Has anyone on here every made a heavy duty headlight harness for their vehicle? I'm in process of finishing the one for my my Explorer and was wondering if anyone else has done the same.

 

I would be cheaper to buy one, they are only about 12 bucks

 

I was changing mt headlight assembly over today on a F250 2006 superduty and the headlight on my truck now has 3 flat prongs sticking out of the headlight , the NEW headlight assembly that I am installing now has an oval plug connector, the ford garage says they can get a pig tail kit that has to be hard wired to my exsisting headlight wires and cost 50 bucks each. Doesnt someone sell an adapyer to go from flat bar to oval?

 

Who makes the new headlamp assembly you are installing?

 

FORD , Bought it today at the dealer, and says they make no adaptor only a hard wire kit

 

I have, it works great! Built a few actually. Works even better with some upgraded bulbs.

$12? You're either thinking of something different or you need to let us in on your source.

 

My friend has a 03 F-150 and it was 12 bucks from ebay, I ordered mine for my 97 F-150 from LMC trucks and i think it was about 25 Dollars..I just don't trust alot of things from ebay

 

Does that $12 harness have any relays or is it just a little thing that plugs inline with each bulb?

 

Well, I finished up my harness today after I got the other relay I was waiting on. I just gotta wait until we get into the positive temperatures to install it. I'll let you guys know what the voltage was at the stock harness and at the batter as well as at the relay harness. That will give a very good idea of how much the harness helps./

 

Make sure you have the bulbs installed on turned on to get a true voltage reading. This can be a pain, but is the only way.

 

Good call, thanks.

I'm itchin to get this harness installed. I wish it would warm up a little so I can do it.

 

I have a picture of my finished harness.
http://mistercmk.com/album/albums/us...2/DSC01520.JPG

Its gonna be nice to have the lows on at the same time as the high beams for the long drive between the Twin Cities and Fargo

 

Looks good.

What are you using to plug into the factory harness? Is that a purpose built adapter or something you rigged up?

Which vehicle is this going on? Nevermind, you already said the Explorer.

I can't say I'd recommend both beams at once, the higher voltage will greatly diminish bulb life by itself even running them independently. Both at once and I would be surprised if you get more than a couple months out of them, if that. If you want to do it right, ditch the dual beams and get some decent driving lights to run with the highs. The end result is a WAY better overall beam than highs and lows. Seriously, the lows on with the highs is more placebo than anything, the light will be way more useful with the driving lights and highs.

Reember the high and low beams share a ground, even if you have the ground wire up to snuff that doesn't mean that the bulb terminals were meant to take it. Short bursts are one thing, doing it with stock voltage is also a little more acceptable. Long periods of time with higher voltage is just asking for problems. Sorry to criticize so much, just trying to help out. There are a couple of other issues I didn't touch on.

I just had a Nighthawk go out yesterday morning, the low beam drivers side went. They were right around 3 months, I only replaced the one bulb to see if it was a fluke. We'll see how long the other side lasts.

Am I remembering correctly that you are running Silverstars?

 

I used an old 9004 bulb and broke the bulb portion off of it. I then soldered my wire to the pins that were left inside of the plug. I wanted this to be a nice clean install of the part rather than having to splice into anything. It is all plug and play now. I just have to drill a couple of holes to mount the relays and for my grounds.

Yup, its going on my Explorer, but I just may make another one for my Mustang if the results are promising on this one.

I thought about using a seperate set of driving lamps for the truck, however I couldn't find any that would look good on the truck and I'm at a bit of a loss of where to put them on the Explorer so they don't look out of place.

There is a guy over on the explorer forums that is using the "Brite Box" which is essentially the same thing I made as it allows you to use the highs and lows at the same time. He said that he hasn't trashed a bulb yet running the highs and lows at the same time. At 14 volts, the one bulb will draw 8.5 amps with the highs and lows running (9007 bulb) so you may be right about the bulb terminals.

I welcome the criticism!

Yup, I am running Silverstars. The 1st gen Explorers came with a 9004 bulb from the factory which is a lame design to begin with. The filaments are facing the front of the vehicle whereas the 9007 filaments are facing the side and reflecting more in the housing. I dis-assembled the connector a couple of months ago and re-arranged the pins so that I could use a 9007 bulb. Swapping from the standard 9004 to the Silverstar 9007 bulb made a huge difference. I am anxious to get this thing in, but its -20degrees today so it'll have to wait until I get back home this weekend to a heated garage.

Any suggestions on a driving light that would work well and look somewhat factory on my truck?


Also, the Silverstars that are in the truck now were pulled out of my Mustang. I put the bulbs in the 'Stang back in late 2004. I've been impressed with the life of them even though others have said that the Silverstars burn out quickly.

 

Did you notice much of a beam spread difference when swapping to the 9007? I assume there will be some from the different filament position, just wondering how much different. I've seen a swap done on a maxima and it looked like they were shooting quite a bit higher afterward.

The 9007 also have a 55 watt low instead of the 45 of the 9004, that should have made a good difference itself.

Realize that having the low beams on too can potentially reduce you long distance vision, whether you realize it or not. More light up close = smaller pupils = less sensitivity to light. Most people see brighter light and just assume it's good, when that isn't always the case. Just something to think about and be conscious of. Put the light where it is needed and effective!

As usual, next time you need some bulbs, I'd recommend something without the light absorbing "magic" blue coating of the S'stars. The Xtravisions are decent, the Nighthawks are definitely brighter than either but bulb life may not be so good (unless it was a fluke). You might look into the European Osram Silverstars (no blue coating), they are supposed to be a heck of a bulb. I had planned on ordering a set in a few months when the time came to replace my nighthawks (for maintenance, don't expect more than a year out of hi-po overdriven bulbs with normal use), but was forced into getting NH's again since it was a surprise.

Do you have a budget as far as driving lights are concerned? You can get decent units for well under $100, and better units for well over that. Where would you want them mounted (to a point, higher=better). I've got the Hella 500's (~$70), they work great, but supposedly you can expect much more output with the same wattage from some of the more expensive free form (clear lens, "diamond" reflector) type lights.

Factory looking? Yeah, that might be tough. There aren't many places to mount them on those trucks, and I assume you would frown upon drilling into the bumper. What are the dimensions of the rectangle holes in the bumper above the license plate? Would that maybe be suitable looks-wise for you?

I've got mine mounted behind the grill of my F150 and have been asked a couple times if it "came like that", but that isn't really an option for you.

Just for kicks, I found a pic of the maxima spread