brighter head lights?

[slantsixdan]

I see no one brought this up, so how about HID lamps? They work wonders! About to order a setup for my DD.

Be real careful and please see this post. Although they are widely available, "HID kits" in halogen-bulb headlamps (any kit, any headlamp, any vehicle) do not work safely or effectively, which is why they are illegal. See detailed explanation here. Almost all the HID setups sold in the sealed-beam formats are exactly that: an "HID kit" and a halogen (usually H4) headlamp lens/reflector.

Good, effective, safe headlight performance is not just a matter of how much light you can spray out in front of the car. The right amount of light has got to go where it's needed, and light has got to be tightly controlled in areas where too much of it will spoil your safety (or blind other drivers, which eventually amounts to the same thing).

There are two (and only two) HID headlamps in the 7" round format that are effective, good, safe, and legal. They are the XE7 and the XE7R from ValeoSylvania. The XE7 is the better performer, but it's also fugly-lookin'. Both will require the central hole in the headlight bucket to be enlarged.

There is one (and only one) LED headlamp in the 7" round format that is effective, good, safe, and legal. It is the Speaker #8700. Finned aluminum housing, glass lens, advanced optics.

For either of those two options, good HID or good LED, you're looking at around $450 to $500 apiece (times two per car). Is it worth it? That's for the guy with his name on the credit card to decide. You do not have to spend big bucks to have objectively good headlighting.

Bad headlighting sucks, whether it's crummy sealed beams, cheap-and-nasty H4s, also-ran LED units or halfaѕѕed HIDs…and the "catch" is that the human visual system is a lousy judge of its own performance; it's very easy to create situations where we think/feel we can see way better or worse than we actually can. That's why a lot of guys with bad lights go around talking about how great their lights are. They aren't telling lies, it's just that they aren't seeing what they think they're seeing, because they're human beings.

 

[Coryduran]

damn I guess this is a popular topic! Well I appreciate all the input! I'll probably be doing some stuff to the headlights after I get my new tires.

 

[Promark]

the new challenger headlights look like they could work.. how do you go by putting in a differnt cars headlights?

 

[inkjunkie]

Dan has made mention for the XE7 and the XE7R from ValeoSylvania. I had one of the 5r units on a motorcycle I had. While it was a pretty spendy unit, it did more than pay for itself, saved me from hitting a coyote more than once. I am sure I did not have it aimed 100% correct, as the bike was a chopper and was difficult to reach the lamp to adjust it while holding the bike up. But I can say it did throw a TON of light out in front. If I was in the middle of your typical 2 lane road, it would light up the entire roadway, shoulders included.

 

[slantsixdan]

the new challenger headlights look like they could work

So do the quad-round headlamps on '80s-'90s BMWs and mid-late '90s Jaguars, but once you start taking stuff apart, you see it only looks like they're an easy physical swap with older individual quad round lamp setups. I have no doubt it could be done, but it will take a lot more cutting and welding and plastic modification (grill) than it looks like. For one thing, the "quad" lamps on the Challenger are in fact one common housing; the bodywork hides the part between the two round portions. It's not like the earlier setups where each round lamp is self-contained. So if the spacing between your two individual round beams isn't identical to the spacing between the round portions of the Challenger housing, it's going to be really hard to make it work. Definitely well within the realm of advanced hot rod modding. If you decide to try this kind of a swap on your vehicle with quad round lamps, and you can make the spacing work, the ones to pick would be the current Challenger BiXenon (HID) units -- they are based on a very good optic made in Korea by Samlip. The halogen Challenger lamps are low-end junk. The '98-'03 Jaguar quad halogen lamps are quite good, and those are individual units, but they aren't standard-fit; you'd have to swap 'em bracket and all.