My headlights were so dim a couple of years ago when driving through Eugene, Oregon at nighttime, that I decided they needed to be replaced, as I could hardly see the road in front of my bus. Of course, it didn't help that my old bus had much less than 12V at the headlights. I decided to replace them with Kenworth LED headlights.
Even though I rarely drive my bus after dark anymore, there are times when I may decide to leave a Rest Area or someplace before sunup, or I may find that a Rest Area is full when I decide to stop for the night and may have to continue on.
Who else has upgraded their headlights and what did you upgrade to and how do you like them?
Those are the ones I run.
Quote from: Van on December 30, 2022, 01:58:22 PM
Those are the ones I run.
Copycat. You know Jerry Chael too aye? ;D
LED are good upgrade,if you don't have over 13v on a 12v system with the engine running a Bic lighter is brighter than the Hoglen bulbs
Quote from: Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM on December 30, 2022, 02:10:45 PM
Copycat. You know Jerry Chael too aye? ;D
Who do you think bleeped Jerry's idea first? Bus shop mafia, if can think of it, we already did it first Haha! ;D
Quote from: Van on December 30, 2022, 04:20:02 PM
Who do you think bleeped Jerry's idea first? Bus shop mafia, if can think of it, we already did it first Haha! ;D
That is not his first set either Van lol Harley installed him a set he probably has those in the bay
Yes, DOT sealed-beam headlights are abysmal, so I replaced them with Hella E-Code lights that are a night and day difference. The High/Low are the stock 55W, but the High are 100W with relays and heavier wiring, the front fog lights use selective-yellow 55W lamps, and the red rear fog light will get a high-vis LED lamp soon. All my lights now are Hella except the side turn indicators and the roof marker lights.
John
I like Van's and Gary's LED lamps they have a cut off line and don't blind people like most LEDs
Quote from: luvrbus on December 31, 2022, 05:37:52 AM
I like Van's and Gary's LED lamps they have a cut off line and don't blind people like most LEDs
Yes good point Cliff. I replaced a set I bought a week before that which projected a round beam which the top half would blind people. This set, cuts off the upper part of the round beam so it is straight across on the top that cuts out that upper circle which will not blind cars coming toward you.
That is the biggest problem with some after market LED lights. They can see 3 miles down the road, but the rest of us are blind...
Quote from: lostagain on December 31, 2022, 07:59:57 AM
That is the biggest problem with some after market LED lights. They can see 3 miles down the road, but the rest of us are blind...
That is why you need brighter lights than everyone else out there JC. Lights, like they have on Freight Trains would work. ;D
Just kidding, if they are adjusted properly, then this should not be an issue.
They do need to power down the LED's a lot of LED some will blind you,I don't know what they are LED's or what but I hate the friggn blue lights people use now,those remind me of K-Mart
Over on the FB Prevost XL page a fellow named Matthew Valentine sells an LED upgrade kit for Prevost XLs using JW Speaker lights. Huge difference over the Ford Bronco units Prevost used on those models. Altho not E-code lights, they do have a nice cut-off to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. Matthew's kit comes complete with new polished stainless steel surrounds, so the entire installation looks like it came from the Prevost factory.
FWIW & HTH. . . ;)
RJ
In Nov. 2019 I installed LED's that fit the original housing. A much brighter light that lights up the sides so much better. I align them so no one as has flashed me, yet. We try not to do night driving, this last trip and one and half hour of rain/night driving glad we had the better lights.
I am sure other states have the illuminance testers in patrol cars like AZ does,AZ Troppers are hell on the pickups and ATV's using light bars on the highway. They get the cars to, a car in front of me got pulled over by a passing Tropper. I thought he was after me he turned around so fast, You can get a APP for your smart phone to check your lights for brightness to see if you are legal or not. I understand the fine is $350.00 plus another $20.00 if you are not wearing your seatbelt, here in AZ they cannot stop you for not wearing a seatbelt but can fine you for it if stopped for other reasons
I wish the cops enforced the law on bright LED lights and light bars up here (Canada). I've been doing a lot of night driving trucking the last 3 months. I just turn my brights on and leave them on till they turn theirs off. No sympathy or patience on my part.
