Sealed beam, and replacements info

[dorton]

I'm growing tired of the the OEM headlights, and want to know if you've changed yours to a different style. If so, what are your thoughts? Do you have H4 conversions, LED, HID, Halogen, Xenon, or others

I've looked at the:
Truck Lites(expensive)
Truck-Lite - Catalog Product : 5'' x 7'' Rectangular LED Headlamp, Complex Reflector Optics

JW Speaker(very, very expensive)
JW Speaker 5x7" Rectangular 8900 LED Headlight - Black Version

Hella Euro Codes (Not DOT Compliant)
H6054, Hella, 200mm, Rectangular, E-code, Hi-Lo, Conversion, Headlamp, Kit, ECE - RallyLights.com

Cibie Lights
Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

GE NightHawk
GE H6054NH Nighthawk Automotive Headlight Bulb, Pack of 1 : Amazon.com : Automotive

 

[ajohnson]

I have Roundeyes H4 replacements with an upgraded harness from rallylights.com. They are awesome compared to stock and a good price IMO.

 

[KidVermicious]

I'm running IPF H4 conversion buckets and the PIAA's standard 60/55w H4 bulbs. Any place that carries ARB should be able to get them for you, I bought mine from Low Range. They're pretty much exactly the same as the Roundeyes bucket, so go with whichever you can get cheaper. The bulb is what matters.

 

[nevada]

yes, I have some H4 conversions, no idea what model/brand. they mounted directly into the OE bucket. infact, im not sure I can tell the difference by looking. its not until you go to change a bulb that you know.


I got mine from NAPA of all places.

have been running them for probably 12 years now.

 

[nortonian]

Are the lenses on these conversions glass or plastic?

 

[ajohnson]

Mine are plastic, I assume they all are like any modern headlamp.

If you want a serious lighting upgrade, you could get a set of cheap H4 replacements, then get a D2s mini projector set from the retrofit source and do a projector retrofit.

 

[dorton]

Hmmmm. I like the idea of the mini projectors conversion.

 

[92-SR5]

These are on sale right now. They work great.
http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/200mm-halogenLamp

 

[nevada]

Are the lenses on these conversions glass or plastic?

im pretty sure mine are glass.
they literally look the same as the sealed beams.

 

[KidVermicious]

I think mine are glass too.

 

[RAD4Runner]

I have Roundeyes H4 replacements with an upgraded harness

im pretty sure mine are glass.
they literally look the same as the sealed beams.

Are the lenses on these conversions glass or plastic?

UPGRADE STEPS IN ORDER OF ROBUSTNESS AND SAFETY:

1. H4 Conversion harness- Proper wiring is foundation for proper lighting and will extend the life of your dimmer-combo switch (stalk) contacts. Stock wiring has high bulb current running on a probably 15 feet of thin wire from battery, to headlight relay, to bulbs, to cabin, to steering column / stalk, back to engine compartment, and finally to fender ground next to fuse block. Conversion harness will change that to a couple feet of thick wire.
   
2. Bulb upgrade or housing conversion (roundeyes, Hella, Autopal, etc) will give you more light output compared to stock sealed-beam housing. EDIT: HOWEVER, IF UPGRADING TO HIGHER WATTAGE BULBS this is a bad shortcut and only masks the most fundamental problem and root cause of dim light - See (1)
   
   Worst, yet using higher wattage lights (like 55W low/100W high) without conversion harness will subject your switch contacts to higher currents and hasten their demise.

I hope above clarifies the bulb upgrade/conversion harness options.

Lens material varies with brand.

Happy Holidays, guys!

 

[nevada]

UPGRADE STEPS IN ORDER OF ROBUSTNESS AND SAFETY:

1. H4 Conversion harness- Proper wiring is foundation for proper lighting and will extend the life of your dimmer-combo switch (stalk) contacts. Stock wiring has high bulb current running on a probably 15 feet of thin wire from battery, to headlight relay, to bulbs, to cabin, to steering column / stalk, back to engine compartment, and finally to fender ground next to fuse block. Conversion harness will change that to a couple feet of thick wire.
   
2. Bulb upgrade or housing conversion (roundeyes, Hella, Autopal, etc) will give you more light output compared to stock sealed-beam housing. HOWEVER, this is a bad shortcut and only masks the most fundamental problem and root cause of dim light - See (1)
   
   Worst, yet using higher wattage lights (like 55W low/100W high) without conversion harness will subject your switch contacts to higher currents and hasten their demise.

I hope above clarifies the bulb upgrade/conversion harness options.

Lens material varies with brand.

