More headlights questions

Topic: More headlights questions (Read 1244 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #1 – September 30, 2010, 11:15:19 am

Those lights below the genny door are probably fog lights, they will work only when lights are on on low beam. AUX switch is probably for them.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #2 – September 30, 2010, 11:33:24 am

Gayland,
On my U270 (1997) the outside lamps are the low beams and the inside lamps are the high beams. They may be wired wrong. Still it won't improve the lighting much. I would check the alignment, though.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #3 – September 30, 2010, 11:47:23 am

There was a post concerning the wire size etc..

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #4 – September 30, 2010, 01:14:02 pm

Check you voltage at your lights and see what voltage you have. You may have low voltage. If so you will need to change to a relay system and run a heavy battery line from the chassis battery to the area of the lights and operate them thru the relays. Check at this http://danielsternlighting.com/, click on Tech and then on Why and how to upgrade your lighting circuit . It will give you all the information you need to know.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #5 – September 30, 2010, 07:40:55 pm

Among the many solutions to dim headlights, keep in mind that the lens with just high beam has the same bulb as the lens with high & low, which is a dual filament bulb. Consider using both for low beam as well as both for high beam.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #6 – September 30, 2010, 07:48:01 pm

Quote from: Barry & Cindy – September 30, 2010, 07:40:55 pm

Among the many solutions to dim headlights, keep in mind that the lens with just high beam has the same bulb as the lens with high & low, which is a dual filament bulb. Consider using both for low beam as well as both for high beam.

Barry,
Wiring modification needed, right?

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #7 – September 30, 2010, 09:02:27 pm

Peter, I went out and double checked mine and they are as I said, lows on the inside. So the question then becomes, who's is wrong? It would seem since mine were replaced they might have been done backwards. Is one way better than the other?

Regarding wiring size, I've seen those posts, but again, the brights are excellent, which leads me to think the voltage is okay. I will check it though, and await Barry's response to how you wire in the other filaments.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #8 – September 30, 2010, 09:16:35 pm

Gayland,
I believe the two lamps are different. One is a single filament (high beam), and the other is a dual filament (high & low beams).

Then, you could replace the single filament lamp with a dual filament and modify the wiring by splicing into the high beam lead so you can plug into the dual filament. An auto store can help with the adapter for the wiring and plug for the headlight assembly so when the lights are turned on both lamps are on low & when the high beam is selected both are on high beam.

ps. I don't know if this mod is legal in all states.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #9 – September 30, 2010, 10:16:46 pm

Quote from: Gayland Baasch – September 30, 2010, 11:12:40 am

Headlights were all replaced in 05 by the PO (previous owners for GS). Invoice doesn't say what they are, but were $337 per pair, plus $150 labor (FOT). They're excellent on bright.

Look on the lens and see what the numbers are. If we know the numbers we can find out what original lighting system they are from. They look like a '89 Ford Bronco headlights just like the ones on the '94 U models with a extra rectangular lens beside them. It is possible that they have the wrong bulb in the low beams. Can you access that area?

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #10 – September 30, 2010, 10:19:17 pm

I inquired into this problem last year and was told the wiring is already in place for the low lights to come on in all four headlights. ( I think it was Kenny Lemon) I was told that TX does not allow FT to hookup four dims at once. So I just hooked them up myself and checked voltage to make sure I wasn't over and now all four are working on both brights and dims works great. Norm

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #11 – September 30, 2010, 10:37:38 pm

oops, meant to say amps. I believe it is a 20 amp circut and with all 4 dims on I draw 12 amps. Norm,

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #12 – September 30, 2010, 11:40:55 pm

Quote

I was thinking I had a problem, my low beams are so bad they're about worthless. But I did a search on headlights and found it's a pretty common problem. So the purpose of this post is two fold, first to alert newcomers, and 2nd, to ask if there is a final answer to fix this problem, other than $$$$$$$.

Here are a few options.
http://beamalarm.com/Documents/headlight_modifications_on_older_coaches.htm

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #13 – October 01, 2010, 10:03:18 am

Next question: Is there any subject that BB doesn't already have an article on??? Thanks

I'm going to tear into mine today, at least find why the one is loose. I see by the Mason article that Barry links to, the brights are the inner ones also, at least in his case. (2 against one Peter, you lose

)

I'm real reluctant to do any major modifications, relays, etc that might affect reliability. I had an incident a couple years ago with my SOB, driving on a construction road (read no lines, black as the ace of spades, on a black night) and the lights went out when I switched to high beam. Talk about your life flashing before your eyes! Fortunately, they came back on on lows. I'm still feel anxious every time I click on highs. The fix there was a new switch.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #14 – October 01, 2010, 10:12:51 am

Quote from: Peter & Beth – September 30, 2010, 11:33:24 am

Gayland,
On my U270 (1997) the outside lamps are the low beams and the inside lamps are the high beams. They may be wired wrong. Still it won't improve the lighting much. I would check the alignment, though.

