plug & play head lights

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duster star

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I have a 73 duster but would like a brighter head light that is in the car now. Is there a head lamp out there that I can put in place of the stock one's maybe led that can just plug into the connection's in the car. Life's been busy the car has been ready for 4 year's ready to go. IT'S NOW TIME TO GET back into the circle & get back on the road & back to for a bodies only a great site to catch up thank's
 
a: What lamps are in the car now?
b. Have they been properly aimed?
c. Do you care what the lamps look like?
d. How much are you willing to pay?
 
lamp's original, aimed original, looks as stock, price cheap & easy lol not looking for fancy
Well then really the best you may be able to do on the cheap is check and readjust the aim. A few things may have changed since 1973. Sometimes people put halogen sealed beam lamps in, and many of those have worse low beams than the original 6012 and later 6014s. :(

For about $100 USD the circuit can be improved with a plug and play relay circuit.
This provides power direct from the alternator. It eliminates the voltage losses through all the connections, distance, and relatively thin wires used in the original circuits. Lamps will be brighter because they operate at higher voltage.
(Dan Stern has an example of how many more lumens produced at different voltages here Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply)
For a plug and play relay harness see here HOW TO INSTALL CRACKEDBACK'S HEADLIGHT HARNESS
You can also buy the parts and make your own. Crackedback might sell them as a kit, if not Daniel Stern does.

With LED headlamps a relay system is probably not as helpful (depends on the condition of th eoriginal wires).
But all of the high quality LED headlamps are relatively expensive. Trucklight and JWSpeaker are two of the few that are in that catagory. Low budget I wouldn't even consider looking at LEDs.
 
I have a 73 duster but would like a brighter head light that is in the car now. Is there a head lamp out there that I can put in place of the stock one's maybe led that can just plug into the connection's in the car. Life's been busy the car has been ready for 4 year's ready to go. IT'S NOW TIME TO GET back into the circle & get back on the road & back to for a bodies only a great site to catch up thank's

duster star,
I would highly recommend that you contact Crackedback here on FABO and purchase one of his very well made headlight relay plug and play kits. Using his kit removes a major part of the electrical load going through the headlight switch. I installed his kit as have many others here on FABO and have been very happy with the increased headlight strength...check out the posts here on the site. He also makes “wire arounds” (to further decrease stress on electrical system) in 2 different gauges. I firmly believe installing these electrical upgrades will make your existing wiring much happier and less “stressful” LOL. Send him a PM and he will explain it in more and better detail than I did. You will be glad you did as getting brighter headlamps is only a bandaid and may be creating more problems for your existing electrical system. @crackedback
Good Luck and I hope this helps you.
318MG
 
duster star,
I would highly recommend that you contact Crackedback here on FABO and purchase one of his very well made headlight relay plug and play kits. Using his kit removes a major part of the electrical load going through the headlight switch. I installed his kit as have many others here on FABO and have been very happy with the increased headlight strength...check out the posts here on the site. He also makes “wire arounds” (to further decrease stress on electrical system) in 2 different gauges. I firmly believe installing these electrical upgrades will make your existing wiring much happier and less “stressful” LOL. Send him a PM and he will explain it in more and better detail than I did. You will be glad you did as getting brighter headlamps is only a bandaid and may be creating more problems for your existing electrical system. @crackedback
Good Luck and I hope this helps you.
318MG
Correct answer. Get his 6-gauge alternator to starter relay wire too—then you can get a Powermaster 1-wire alternator which solves some charging problems.
 
If you wire them yourself, you can do the relay mod for less than 20 bucks. Relay mod and a set of halogen lamps will get you straight. I dont have any experience with the LED headlights but I do know there are some junk ones on the market and also really good ones. The good ones can be quite pricey.
 
Be very, very careful choosing lighting products. Maybe @slantsixdan will chime in. He is a lighting engineer and can help you stay away from crap.
 
And I also second @crackedback's headlight harness. I have it on my Valiant, along with the Cibie H4 upgrade and I can see.
 
Relays and nighthawk lights are a good bang for the buck if you don’t want to spend more for cibie’s.
 
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Crackedback recommended I get the Nighthawks. They work fine for me.
They were good.
They are now made in a different factory, in another country, with different tooling and different materials. :(
In fact it seems the only thing that is the same is the product name and number.

Quick Identification of the two different H6024NH Nighthawks

The Good.
a1hy1okt-fl-_ac_sl1500_-jpg.jpg

Lens is marked with GE logo in the middle of their name
20210226_084710-jpg.jpg


The Bad
upload_2021-5-10_10-39-33.png


upload_2021-5-10_10-40-56.png


See links in earlier post for references
 
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Crackedback recommended I get the Nighthawks. They work fine for me.

Unfortunately the change in location has changed the quality of their product. They were definitely my favorite light until the recent change.
 
Unfortunately the change in location has changed the quality of their product. They were definitely my favorite light until the recent change.

Will your kit work for the electrically challenged such as myself?
 
Nighthawks were the last worthy sealed beams on the market when they were made in America. Now they're very poorly made in China, with severely lousy output (dim, blotchy, useless) and very fragile glass that breaks if you stare hard at it.

If you want affordable and solidly decent, it's these lamps with these bulbs.

If you want the top-of-the-heap Koito halogens, or the (legitimate) projector BiXenons, ping me.

If you want LEDs, be careful; there's a(nother) mountain of fraudulent/unsafe junk on the market, including all "LED bulbs" that fit in halogen headlamps (see here) and a whole lot of toys shaped like whole sealed beam headlamps. But there are some good-to-excellent ones on the market, too. the Peterson 701C is pretty good, and so is the Truck-Lite 27270C. By a big, big margin the king daddy of them all is the JW Speaker 8700, which comes in black or chrome. All three of these are well made in America. There's a lot of lookalike copycat junk "recommended" when you look at these; ignore them. Super-shіtty junk from NAPA, too; avoid it.

Whatever headlamps you wind up using, the most important thing about them is how they're aimed.
 
:lol: fair enough
And I strongly recommend using a relay system (like crackedback's plug and play) with any of these headlamps.
They all draw more current than the originals, and the original headlight wiring was not particularly robust to begin with.

Pictures of the type of damage that can occur with higher loads and poor connections in this post.

Even with the original 6012 lamps, the relay system will improve the performance while driving in most cases. Only possible exception would be a car whose electrical system is in truly top condition like it was when it left the factory.
 
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I see you liked my install thread. When you get your kit shoot me a PM if you have any questions. Trust me, a chimp can do it. lol

Very easy to install with detailed instructions.

And I still strongly recommend using a relay system (like crackedback's plug and play) with any of these headlamps except, maybe, and original set of 6012.
They all draw more current than the originals, and the original headlight wiring was not particularly robust to begin with.

Pictures of the type of damage that can occur with higher loads and poor connections in this post.

Thanks guys. Once I get a little scratch saved up, I will be purchasing one of crackedback's kits.
 
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