How hard to do and where can I purchase a headlight conversion kit for a 1976 MCI 5B?
What part of the headlights do you want to convert? My 5C has square headlights. Difficulty not very hard, I think the previous guy bought a kit, you have to cut some of the stainless steel valence for clearance, but it can be done in a couple of hours. As far as the lights are concerned I recently pulled OUT a 12 volt conversion kit and installed halogen headlamps with 24 volt bulbs - by far the best thing for lighting in my opinion. If I had a 5B I would get on with daniel stern lighting and buy new 5" dia round lamps and 24v bulbs and have great headlights (with a couple of spare bulbs on board, obviously).
How do I get in touch with him?
If you are going to do that you might check out an outfit that is making 7" round led headlights that are a little spendy,( about $249? each) if i remember right. Supposed to be really good lights. Can't remember who they are but i think that i posted about them on one of the boards about a year ago. Might have their info but we just moved so i may not find it for quite a while. ;D
ED find a new Harley Davidson with the 7in led light and see how they work. Looks like daylight in front of one.
Can be bought on the ebay thing .
uncle ned
Quote from: rkillmon on June 05, 2016, 04:28:03 PM
How do I get in touch with him?
you google it... then you grab your jewels with one hand and your wallet with the other...and start rethinking your priorities, unless you have a bushel basket of money getting moldy...
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/ (http://www.danielsternlighting.com/)
I found a set of 7in LED 24v for my Humvee for under 200 bucks and he had some military Halogen 7in for 70 bucks a set
Quote from: uncle ned on June 05, 2016, 06:21:17 PM
ED find a new Harley Davidson with the 7in led light and see how they work. Looks like daylight in front of one.
Can be bought on the ebay thing .
uncle ned
Ned you would have to find two and be real quit while you are getting them.
Jack
We switched out our original 5a headlights for a Hella set of E-Code halogens. I have no doubt that better exist, but they are a significant upgrade anyway. I do not remember the cost, but they were not very expensive.
NAME?? -
My preference is to stick to the stock round headlamps, but replace them with Cibie E-code units, available from
http://www.talbotco.com/cibie_main_frameset.htm (http://www.talbotco.com/cibie_main_frameset.htm)
Will set you back about $400 for the four, but considering their superior lighting pattern, consider it a SAFETY upgrade.
Ask about 24V bulbs, if that's what your 5B has - some have been converted to 12v headlamps.
As previously mentioned, Daniel Stern is also a good source for the E-code lamps.
I don't like the small 4x6 rectangular headlamp "upgrade" because of it's lousy US DOT output, but sadly I'm stuck with it on Tortoise, as when they were installed, the stainless panel was cut in such a way that I cannot reinstall the OEM round lamps. Bummer :(
FWIW & HTH. . .
;)
Quote from: uncle ned on June 05, 2016, 06:21:17 PMED find a new Harley Davidson with the 7in led light and see how they work. Looks like daylight in front of one.
Can be bought on the ebay thing .
uncle ned
Ned, the guy who is renting the storage unit next to mine put a "concave" lens LED on his 2013 Harley. He says that they work about $700 worth (that's for one). I don't think that that's the way I'LL be going!
Would it be better to get a conversion kit for 12 v
or
Get the 24V replacement bulb?
I went with 24v bulbs in Cebie halogen lamps, re-converting from an unacceptable previous 12v conversion kit. why? the wiring to the headlights on an MCI is quite small gauge, designed for the low current of 24 volt bulbs. 12 volt bulbs draw twice the amperage, hence need larger wires. so you need to rewire the whole headlight package - not easy or quick to do it right. Second - where do you get the 12 volt from? The stock bus does not have a 12v power source large enough to run the lights so you need to engineer that. Can it be done? Absolutely. Is it easy? Not really, and to do it right is surprisingly hard. Doing it wrong is surprisingly easy, hence me redoing my factory MCI conversion. The cost difference of the 24v bulbs is not that much, and upgrading to the quartz halogen lights is a great upgrade anyway, so the downside amounts to carrying your own spare bulbs rather than knowing you can pick up a new one at the next truck stop. The new LED upgrades? The next coming thing, all the new buses have them, and the way of the future. Cost is still an issue, and spares are even more expensive.
