New headlights, options?

[gene]

My '91 truck has the rectangular sealed beam lights popular at the time.

I would like to replace them with something a bit more up to date, and brighter.

with a quck look online, the best option seems to be multi-LED replacements.


Anyone tried these? as far as my limited search goes, there were two vendors, but I'm not sure if they had two different manufacturers, or the same.

Also I guess I will have to find out current draw, I wonder how they compare to the stock ones.

 

[rickc5]

My '83 had those same sealed beams. Compared to current vehicles, they seemed woefully inadequate, like driving with two candles attached to the grille. Had I kept the truck, I would have also looked for replacements. I have yet to see any comparisons between those old lights and the new(er) LED replacements. BUT, and I don't know this for a fact, but I believe the LEDs would/could be a huge improvement. I would look on Amazon.

Please let us know what you find and what you decide to do.

 

[kennythewelder]

The thing that most people dont understand is that OE headlight wiring is small at best. The best way around this is to relay your head lights rite off of tye battery with a 10 GA stranded wire, and fuse this conectoin. You use tue OE wiring as your switch wire to activate the relay. This gives the head lights a huge boost in current. I have done this on my 97 Chevy Silverado. It makes a huge difference. Go through some of these videos for a how to. Kits can be ordered, or you can make your own as I did for my Chevy.

YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

m.youtube.com

 

[gene]

Kenny,

I was thinking the same thing. Also, since I've heard that the alternator output is marginal on these trucks, could it handle the possible extra load?

The thing that most people dont understand is that OE headlight wiring is small at best. The best way around this is to relay your head lights rite off of tye battery with a 10 GA stranded wire, and fuse this conectoin. You use tue OE wiring as your switch wire to activate the relay. This gives the head lights a huge boost in current. I have done this on my 97 Chevy Silverado. It makes a huge difference. Go through some of these videos for a how to. Kits can be ordered, or you can make your own as I did for my Chevy.

YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

m.youtube.com

 

[kennythewelder]

Yes. By doing the up grade, you incresing the current flow. The voltage will be the same. Its like a river and a stream. But if you want to help increse the charging power of the alt, you can always do the big 3 up grade. You add bigger wires from the alt back to the battery, both positive and negetive. Again like the bigger wires on the headlights, helps with current flow, it is the same thing with the alt recharging the battery. The wire going from the alt to the battery is small to say the least. I ran #2 welding lead with a 150 amp fuze on my Chevy. You dont remove any wires, you simply add to what is already there. Then a ground wire to the case of the alt to the negative battery, and negative battery, to the frame. I also added 2 more grounds. One to the cab, and one to the engine block. Here are a bunch of videos on big 3. But your OE set up will handle the up graded headlight wiring.

big 3 upgrade - YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

m.youtube.com

 

[toyotafan]

My '83 had those same sealed beams. Compared to current vehicles, they seemed woefully inadequate, like driving with two candles attached to the grille. Had I kept the truck, I would have also looked for replacements. I have yet to see any comparisons between those old lights and the new(er) LED replacements. BUT, and I don't know this for a fact, but I believe the LEDs would/could be a huge improvement. I would look on Amazon.

Please let us know what you find and what you decide to do.

Bwhaha, 2 candle powered headlights. Yeah, they weren't very powerful.

 

[toyotafan]

What did you end up with?

 

[gene]

I'm really tight right now, so it's a project on hold. Besides, candles are in now

 

[toyotafan]

I understand, there's a lot of that going on these days.