Happy Holidays, guys!

im sure that's a better way to do it, but like I said, ive been running them for at least 12 years now. no issues.

 

[RAD4Runner]

im sure that's a better way to do it, but like I said, ive been running them for at least 12 years now. no issues.

Sorry, I needed to "Qualify:
"Bad shortcut "IF UPGRADING TO HIGHER WATTAGE BULBS" because of high currents through dimmer-combo switch contacts.

 

[sam24th]

I have the rampage h4 housings on my Pickup and 4runner. They are glass and seem to throw a nice light out. My pickup is running H4 HIDs, (yea I know not street legal blahblahblah, its a trail rig mostly at this point so I dont really care) Its really bright but for onroad you would have to aim them down A LOT. The 4unner is running an pgraded harness from LMC trucks and PIAA 55watt lights and are pretty bright, I wish it was a little brighter but for what its worth, good enough. Im looking into doing a mini projector swap though from the retrofit source.

 

[KidVermicious]

Hmmmm. I like the idea of the mini projectors conversion.

I do too. I just started looking into this for the '99, and I didn't realize it was so easy.

 

[P-Town-503]

Hello everybody!!

From running the universal 4x6 projector style ebay headlights on my 91 4runner I can say that the light output is great over factory and does not blind oncoming drivers as much as the regular H4 conversions with no projector housing.

I paid roughly 40 bucks for the housing and another 50 bucks for DDM tuning 5k HID's.

I'm currently in seattle but I can post some night pictures of the color and brightness when i get home on Sunday.

Here is a similar picture of what my headlights looks like.. i believe mine has a glass housing.

 

[sam24th]

Hello everybody!!

From running the universal 4x6 projector style ebay headlights on my 91 4runner I can say that the light output is great over factory and does not blind oncoming drivers as much as the regular H4 conversions with no projector housing.

I paid roughly 40 bucks for the housing and another 50 bucks for DDM tuning 5k HID's.

I'm currently in seattle but I can post some night pictures of the color and brightness when i get home on Sunday.

Here is a similar picture of what my headlights looks like.. i believe mine has a glass housing.

I have the exact same housings and 5k kit from ddm tuning sitting at home in the garage I have contemplated on installing. I may go home and do it later to see how the light output is. I am still a bit worried about blinding people since the ones on my pickup dont have a good cutoff on them, but we'll see. I bought the kit before I knew much about headlights and HIDs etc so they have been sitting int he box since.

 

[RAD4Runner]

.... I am still a bit worried about blinding people ...

Your being considerate and conscientiousness is very much appreciated! Too many drivers out there without that.

We wish you good results and are looking forward to your write-up

Thank you and Happy Holidays.

 

[sam24th]

Your being considerate and conscientiousness is very much appreciated! Too many drivers out there without that.

We wish you good results and are looking forward to your write-up

Thank you and Happy Holidays.

Thanks I try to be when I can haha, but I just hate it when people run kits and blind the hell out of me. Just tryign to not be that guy. This isnt much of a writeup but I installed them today:

Well with the nice weather we had today, I decided to throw those DDM tuning HIDs in and the ebay housings in the 4runner to see how well they work. So initial reaction holy shnikies these are bright. These are the 55w 5k kit in ebay projector h4 housings to be exact. The highbeam and lowbeam don't seem to work well on this and its basically bright and slightly brighter. Basically stuck with one setting as I couldn't tell any difference between high and low. I had the aim the lights much lower than the h4 silverstars I had in it. The light output is pretty ridiculous if you ask me but to be honest standing in front of my truck its wasn't blinding. I took it for a test drive and noticed that for the most part the projector housing was doing its job and aiming the light properly. It does have a bit of a glare on the outer edges (apparent in the garage pics near the top where there are streaks sorta). Not particularly sure how I feel about the lights, I like the way they look and they seem to project well, better than the kit in my pickup. I may run them for awhile and see how it goes, Thinking back I think I should have went with the 35watt kit instead of the 55watt, but thats just a matter of swapping the ballast and bulbs. I had a friend drive his vehicle down the road towards my 4runner and he said the glare wasn't bad at all.

So a couple of notes:
1: install is super easy and took all of 15minutes to install. Hardest part was removing the grill without breaking all the plastic little clips holding it on.
2: Highbeam nolonger works, atleast doesnt work well anyways.
3: We tried the HIDs in my rampage housings (non projector housings) and they glare like crazy and will blind the utter crap out of anyone driving towards you, def need a projector style housing.

And pics:

 

[nevada]

unfortunately I can confirm mine are glass..

now searching for a replacement...

the good new is, since it wasn't a sealed beam, the bulb itself still works.