out quick.)
Stage 4: Glass 7" Hella housings (002395031) and standard Wagner 9003 H4 halogen bulbs.
Stage 5: HID and LED ---> Just put the tools down and back away slowly. All you're doing is lighting tree tops & blinding oncoming drivers with your non existent cutoffs and unfocused beam patterns.

 

More solutions in search of a problem. it's about amps, look at the amps. the halogen bulb only draws a fraction of an amp more than the standard bulb. end of story.

 

No, "it's about reality Greg" (see ET movie).
Come on sixpack. Many of your otherwise negative comments in the past, downplaying anyone else that thinks they're having a problem and needs a solution, have a kernel of truth and some "old codger logic" and sensibility. But this one just smacks of something else.
There is in fact a problem, and many of us in fact have experienced it. More than one in fact...
You say "halogen" as if there was only one model. But there are far more reasons to add relays than just going from 45 watt to 55 watt bulbs. And yes, one of them is to, sometimes, get even brighter light out of your old stock 45w bulbs.
Sometimes people come up with solutions in search of a problem, but nobody would have come up with this very popular, idea with widespread acceptance in the first place, if it hadn't been an issue for at least some. Including all the OE's that use headlight relays. Which is all of them I bet.
I made my own relay harnesses before they were commercially available because I was trying to find out why, when I supposedly upgraded my stock headlights to H4's from Cibié they were no brighter than the old incandescent models. Actually worse!
And when, coincidentally enough, my headlight switch failed about a week after the next upgrade, which included more powerful high-beams.
Toyota has been using relays in their trucks at least, since the '70's, but I don't know when other brands, including Ford, adopted the full headlight relay solution. Some actually have four relays, to control both high and low beam, and left and right lights. This is probably to get rid of another issue, of having more parts to potentially fail. Is this maybe one of your arguments against the need for relays where there were none before?
When I looked under the hood of my '83 Toyota (with extremely bright headlights) and found the relays, my own better idea light bulb went full bright. So I simply mimicked the OE in this case, converted to relays, and had my solution. To both issues.

Are the stock wires sufficient? When new, maybe. When 50 years old, not likely. Sufficient for stock lamps? Sure, barely.
Before relay harnesses were available through the aftermarket, I set my Bronco and my F350 up with them Did it for the horn too, but that's another story!
I had a problem I was searching for a solution for. Found it, made it happen, love the results.
If you stick with the original 45w low beam incandescent lamps, and if your wiring and switch are fine, then you may not "need" them. But stock leaves very little headroom for degradation apparently, because they start out barely adequate, and degrade from there. Some of us just get tired of that old downward spiral.
And someone, luckily for the rest, decided to make a business out of it and make money. Ain't America great!

So by all means stick with the original old stuff. And if anyone completely re-wires their truck with a new harness, the old non-relay setup is probably perfectly fine with all new wiring. Often with up-rated wire gauge and fewer connections.
Every one of my oldest vehicles (Ford and Chevy) had extremely dim headlights when I bought them, but cleaning up the headlight connectors, and especially the firewall connectors, breathed new life into them. Adding relays, brought even more.
But if you want to change your headlights out to 55/60 halogens and want to use the high-beams reliably, or even more if you want to up-rate to some 55/100 watt H4's, you absolutely need the relays. Well, absolutely only if you expect to utilize the high beams. Ever..

So, while you're not completely wrong with regard to old school when it was brand new, and maybe your vehicles are all in perfect shape with good-as-new performance, the new school is still better for some of us.

Paul