^^^This in short, each state has it's own laws on whats legal and what's not. What may be legal for me in FL, may not ne legal for use in say CA.
Look into your specific states laws/requirements on equipment before you drop a good amount of money on something you may not be able to use where you live.

 

He was asking for the law that says that anything other than OEM is illegal.

Do those links say that only OEM is acceptable?

 

My Truck-Lites are amazing. They've come down in price lately, too. Worth every penny.

 

That alone disproves a claim that "if it's not OEM, it's illegal" at the federal level.

And Sec. 547.3125. disproves that claim in my state of Texas.

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.u...htm/TN.547.htm

I suspect that most, if not all, other states word their equipment requirement statutes similarly to TX 547.3125.

 

No. The OEM thing is entirely untrue. Now that they have been posted, I hope all of the misinformation will stop.

 

What does this do to my current headlights in improving them?

 

It allows full power to your headlights instead of half power, making them brighter.

 

mschi772 posted a link to a more comprehensive explanation on the first page, but to sum up:

The headlight circuit on an XJ runs the full power used by the headlights through the headlight switch. Over time, the wires and connections in this circuit become corroded and build up resistance. When electrical current hits resistance, it's transformed into heat, which damages insulation, connectors and switches. Resistance also allows less current to flow to the headlights, causing them to become dim. In extreme cases, the heat damages the headlight switch and can actually cause it to catch fire.

The relay harness bypasses the original circuit to power the lights directly from the battery, giving them full power so that they return to their original brightness. The difference is immediately noticeable. Additionally, the full load no longer passes through the headlight switch. Only enough current has to pass through to trip the relay when you operate the switch. The relay is then what actually turns your lights on and off. Thus in addition to giving you brighter headlights, it also protects your headlight switch from damage and failure.

What was linked above is the Putco harness, which is fine. However, there's a generic Ebay harness that uses ceramic connectors and better relays that actually costs less money but gets good reviews:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CERAMIC-H4-H...-/330997592807

It takes anywhere from half an hour to 2 hours to install, depending on your level of adeptness with the tools. If you can use a drill and a screwdriver, you can do this. It's one of the easier mods, and it gives immediate results.

 

Just adding the headlight harness will give your stock lights about 20 to 30 percent more light.And it will help your headlight switch last a lot longer since the load is taken off it.Then if you add a better set of h4 housings and lights you'll have a lot better headlights.

 

I have a set of Hella e-code H4 housings in my XJ with 55/100W halogen bulbs. My Subaru has factory HIDs, so I have a direct comparison. The projector lamps in the Subaru have a better cutoff in low beam and spread the light better, but are only slightly brighter than the H4s. However, those 100W high beams in the XJ blow away the HID high beams in brightness, and they flood light evenly where the HIDs have an odd spot pattern that always seems to put the brightest light in the wrong place. On dark country roads, I prefer the H4s over the much newer technology.

The point of sharing that is this: People always want to jump to the more complicated, newer conversions or to the flashiest new gimmick, when the tried and true H4 conversion with a relay harness is simpler and can be more effective. I haven't used a set of Truck Lites yet, but I have my doubts that they'll give me a big enough boost in performance over the H4s to justify the extra cost. Between H4 and those stupid Chinese Ebay LED bank headlights, there's just no contest at all.

 

I went with Trucklites recently and would go that way again for any jeep. Wish I had done it sooner.

 

You also don't need a harness upgrade with LED's because the power draw is so much smaller. I remember reading one guy installing the harness after a set of Truck-Lites and seeing absolutely no difference in output.

 

I still recommend it. It's not all about output. It's also about protecting your wiring/headlight switch.

 

 

im running h4 conversion headlight housings with putco led h4 bulbs part number is 270004. what a world of difference. heck of a lot better than halogens. and a lot more reliable than cheap ebay HIDs, take a look into it you'd surprised.