What is you headlight setup

[Subourbon]

I love driving my squarebody, during the day. At night I still do but it's less fun because of the lights.

So I've got the stock sealed beam headlight with the male prongs sticking out into the engine bay, and female connectors from the harness that come into it.

I've got the hi beam switch next to the pedals (makes f-all difference honestly). As well I've got aftermarket round off road lights, that I use when visibility is really bad.
My truck is a 1982. I have noticed that my lights are in the bumper rather than the two square lights stacked on top of each other in the grill, which i think would look nicer, the classic squarebody look.
See pic for what I'm describing.
It looks like it's plenty bright but truth be told, those new hyundais with the collapsed sun for headlights, I swear, their lights illuminate more in front of me than my own lights, while their behind me, and when they come around facing me, I'm temporarily blinded. It's absolutely insane, fun when you're driving (a rental i drove had that) but being on the receiving end of those headlights, oh my God

Have any of you gone after market for lights. I'm not looking to blind other people, I like to think I'm more considerate than that but I would like to be able to see more comfortably. I mean, its fine when I'm on a back road with no streetlights or other cars because I'm the only source of light, I'm good. But at soon as another car or streetlight pops up, I may as well have my lights off.

So, I'm looking on Amazon, for a set of square headlights to fit, and there's also the wiring harness. Is there a combo that worked for you?

Also, a thread on here, a guy was saying that, the light switch module powers the lights, not the battery.
It goes battery -》 to inside switch module which takes power to run -》 which In turn dims the lights. If you were to put a simpler switch, and power the lights directly from battery, you'd be alright, I don't fully understand thar. I mean the off road light I have are that set up grounded, to battery, to switch in the cab.


Also, if you were to go LED route, that same switch wouldn't be able to power a newer set of LEDs. I'm saying LED as an example I don't care what style I just want to be able to see.

I'm just wondering if any of you have a good clear set up and not too much screwing around running wires.

So I took two screenshots, one of an example of headlight I'm looking at, and the other of a wiring harness that is "frequently bought with" the headlight I chose.

Sorry for the lentgh of the post, I just want to start a discussion especially with going with a modern flavour with technology from the 80s!

Thanks

 

[squaredeal91]

I've got a Hella on one side and a sealed on the other lol, I'm going to buy new bulbs and readjust. I like the Hellas allot. There glass and look normal. And there pretty bright too.

 

[DoubleDingo]

I bought Hella housings/buckets to use 9003 bulbs. Much brighter than sealed beams and not obnoxious like LEDs.

 

[Itali83]

I daily drive my squares and leave for work at 2a.m. So driving in the dark every day. I was looking into aftermarket lights, H4 halogens leds etc etc. I made my own relay harness to pull power directly from the battery and man, my factory style sealed beams are plenty bright. Night and day (pun intended) difference from before.

Any aftermarket light set up you get is going to be a disappointment if you’re only pushing 11.5 volts to them like I was before running relays and getting full 14.2 battery voltage while running.

Try that first and see how you like it. If not, then when you get whatever aftermarket set up, you’ll be getting the full potential out of them as well.

Ben

 

[DoubleDingo]

You'll want a relay kit for the lights to take the strain off the switch and run them off the battery.

Edit: I see @Itali83 mentioned relays before I hit "POST"

 

[squaredeal91]

I daily drive my squares and leave for work at 2a.m. So driving in the dark every day. I was looking into aftermarket lights, H4 halogens leds etc etc. I made my own relay harness to pull power directly from the battery and man, my factory style sealed beams are plenty bright. Night and day (pun intended) difference from before.

Any aftermarket light set up you get is going to be a disappointment if you’re only pushing 11.5 volts to them like I was before running relays and getting full 14.2 battery voltage while running.

Try that first and see how you like it. If not, then when you get whatever aftermarket set up, you’ll be getting the full potential out of them as well.

Ben

That's really good advice for anyone on here.

 

[87gmcburb]

I love driving my squarebody, during the day. At night I still do but it's less fun because of the lights.

So I've got the stock sealed beam headlight with the male prongs sticking out into the engine bay, and female connectors from the harness that come into it.

I've got the hi beam switch next to the pedals (makes f-all difference honestly). As well I've got aftermarket round off road lights, that I use when visibility is really bad.
My truck is a 1982. I have noticed that my lights are in the bumper rather than the two square lights stacked on top of each other in the grill, which i think would look nicer, the classic squarebody look.
See pic for what I'm describing.
It looks like it's plenty bright but truth be told, those new hyundais with the collapsed sun for headlights, I swear, their lights illuminate more in front of me than my own lights, while their behind me, and when they come around facing me, I'm temporarily blinded. It's absolutely insane, fun when you're driving (a rental i drove had that) but being on the receiving end of those headlights, oh my God

Have any of you gone after market for lights. I'm not looking to blind other people, I like to think I'm more considerate than that but I would like to be able to see more comfortably. I mean, its fine when I'm on a back road with no streetlights or other cars because I'm the only source of light, I'm good. But at soon as another car or streetlight pops up, I may as well have my lights off.

