Who has changed out their Factory Headlights for something better?

[lostagain]

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. 

[luvrbus]

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 

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

Don't be like a hay hauler I know that got out with hammer to dim a guys LED's behind him 

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. 

[windtrader]

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

[tr206]

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.

[Iceni John]

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

[Van]

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.

[richard5933]

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.

[luvrbus]

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 

[sledhead]

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

[dtcerrato]

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.

[windtrader]

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

[luvrbus]

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   

[chessie4905]

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.

[Jim Blackwood]

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