I was driving home tonight, on a dark road. i realized how bad my headlights realy are. They barely illuminate the road, and anything further than about 30 feet from the truck. Are the ones in the LMC book any good? they replace the glass bulb with a new style one with a halogen lamp.

thanks!

 

The problem isn't the lights themselves, it's the wiring. When these trucks were new, 18 GA wire was sufficent to carry voltage to the lights, but, time takes it's toll on the wiring.
Check this out:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/articles...er_lights.html
Relays and heavy guage wiring works wonders for the lighting on these trucks.



That's relays and a H4 reflector on the pass side, with stock wiring with a halogen sealed beam on the drivers side, so, comparing the beam pattern isn't fair, but, compare the colour of the light. Wattage is the same between both bulbs.

The reflectors I run are Bosch, and have a european spec beam pattern, not to be confused with the "euro look" ones found in the LMC catalog. The difference in the beam pattern is amazing:

That's the low beams pictured, again, stock on the drivers side.
Since that was taken, I upgraded the 55/60W "stock" bulbs, to Hella 55/100W bulbs, and re-wired it so that the high beams are both the highs and lows at the same time. Needless to say, I have no issues with lighting, with the high beams on, I can see from ditch to ditch, at least 1000 feet in front of the truck. The low beams on my F250 put down as much light as the high beams on my F100(which has stock wiring, and standard haligens) but, at the same time, they don't blind anyone.

 

So... if i only replaced the wireing to heavier guage wire, i'd get better lights.

if i only replaced the headlight with the euro dealy then i would still have bad lights?

right now my lights are worse than your drivers side. i think a maglight flashlight is brighter.

 

check your grounds before you go spending money on headlights an relays ect you must have a good ground

 

here is a picture of the stock wattage headlights with a relay system:

heres a picture of my new 90/100w headlights with the relay system:

 

Old headlights do dim over time. I replaced both of mine with the new style Sylvania lamps. What a difference! Mine were original 1983 stock.

 

I remember i was driving in the rain on a lone dark road one time and i couldnt even see the markers light up at all...about a month later the alternator gave out, and after i replaced it the headlights illuminated perfect

 

I thought I had a bad light when I got my truck, it came on but was much dimmer than the other side, I bought one of those H4 conversion kits, and used Silverstar bulbs, still had the same problem, turned out the end of the ground wire that went into the plug on the headlight was dirty, cleaned it up and now it's good as new. However I do like the setup 82F100SWB is using, that sounds pretty interesting to get the high/low on together.

 

So, would the lmc bulbs be worth it? they are around 55 watts. what are the stock ones rated at? I know I will have to upgrade the wireing.

 

autozone used to carry that same bulb lmc sells only cheaper so shop around.
i have an ebay special on my truck they helped alot but if they are not aimed right they will look burnt out when going down the road.

 

yeah i actualy found them at pep boys for a few bucks cheaper. I'm gona pick them up tomorrow, and align them.

Just to make sure, to align them our supposed to drive the truck right up to the wall, make a box with chalk of the headlights on the wall, back up 25 feet, and align them so they shine in the boxes right?

 

I upgraded the wiring in my 1982 with relays and the power from the battery last fall. The same headlight were 25% brighter with the new wiring as measured with a light meter!

www.humanspeakers.com/audi/headlight-simple.htm has a good diagram!