MCI 9 Headlight Issues

[belfert]

Are the DOT rectangular headlights really that bad?  I thought the lights in my bus seem pretty good to me.  I just have the regular sealed beam headlights where you throw the whole thing away when it burns out.

I've looked at Daniel Stern's web page before, but the prices are not inexpensive.  It is probably worth it for me since my bus tends to get driven a lot at night.

[bottomacher]

When I was a kid, I knew a cab driver who  owned a Mercedes cab. We were of course amazed, since our parents all drove Fords and Chevrolets, and only filthy rich folks could drive a MB.  He reasoned, accurately at the time, that a Mercedes was the "safest" car he could buy, and lasted forever, so it was a good investment. But my friends and I all noticed that it ended up at the junk yard, like all the Plymouth cabs, although a year or two later. He enjoyed a better ride, and was probably safer in a collision, but he never made a return on his investment that equaled twice his initial cost, which was about twice the price of a Plymouth or other cab. His cab ran, stopped, and stayed on the road, but so did most of the other cabs unless driven by idiots or other careless folks.
In 50 years of driving, I've never outrun my headlights. If I can't see where I'm going, I slow down. My "price of safety" is 6 to 10 dollars at Walmart for normal headlights. On the other hand, when I felt like spending and extra $400 on my 4106, I installed spring brakes, because I felt that they were safer. I could spend $10,000 and install disc brakes on my MC9. But I won't. I will simply drive within the limits of my machine, hopefully. Anyone can spend money, but sometimes we have to decide what we can accomplish with our expenditures, and choose things that others may find questionable just because it's what we want.
I have never recommended that any other busnut do what I do to MY bus. That's not what we're all about. I would also never tell another busnut that what he chose was wrong just because something better was available, whatever the price. If price is no object, we would ALL have ABS disc brakes and electric wipers and the very finest tires and traction control and radar, etc.
But not all of us will.

[NJT5047]

Are the DOT rectangular headlights really that bad?  I thought the lights in my bus seem pretty good to me.  I just have the regular sealed beam headlights where you throw the whole thing away when it burns out.

I've looked at Daniel Stern's web page before, but the prices are not inexpensive.  It is probably worth it for me since my bus tends to get driven a lot at night.

I've got Peterbuilt headlights and they seem to work fine.  FAR better than the OEM round eyes.  Some of the improvement is, no doubt, related to improvement in grounds and wiring.  I changed out the wiring, but the old 12/24 system is still functional.   I'm not a big fan of driving at night, but sometimes there's no choice.   I like driving late at night....no traffic.
I'm not sure that this resolution would be any less expensive, but a lot of motorcycles used standard square headlight housings with Phillips H4 bulbs.  They had great optics and were popular with riders.   
Everything's gone to projection and tekkie shapes...no more 'ordinary' interchangeable lights.
If you could find a couple of those square housings, they would fit into your existing buckets, with maybe a little more center clearance for the plug.   They are bright.  Might try to find a couple myself.  Don't need them in the high beams..just low.  Halogen headlights are available for replacements, but they don't have the nice lenses of Jap imports.
H4 bulbs are replaceable and are not expensive.   

[JohnEd]

Belfert,

Those "little" rectangular lights are really that bad and they can't be "fixed".  It all looks OK till you see a "good"  light next to an inferior light.  When I had sports cars and went skiing 500 miles away I drove the desert at 110 mpg.  I need those driving lights to see a quarter mile down stream.  Even the best halogen 7's didn't make it, although they were in a class by themselves, and I augmented the hi beam with BRIGHT driving lights.  The sports cars are long gone and I don't drive the desert often or long.  With my Jeep pickup I thought the stock lights were "adequate" as I rarely got over 70 and usually did 45.  That was till that deer sprinted in front of me and got hisself impailed on my bumper.  I only saw him in the last second and had no time to respond.  I did get a glimpse, as I went passed the spot where he emerged, of three more deer just standing there looking at me and their dead buddy go past.  I was sickened by how unaware I had been taken.  I knew what the fix was and got hot on installing the Hella E spec replaceable lamp lights.  Lots more light down the road where I needed it and none up in the eyes of oncoming AND A BIG SIDE BEAM THAT ANGLED UP to the right.  You don't know what you don't know and you don't see what you don't see.  I think there is an imperative to "do all you can" when you are driving a vehicle that will not stop in any reasonable distance.  I don't think you are careless as 90% of the vehicles out there are not adequately lit.  Hope you "see the light" though.

John

[busnut104]

What I did was I bought a set of Freight liner head lights, I removed the old round lights and started in with my die grinder with a small steel cutting wheel, The first one took me a coupl of hours to grind and fit, after I had the first one done I had a pattern  the second one was a peace of cake, I think they look better then the one's IBP sell's. You still have the recess and not just a flat area. You would never know that the bus did not come this way.  If you would like to see what they look like go to WWW.sellabus.com and look at the Mc8 in the bottom left hand corner.

[ojgetaway32]

You guys have got me goofy!  Where do I buy the hardware to put back in regular old 7" round lights?  Buckets, trim rings, etc...The coach has a sticker on the dash indicating that the headlights are 12V from the factory.  I don't want a ticket, I don't want to turn night into day or provide lighting for a pickup hockey game, I just want to see a reasonable distance in front of me while travelling 70 MPH on the interstate.

Josh

[Sojourner]

Josh...can you post a photo of your MCI-9 front to see what already been done to it? It would help us know so we can answer your post in the lean format or least costs.

Sojourn for Christ, Gerald

[bottomacher]

Josh, your MC9 did not have 7" lights from the factory. They were 5". As I said, I have a set of buckets and doors if that is what you are looking for.