I am looking to upgrade my headlights. Does anyone have any suggestions? Any lights to stay away from? Is there any lights that are brighter then factory? I'm looking more for Performace then looks, I want them bright! Are the projector LEDs any good? They don't look like they would be bright. Any help would be great

 

I haven't tried this yet, but I think it's agreed upon here that the best improvement on a 2nd gen truck is to get quad headlights from an 01-02 Sport truck, build or buy a harness that feeds the four bulbs through relays drawing current directly from the batteries, then top it off with the higher performance bulbs of your choice, like Silverstars or Night Hawks.

 

I put in PIAA Xtreme White Bulbs early on in my 2001. I think they work great.

 

I am going to hitch a ride on this thread, my headlights are really bad, lenses faded, tried the polish stuff but no little to no help. Driving in rain the other nite had brights on and they were still dimmer than low light setting.

 

torquefan has it right. I don't have the sport headlights, but do have the relays under the hood feeding the lights now. I got a kit from LML, and it was easy. My lights are about 1.5 times as good now than before the upgrade.

 

The great part about the sport lights is that with a diode and some relays you can make the low beams stay on with the brights. There is a nice write up on it with diagrams and all on here somewhere.

 

Thanks for the replies, is there any plug and play solution with out having to rewire anything? Such as spec-d black crystal headlight housing with brighter bulbs? That happens to be the ones that i like so far but not sure how they fit/perform.

 

Wish I could comment on aftermarket gimmicks/lenses, but I'm a broke SOB most the time! I cleaned up the lenses by wetsanding them, with something like 1000 grit sandpaper. Then I put in those silverstar lamps, work very well with a clean lense.

Then I decided I needed high beams to be BRIGHT, so I added a relay for the low beams to stay on with high beams with an 11 pin relay, I think an 8pin would work (3 poles vs. 2 poles). No diodes needed, basically the low beams run through a normally closed contact on one pole. The high beams pull in the relay, closing an open contact. On that contact, one side is fed by a fused + from the battery, the other side goes to the low beam +. This keeps any extra current out of the factory wiring by feeding the "extra" low beam seperately.

I guess you could also do it with 2 standard 5 pin relays. I happened to have an 11pin 12v relay so I put it to good use, and have never been left in the dark since! Good luck!

 

Most of the problem is long, thin wiring to the headlights. Anything you plug in that uses more power just adds to the problem. Therfore the relay mod is the first step to actual performance improvement, especially if you don't want your headlights to blink out when the headlight switch lets out the smoke.

 

I think I found a very bright fix, LED light bar that puts out 9,700 lumens that I will mount on the front bumper.

 

I run a set of 130 watt KC Daylighters that turn on with the highbeams for running Baja and the woods by my house at night. Unbelieveable amount of light - 285,000 candle power. They are "relatively" inexpensive.

http://www.kchilites.com/lights/dayl...ange-stainless

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...WC5HCZ95RAKM9X

 

.........I got sucked into the Ebay lights,,,,,,dont buy any as u cant adjust them anywheres close as they have a single adjuster in the back that does both adjustments at the same time.........also there worse than the factory lights.....there is a very good thread on here about upgrading to the sport headlights........kim.....

 

As mentioned upgrade to the sport lights. I got some off of amazon I think it was. The pair ran me about 150. I also upgraded the harness using Daniel Sterns stuff but there are other options out there.

Obviously the best lights to use would be the oem but their cost is very high. For example wholesale mopar lists the lights as 209 for the right and 216 for the left side.
http://www.wholesalemopar.com/parts_catalog.html

for aftermarket example
http://www.amazon.com/Package-Headli.../dp/B00442EG46
as a comparsion less than half the cost

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/p.../products.html scroll down to rik-ram item this kit has the parts you provide wire and you build (he will also build it for you for an extra cost)

I have read that SUV lights makes a plug and play harness as well the site is down for maintenance at the moment. I think Summit Racing also makes a harness but I think I have read about questionable quality on them.

As far as upgrading the bulbs when I upgraded to the sport lights I used hawk bulbs for either the high or low and another brand for the other by a recomendation from Daniel Stern. Couldnt be happier. The silverstars I have used in the past while they appeared brighter they sure didnt last very long. Maybe a year at best.

Whether you use Daniel Stern for any products or not his site does have a lot of useful info on it and worth reading through. Just start at the top and go down following the links where they take you. Not the easiest site to navigate but does have a lot of good info.

 

Anyone looking to locate the Flosser 9104 bulbs which are hard to find can now find them at the following link. Great customer service too. They're Part #: H5-80100

http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_detai...gory_parent_id

 

Dane -
How do you have your lights wired to come on automatically with your highs? I am having a heck of a time with the ground switched system …