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I realized that my stock headlights and my 71 year old eyes are not playing well together. Who has upgraded to something more modern? What do I need to upgrade mine? Thanks, Steve
One of the more common mods is to install 56 headlights into a slant cab "bug-eye" grille. Here is a 53 grille that I built for my 56 that I modified to accept the 56 headlight buckets...
I guess I misread the original post...that said, the headlights in the pictured grille are euro halogen and are a definite step up from the OEM sealed beams. As EBEAR said, LEDs are now a step up from the halogen...in fact those bulbs in the photo have since been passed on to make room for LEDs in my 56.
That is what I am looking for. Any of the F-100 vendors sell a 7" LED or can these be bought at local car parts stores? Thanks for the side by side comparison EBEAR. Love your mod of the '53 grille CharlieLed. I have a '56 grill in my '54 so I already have the "frenched" look. Just need more light for my old, tired eyes! Thanks guys, Steve
I opted for the Truck-Lite LED headlamps...rated as one of the best designs and built for extreme applications. Plus they look nicer than a lot of the other multi-lens lamps.
I opted for the Truck-Lite LED headlamps...rated as one of the best designs and built for extreme applications. Plus they look nicer than a lot of the other multi-lens lamps.
Are those the ones in the picture you posted? If so, those do look nice and close to normal. I'm not a fan of the look of those multi-mini eyeball lamps. They just look wrong on an older vehicle, to me.
I agree with you Wayne, those "bug eyes" are ugly. The Truck-Lite LEDs are definitely not a standard sealed beam but they are less obnoxious than those on that Chevy truck. Here is a pic...
The fact that jeeps still use 7" inch rounds makes them numerous . There are literally hundreds of options and yes many really ugly . Mine are not as attractive as the halogens but I'm willing to live with a little less looks in favor of being able to see .
There was a YouTube video online some time ago that did a head to head comparison of a number (15 I believe) of LED headlamps. Very scientific showing a wide range of attributes, pros and cons. When I bought the Truck-Lite lamps they were still very pricey as they were designed for commercial and military applications...the Jeep guys jumped on them because of their durability. I just did a web search and see that they can now be bought for $175...that is at least half the price I paid when I bought mine. There was a good discussion on this forum at the time, maybe if someone is interested they could dig it up.
EBEAR mentioned wiring upgrades. With stock, OEM wiring, I measured a 2 volt drop between my battery and headlights. When you think about the trip the current makes to get from the battery to the headlights using 18 gauge wire, it does make one think about wiring upgrades. I have been thinking about adding a couple of relays and a fuse that connect directly to the battery side of the starter relay and directly drive the headlights that way. The headlights switch and dimmer switch would control the relays for on off and brights and dim. Sure there would still be some voltage loss, but it would be minimized by using 14 or 12 gauge wire and a more direct route. Hopefully resulting in getting brighter lights.
I bought ( am still a ways from wiring all of it) a heavy duty headlight harness from LMC #36-3580-F 48-56 $24.95. pg 114 .Heavy duty headlight harness draws power directly from the battery whereas the original wiring draws lots power from the headlight switch. Harness has separate relays for low and high beams and features org style headlight sockets for easy installation. FYI it is made in tiawan. It does say 12 volt . Dean
I bought ( am still a ways from wiring all of it) a heavy duty headlight harness from LMC #36-3580-F 48-56 $24.95. pg 114 .Heavy duty headlight harness draws power directly from the battery whereas the original wiring draws lots power from the headlight switch. Harness has separate relays for low and high beams and features org style headlight sockets for easy installation. FYI it is made in tiawan. It does say 12 volt . Dean
I should have mentioned that is directly quoted from the catalog. But I have been told through research to run any high usage items through relays. So I shouldn't take credit, but if it helps! Dean
I realized that my stock headlights and my 71 year old eyes are not playing well together. Who has upgraded to something more modern? What do I need to upgrade mine? Thanks, Steve
You haven’t mentioned if you’re running 6v or if you’ve converted to 12v. I too am curious.
In my 48 I’m running 6v and I’ve upgraded to halogen from Dennis-Carpenter. I also installed separate beakers for hi and low beams, as well as relays to prevent the current from running through the dash. These bulbs draw a significant amount of current so you need to be sure your generator is up to the task (ask me how I know, and thx to the strangers at the restaurant who push started us).
LEDs draw far less power, but I haven’t seen 6v options. I’d like to hear about any that folks have found.
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