mentalbreakdown00

apples to oranges, stock vehicles esp trucks into a car can blind you, key word stock. So, whats the difference... I drive an old truck and have no high beams because im too cheap and lazy to replace multi function switch, so I aimed my headlights a little higher to compensate. I get flashed on occansion , and have ridden with other people, with my truck behind me, just looks like a jacked up 4wd with lights shining in. and its an old crappy chevy sealed beam... you cant please everyone

Big D!

I can't afford leds. So by the sounds of it people don't even suggest h4 housings? They're "crappy"?

SatiricalHen

I personally have just some cheap housings off of amazon no clue what they are off the top of my head, and I put the genssi led kit in them and I love it so far. They're bright and as far as I can tell they don't blind anyone, never been flashed. Although I haven't had this set up long, but I love it so far.

wiggles

There's nothing wrong with a good h4 housing and bulb.
Just to add to this... my lifted xj with hella e code housings and Olympus bulbs nor my new ram have ever been flashed on low beam. If you buy reasonable products and aim them right than you are doing your part while still having better, more high output lighting.

DigitalBman

The point I was trying to make is thay even though there is no clean cut off, they are not blinding like bad HID's.

The best way I can describe it is they look like a white version of halogen lights shining at you. I don't even know if I'd qualify it as more annoying, just more noticeable. I did test where I was driving towards my jeep with my buddy driving my jeep.

I'm just trying to convey the characteristics of these lights. People seem to think that because they don't have a cut off that they blind everyone and it simply is not the case.

Sorry, for dragging it on, I just don't want people thinking I'm that ******* running lights that blind other drivers.

autosurgeon

I run hella ecode housings with silverstars. Harnesses are purchased but haven't had time to install them.

Big D!

Opinions on best harness brand? I know what housings, what bulb/ wattage, and if I do upgrade from there what LEDs to get that plug in to h4?

SatiricalHen

I personally have the putco harness and I love it no problems easy install hasn't let me down. And for leds I have a genssi led kit. If you go the genssi route it will tell in the description what bulb it works for

macgyver35

Here's my opinion after having tried several otions:

The Putco harness, Autopal H4 housings, and either Philips Xtreme or Silverstar bulbs will give you about twice the usable light of stock sealed beams. Note that I said "usable". What I mean by that is that the combination will put about twice as much light where you need it. It's a definite improvement over stock. This set-up will run you about $150.

The only LED option right now that have proper cut-off and have either full DOT or can probably skirt by the DOT would be either Trucklights ($375-$500 pair), JW Speaker ($500-$600 pair), or use the new LED H$ bulbs in teh Autopal housings. The Trucklights and JW Speakers lights are both well documented and fully vetted. the LED H4 option is pretty new, so your mileage may vary.

I'm currently running a "proper" bi-xenon HID set-up, and it is waaaaaay better than the harness/H4 housing combo. Note that I said "proper, and I have true projectors retrofitted into H4 housing. These aren't some cheap Ebay projector beans that were $50. I paid $300 for these to make sure they function correctly. I wish I'd have just saved a little longer and done this first instead of spending money elsewhere , only to have to re-do it again down the road. I have a phenomial cut-off, actual high/low beam capability, and with HID you have the option of choosing your bulb color temp. I went with an "OEM" 4300K, but you can go up to 6000, and above, although higher than 6000K gets really blue, the usable light output drops, and the color rendering goes to crap. My lights are as good as anything you'd find on a new Grand Cherokee.

andrewmp6

The crappy h4 housing are the diamond cut or no name ebay cheapos you can find online.If you use hella or autopal you spend more but its well worth the money to have headlights that work.

hbracing13

I have a set of ipf with the harness and had the fatboy bulbs now that's bright 85/75 also have ran 90/100 too the fatboys output was like 145 on low but the ipf housing have a nice cut off also and aimed them a little low but would still get flashed once in a while. Really any h4 housing is going to be a huge improvement over the sealed beams. Even with the harness is a improvement with stock lights.
I have the plastic housing on my sisters jeep yes the lights scatters but it's good enough for her and I don't believe she has ever been flashed.
The way I see it if I break a set of $50 lights it's not going to kill me like if it was a set of $500.

Big D!

So what wattage am I looking at? 90/100?

Vincenza V

-True that, aiming those lights correctly is the biggest issue.

macgyver35

All a wattage rating tells you is how much power something uses, not how much light it puts out, or how efficient it is. A toaster pulls about 1500 watts and doesn't put out any light at all.

Beginner electrical math is voltage x amperage = wattage. Conversely, you can also say that wattage / voltage = amperage. This will tell you how much current flow you have so you can see how much impact it will have on you charging system, or if the wiring and fuses in a circuit are up to task.

What you need to do is look at lumen ratings and compare those to make your decision. Different lights have different lumen per watt output, so it is possible to find a 55 watt bulb that puts out the same amount of lumens as another brand's 75 watt bulb. Any time you can save power draw and still get what you want that's a good thing. The lumen output of the bulbs should be stated on the packaging.

My bi-xenon bulbs only use 35 watts, but those in conjunction with the projector housing gives me a ton more usable light than any bulbs I ever tried in the H4 housings.

s346k

I have autopal ecodes, putco harness and sylvania silverstars. it's a great combo for ~$100 and is 25x better than stock. I chose the ecodes bc the face is glass.