Government Liquidators has lot of 64 -24V LED 7 inch round head lights ea up for bid now the last time I checked it was around 70 bucks for the 64 located in OH.I would be interested in going in on 1 lot if they go for under a $1000.00 a lot
NAME?? -
This is a follow-up to my previous post, after visiting the Cibie website.
An excellent alternative to the Cibies are Hella e-code lamps, also made in Germany. They have the same light pattern, but are more reasonably priced. The first link is for hi/low beam lamps (the outer lights), the second link is for hi beam only (the inner lights) and the third and fourth links are for 24v halogen bulbs - H4 hi/low, H1 hi only:
http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-002850811-Halogen-Conversion-Headlamp/dp/B001G7A9YS?ie=UTF8&keywords=hella%205%203%2F4%26%2334%3B%20round%20e-code%20headlights&qid=1465310530&ref_=sr_1_fkmr2_1&sr=8-1-fkmr2 (http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-002850811-Halogen-Conversion-Headlamp/dp/B001G7A9YS?ie=UTF8&keywords=hella%205%203%2F4%26%2334%3B%20round%20e-code%20headlights&qid=1465310530&ref_=sr_1_fkmr2_1&sr=8-1-fkmr2)
http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-002425811-Halogen-Conversion-Headlamp/dp/B001G76Q9K?ie=UTF8&keywords=hella%205%203%2F4%26%2334%3B%20round%20e-code%20headlights&qid=1465311321&ref_=sr_1_fkmr2_3&sr=8-3-fkmr2 (http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-002425811-Halogen-Conversion-Headlamp/dp/B001G76Q9K?ie=UTF8&keywords=hella%205%203%2F4%26%2334%3B%20round%20e-code%20headlights&qid=1465311321&ref_=sr_1_fkmr2_3&sr=8-3-fkmr2)
http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-HLA-H83140041-24V-100-90W/dp/B000H0QRYG?ie=UTF8&keywords=24v%20H4%20bulb&qid=1465311403&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-HLA-H83140041-24V-100-90W/dp/B000H0QRYG?ie=UTF8&keywords=24v%20H4%20bulb&qid=1465311403&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1)
http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-HLA-H83115071-Halogen-Bulb-Road/dp/B000COBLCA?ie=UTF8&keywords=24v%20H1%20bulb&qid=1465311439&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-HLA-H83115071-Halogen-Bulb-Road/dp/B000COBLCA?ie=UTF8&keywords=24v%20H1%20bulb&qid=1465311439&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1)
Some folk think that using four of the hi/low beam lamps will really put out the light on hi beam, but IBME that the inner lamps dedicated to hi beam only project a lot further due to the different optics of the lens.
As stated earlier, definitely rewire with a relay in the system, taking the amperage load off the headlight switch.
FWIW & HTH. . .
;)
PS: Please take a couple of minutes to update your forum profile to something similar to mine below. First name, home/base city/state and coach year, make, model and powertrain will really help us help you. Simply click on the "Profile" tab above. When the next screen opens, click on the "forum profile" option in the LH menu and follow the prompts. TIA! :D
Just one piece of advice, don't buy Digilight 4X6 LED lights. All of Disney bus's have been converted to them and the light pattern stinks. Large hot spot in center and bad fall off.
Jack
I recently completely revamped all my bus's headlights - I used Hella 003177801 4" x 6" "E-Code" high/low beam headlights, and they have a very crisp beam pattern that completely eliminates glare to oncoming drivers. There is simply no comparison to the awful DOT sealed-beam lights I had before. I also have Neolite 938 high-beam lights, an Indian knock-off of Hellas (does that make them I-Code?) which again put a lot of light way down the road, but without it splashing all over approaching vehicles in the opposite lane. And to finish it off, I also installed Hella 005600001 foglights, the so-called Comet 550, in the front bumper - they spread a lot of light low down on the road surface and to the sides, again with absolutely no dazzle to others. For the high-beams and foglights I used the Hella cube relays with 10ga wiring - voltage under load at those lights is now exactly the same as at the start batteries' terminals, so no voltage loss and dimming at all.
Changing from DOT sealed-beam lights is the single best thing you can do to help with night driving.
John
And Hella are a lot cheaper than some others too.