So, I'm looking on Amazon, for a set of square headlights to fit, and there's also the wiring harness. Is there a combo that worked for you?

Also, a thread on here, a guy was saying that, the light switch module powers the lights, not the battery.
It goes battery -》 to inside switch module which takes power to run -》 which In turn dims the lights. If you were to put a simpler switch, and power the lights directly from battery, you'd be alright, I don't fully understand thar. I mean the off road light I have are that set up grounded, to battery, to switch in the cab.


Also, if you were to go LED route, that same switch wouldn't be able to power a newer set of LEDs. I'm saying LED as an example I don't care what style I just want to be able to see.

I'm just wondering if any of you have a good clear set up and not too much screwing around running wires.

So I took two screenshots, one of an example of headlight I'm looking at, and the other of a wiring harness that is "frequently bought with" the headlight I chose.

Sorry for the lentgh of the post, I just want to start a discussion especially with going with a modern flavour with technology from the 80s!

Thanks

Some people might like them but I run LEDs. I do a LOT of night driving and with a 4 headlight set up like my 87 work great and I am in somewhat rural area and the brights on a 4 buld LED set up is better than my new F 150 with HIDs

 

[Subourbon]

@squaredeal91Ive seen the name hella dropped all over forums here n there. Seems like they're a popular choice.

@DoubleDingo yeah the LEDs on cars now are just blinding, like I said it's great when you're driving and see the clarity you get but man, there's gotta be a limit on those things.

@Itali83 i daily drive mine too, love it.
whats your home made set up? Ill be honest im worthless at wiring. Coz that switch controls dash lights head and tail lights. Dim setting as well as interior cabin light. I dont care much bout dimming gauge lights but the rest is Important.
Do you still control your direct to battery sealed beams from that switch?

Driving at night is my personal hell. Got Lasik few years ago, no complaints except for night driving. Holy cow.

Thanks everybody for your posts, this is pretty helpful!

 

[TotalyHucked]

Best brand for LED conversion?

I have finally decided to change my original headlights to LED. My truck is a 1983 Silverado. Anyone done this already and have a tip where to buý some that works, looks and functions great? Greatings from Sweden where night now starts getting darker.

www.gmsquarebody.com

 

[R Carnella]

I run hella buckets.
Led's for low beams) and halogens for high beams.
And some led driving lights down low. Very happy with this setup. Had to keep some halogens to melt any snow or ice that can build up in the winter. Also used the lmc headlight harness and wired so all 4 stay on when high beams are on.
I spent alot of time aiming these to not blind oncoming traffic

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[DoubleDingo]

This is a really good relay kit...

https://ceautoelectricsupply.com/product/h4-headlight-relay-kits/

 

[Scott91370]

I've got the Gen1 from RMS lighting. The Gen2 are supposed to be really great.

Headlamp Converison Kits

RMS Lighting LLC

rmslighting.net

They look like an oem light when off but light up the roadway nicely when adjusted properly.

 

[Itali83]

@squaredeal91Ive seen the name hella dropped all over forums here n there. Seems like they're a popular choice.

@DoubleDingo yeah the LEDs on cars now are just blinding, like I said it's great when you're driving and see the clarity you get but man, there's gotta be a limit on those things.

@Itali83 i daily drive mine too, love it.
whats your home made set up? Ill be honest im worthless at wiring. Coz that switch controls dash lights head and tail lights. Dim setting as well as interior cabin light. I dont care much bout dimming gauge lights but the rest is Important.
Do you still control your direct to battery sealed beams from that switch?

Driving at night is my personal hell. Got Lasik few years ago, no complaints except for night driving. Holy cow.

Thanks everybody for your posts, this is pretty helpful!

Everything is controlled like factory. I just use the factory wiring under the hood to turn on my relays instead of the actual light bulb and the relays turn on the light bulbs. I’m a professional technician so I wasn’t about to pay for a relay kit that I can wire and fit to my liking but any relay kit will work fine or you can look up how a relay works and I’m sure there’s a million good sources with pictures that’ll explain better than I can type here. But if you need specific help or questions always feel free to ask.

Ben

 

[Randy and Easton]

Easton wants to do LED but not a top of the list item at the moment. We had a mess of our lights from PO so we did the American autowire relay kit which allowed us to clean up all the mess firewall forward and now that we are battery direct to headlights Eaton is really happy with the light output difference.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I bought Hella housings/buckets to use 9003 bulbs. Much brighter than sealed beams and not obnoxious like LEDs.

We have the same setup, but I also have the Hella 550 (clear) fog lights.

As for the difference between sealed beam halogens and the Hella buckets with 9003, the difference is huge! My truck went from having the worst headlight out of all of my vehicles, to the best.