I have noticed on ebag, that there are tons of plastic 6024 H4/HID upgrades but i have already read on how crappy they can be, so plastic is out possibly, then i have found a few that are glass lenses, that are comparable to the hella ones, is hella any good, i know they do a ton of off road, but I wanted to know, whats everyones opinion on the plastic/glass upgrades that are out there, I realllllly want to up grade to be able to see better at night, and want to go with HID's, just burned out a pair of stock headlights, from using the highbeams too much.


-Mike

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I am the Guardian, I hate helos, everything leaks.......

Most of what is on the market is junk of one variety or another. There are exactly two legitimate/safe/legal/effective HID headlamps in the 7" round size format, both made by ValeoSylvania, both costing about $500 apiece, and both requiring sheetmetal mods to fit in place of a 7" round standard sealed beam. Most all the "Xenon" and "HID" headlamps on eBay and elsewhere are dangerous, illegal headlight-shaped toys. Most of them have blue-glass halogen bulbs falsely described as "Xenon HID", and some of them are nothing more than a (usually cheap crap) halogen headlamp with an "HID kit" pre-installed. "HID kits" in halogen-bulb headlamps or fog/auxiliary lamps (any kit, any lamp, any vehicle no matter whether it's a car, truck, motorcycle, etc.) do not work safely or effectively, which is why they are illegal. See here for full info.

Similarly, there are a bunch of LED headlamps on the market, but only one good one, made by J.W. Speaker (this one, made in Wisconsin) and it'll cost you about $400 apiece. In halogen headlamps; most of what's sold as an "upgrade" is garbage, and even among the relatively small number of reputable brands (Hella, Bosch, Cibie, and a couple of impossible-to-get Japanese brands) there's a large range of performance. Likewise, almost all the sealed beams on the market are trash -- only one particular GE sealed beam is any good; the rest of the GE line as well as the whole Wagner and Sylvania lines are very poor.

Whatever headlamps you wind up with, you ought to put in relays and large-gauge wire. See article on Allpar here.

Headlamp selection is pretty easy: How well do you want to see and what's your budget? If you need to keep the cost low, will be happy with "better" and don't need "extremely good", then don't buy cheap replaceable-bulb lamps of any brand, buy GE Night Hawk H6024NH sealed beams, which you can get for under $20 apiece from amazon.com (put H6024NH in the search field). They're still sealed beams, but they have a decent burner and decent optics in them, unlike every other sealed beam on the market. The higher-output burner does mean shorter lifespan, and being sealed beams you will have to replace the whole thing when it burns out.

If you have the cash to buy really good headlamps, get Cibie replaceable-bulb units. See here and here.

(The photos of the headlight beams on the road in both Allpar articles are very poor, but the text is very descriptive and accurate, and I'm not just saying that because I was consulted and "my" products were used in the articles).

Other lighting upgrades: See here, here, and here.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I followed Dan's advice and installed GE Night Hawk headlamps on my 89 Ford van. I got mine at my local Fred Meyer for around $10 each, if memory serves.

I was blown away by the difference. I could actually SEE the road, the light was bright and white, signs hundreds of feet away lit up, but I could see the sharp cutoff line on the top of the beam and it doesn't blind oncoming drivers. All the cars in my family that have the old replaceable style headlights will be getting GE Night Hawk headlamps. I still need to upgrade to relays in the headlights, but even just replacing the headlamps has been an amazing improvement.

If I ever win the lottery or get enough of an income, I am going to upgrade to Cibies. Until then, Night Hawks.