Quote from: lostagain on January 01, 2023, 06:02:28 AM
I wish the cops enforced the law on bright LED lights and light bars up here (Canada). I've been doing a lot of night driving trucking the last 3 months. I just turn my brights on and leave them on till they turn theirs off. No sympathy or patience on my part.
Don't be like a hay hauler I know that got out with hammer to dim a guys LED's behind him ;D
Quote from: luvrbus on January 01, 2023, 06:23:36 AM
Don't be like a hay hauler I know that got out with hammer to dim a guys LED's behind him ;D
This is why sometimes I wish I had at least one bright headlight facing back on the back of my bus which I could control from the cockpit and turn it on when people approach me from the rear with their brights on. I saw a truck driver do this to me once until I realized my brights were still on.
it's funny that AZ and CA share a border but may as well be on opposite side of the country. Hang loose vs uptight squeaking buttholes. lol
Quote from: windtrader on January 01, 2023, 10:56:35 AM
it's funny that AZ and CA share a border but may as well be on opposite side of the country. Hang loose vs uptight squeaking buttholes. lol
:^ I don't worry much about headlights on the bus. I try not to drive at night rather site see.
Quote from: Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM on January 01, 2023, 08:15:25 AM
This is why sometimes I wish I had at least one bright headlight facing back on the back of my bus which I could control from the cockpit and turn it on when people approach me from the rear with their brights on. I saw a truck driver do this to me once until I realized my brights were still on.
How about having a highly-polished rear-facing part of the bodywork that will give back what it gets? Or maybe a subtle Fresnel reflector back there?
John
Quote from: Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM on January 01, 2023, 08:15:25 AM
This is why sometimes I wish I had at least one bright headlight facing back on the back of my bus which I could control from the cockpit and turn it on when people approach me from the rear with their brights on. I saw a truck driver do this to me once until I realized my brights were still on.
Maybe get you one of them shiney XL's or brighter tail lights.
I had the same problem with less than 12v on the headlight circuits in my 1974 GMC 4108. That bus fed the four headlight circuits via a bank of resistors to get the 12v from the 24v system, and they had broken down over time.
Since modern headlights are looking for 13.8v something had to be done, so I replaced the resistor bank with four high-capacity 24v-to-13.8v converters. This provided the correct voltage to each of the headlights regardless of engine/alternator speed. It worked wonders to brighten up the factory lamps.
True that I could have simplified the system and used one larger converter, but I liked the redundancy built into the factory system.
So while I didn't actually replace the factory headlights, I did replace the system that feeds them. Another advantage to this upgrade was that I only had to upgrade the wiring from the converter bank to the headlights and not the entire circuit.
Here's a side-by-side of factory vs. my upgrade.
You never check the voltage to head lights without the engine running and the charging system going.On old Eagle I install relays close to the head lamps with a new power supply and they burn brighter then too, lol after all the headlights on older buses were used for 60+ years crossing the US
Quote from: Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM on January 01, 2023, 08:15:25 AM
This is why sometimes I wish I had at least one bright headlight facing back on the back of my bus which I could control from the cockpit and turn it on when people approach me from the rear with their brights on. I saw a truck driver do this to me once until I realized my brights were still on.
to bad a guy could not make a mirror that you could adjust so it would use the guy behind you lights and shine it back into there eyes
then they would back off
Quote from: sledhead on January 02, 2023, 02:00:32 PM
to bad a guy could not make a mirror that you could adjust so it would use the guy behind you lights and shine it back into there eyes
then they would back off
Either back off or start some road rage. Back in the day returning home from a Pink Floyd concert I remember being chased and getting our windows shot out because I gave my brights to a car that cut us off - since then I don't pluck with nobody on the road.
Quote from: luvrbus on January 02, 2023, 02:58:10 AM
You never check the voltage to head lights without the engine running and the charging system going.On old Eagle I install relays close to the head lamps with a new power supply and they burn brighter then too, lol after all the headlights on older buses were used for 60+ years crossing the US
I had not considered this and after a bout or two trying to understand when this makes sense, this works if the start batteries are low and might not provide enough voltage to the headlights. In that case, a running bus does charge the low batteries so the alternator is providing enough voltage.
In buses doing the 24v to 12v stepdown, and the starts are fully charged, it seems you would not need to the bus to run and alternator charging. Missing something? just curious
I never saw a charged resistor before resistors do get weak over tine,the resistor on the early 55 Chevy coil 12v down to 6 volt was a nightmare we always carried a extra in the glove box
yeah, traffic was a lot less, speeds were lower, opposing traffic standard headlights weren't hard on the eyes, and new leds, halogens, his weren't blinding. Also, bus drivers had to deal with what they had.
Quote from: dtcerrato on January 02, 2023, 02:44:52 PM
Either back off or start some road rage. Back in the day returning home from a Pink Floyd concert I remember being chased and getting our windows shot out because I gave my brights to a car that cut us off - since then I don't pluck with nobody on the road.
Having been shot at a couple of times and also been pointed at with a revolver when stopped from just a couple feet away I'll agree, you need to be careful. If someone is showing true aggression there is NOTHING to be gained by a confrontation and much to lose. I've also had a pickup driver attempt to run over my sports car and was just fortunate it wasn't big enough to actually do it. People are more than capable of being stupid and crazy, often at the same time. You don't know what is going through their heads.
But, I'll confess I did once flourish a handgun to stop some highway craziness when these good ole' boys thought they were flirting with my wife one night east of Bakersfield, and I do have a full sized halogen fog light on the back of my MGB. You just have to use your best judgement, I've only ever used the fog light a few times and that car can run if I need to. But it doesn't do you any good at all to have bullets flying around you and sadly enough that is always a possibility. Try to keep the road rage in check whichever end you are on.
Jim
My bus had four of the 4x6 sealed beam headlights when I bought it. My first change was to run large wires directly from the batteries at the back of the bus to the front to the bus so no voltage drop. I then connected the original headlight wiring to two solenoids that used the power from the big cables to run to the headlights. I also installed Cibie E-Code headlights. I properly aimed them. Not much of an improvement.
Phase two was to remove the sealed beams plus the parking lights/turn signals and the mount for the sealed beams. I then fabricated a piece of aluminum plate to hold a new LED turn signal and a Hella HID (bi-Xenon) 90 mm headlight module on each side. The headlight modules are not the cheap Chinese ones that cause issues. The Hella modules are DOT approved and cost a mint to buy. I aimed them properly so as not to blind oncoming drivers. These headlights are great. I almost never use the high beams. Today I would probably consider the Hella LED 90mm modules, but LED was not quite there for headlights in 2014.
I have HID lights in my coach they make plenty of light with a nice pattern. good modules have come way down in price thanks to the LED craze.Some are still asking 150+ bucks for modules but if you shop around, you can find them for 80 bucks
Be careful about that rear facing light! Especially in CA! I used to run KC Daylighters on all my trailers back in the day.
One night I was running up hwy 99 N of Bakersfield and some SOB was following me with bright lights on. I politely flashed my lights on and off a couple times, I slowed way down, sped way up, changed lanes back an forth several times and nothing worked the butthead kept folloing me with his brights one. I finally got fed up and flipped on the daylighters and as son as I did I had a red spotlight hit my drivers mirror! I pulled over and it was a CHP that had been following me. He was just as pissed at me about me using the daylighters, as I was at him for following me with his brights on. But he had the uniform, badge, gun, and ticket book. (he made sure I knew he had all 4 of them too!)
He ended up writing me a $500 ticket for rear facing white lights on a motor vehicle AND HE CUT the wires to my daylighters because he said it was ILLEGAL for me to have them rigged where I could turn them on from inside the cab of my truck. (he said it was legal to have them as long as they were activated by putting the truck in reverse or getting out and flipping a switch outside the cab) We had plenty of unpleasant things to say to each other before parting ways.
I never did pay that ticket, but I don't go back to Kern County anymore either!
;D BK ;D