Hmmm.
I think I had it right. I guess I should have said "Yours may be wired wrong". At least your initial post suggested that your outers were high beams & inners were low beams.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #15 – October 01, 2010, 12:26:24 pm

Whoops, I stated that wrong, the article said the inners were the low beams, not the high beams as I said. Now that we have THAT straight.....

I crawled under, well, laid along side mostly - checked the voltage, I'm getting 13.3 volts with low beams on and engine idling, so I'm ruling out low voltage as the problem. The loose unit was connected at the bottom, but at the top there are just a couple screws that are suppose to penetrate downward into the fixture and they weren't. I was able to reach up and get one of them in so they're solid for now.

There are adjusters, for the lower end, from underneath, requires about an 1/8 inch socket/nut driver. The top ones have the same setup, put facing to the front so they're about impossible to reach from the front, at least not without a special tool. So 3 of the 4 units on mine had a double nut on the back side of the adjuster bolt, apparently so you could put a 7/16 inch socket on them and do the adjusting.

The parts number on the units correspond to the Ford PU/Bronco 87-91 so FOT doesn't do anything new when they replace them. If the bulb date is correct, they didn't even replace them, (Jan 1995)

So, next step, it will be easy enough to hook in the other two filaments so I have 4 on on low beam, and I'm also going to further research better (brighter) bulbs. Maybe even replacing these 15 year old ones would help.

Note to those who haven't seen the posts about the yellowing of the plastic. They don't need to be replaced, they can be cleaned up.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #16 – October 01, 2010, 01:00:11 pm

The problem is simple - the lights are mounted too low. I did a HID conversion on mine. There is some glare BUT because the lamps are so low it has not been a problem - and I've never been flashed
(well at least by a driver...).
The HID conversion is not only an excellent conversion, its inexpensive and lowers the current draw by 30%.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #17 – October 01, 2010, 01:51:03 pm

Dave, can you give more details of what all is involved?

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #18 – October 01, 2010, 02:30:38 pm

You can use the lamp identifier at Sylvania.com to identify the bulb type you need.
Raise the coach. I mounted the ignitor with zip ties on the angle iron support. Remove the old bulb, slip in the new and follow the wiring instructions. 15 to 20 min per side. Really easy. You 'should' buff the headlamp face if its going opaque.

I did a writeup when I did mine. Should be able to find it. Mine was a cheapo set from China and they did the alignment tabs backwards so I had to cut one off.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #19 – October 02, 2010, 02:20:39 pm

I posted this on the old Yahoos group last year. My headlights were next to usless on low beam. I did a search in general on this and often the cause is too small of wires going to the headlights. Mine were tiny and I metered the volts at the lights themselves @ 11.5v (with the Batteries over 13v. So some re-wiring was in order. What I did next made my funky old headlights work VERY nice. It took 3 relays from EBAY @ $2ea. I used one of the larger wires Foretravel conveniently left for us as spares that run the length of the coach. My Battery isolator has 4 terminals on it, one that when I got the coach had a jumper between 2 of them, I removed this jumper long ago when I discovered it was overcharging my house batteries. The one terminal has 1 volt higher (15V) that the other 2 (1 to each battery bank). I connected a fused wire from this hotter terminal and ran it to my low beam headlights up front. With the 3 relays it is operated by the headlight switch and if for some reason the fuse blows or alternator goes out the relays switch it back to normal (funky) mode. So that I do not totally loose my lights if the alternator were to go out.
It is likely my headlights bulbs may not last as long with the higher voltage, so I carry a spare set, but after 1 year no problems.
Bob, 96 U320

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #20 – October 02, 2010, 02:57:43 pm

Hi Bob,
So good to see you posting here. How have you been? Still doing the yearly trip south of the border, and Arizona? Have your modifications made any changes to the fuel use? Good health, and safe travels,

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #21 – October 09, 2010, 09:31:46 am

I've been waiting to get to the big city to check out the different options for new lights, but in the meantime, I wired in the outer lights so they also come on on low beam. It isn't the cure, but helps some, plus it gives redundancy so you're not left with one low beam if one burns out. It's only a 5 minute job and doesn't even require any added wire. There is a 6 inch long pig tail coming from the light, just pull it out of the sheath, and connect it to the operating low beam wire.

Re: More headlights questions

Reply #22 – October 10, 2010, 05:35:40 pm

Hi Ray, not sure if we are going back to ElGolfo anymore, not a safety issue, my wife cannot stand to see the starving dogs, it is pretty sad.
The Ram air intake, seems to have made an overall increase in MPG of .35. Power, if I had to guess I would say between a 30 and 50 hp increase. shifting points dropped significantly, not shure why, but I will go into 6th and stay there @ 50mph now. Maybe because the engine is working much easier now. My headlight brightness increases dramatically with the higher voltage. Plan on heading South around the end of October. We bought a house in Bullhead City, Az. kinda by accident, made a rediculious offer and the Bank took it. So the Coach will now be used for shorter trips up to 2 weeks. Bullhead City is a great place to spend the winter, it is a great place to be from in the summer!. Bought a Jeep cherokee diesel in August, it's been my hobby over the past 5 weeks,[ Got it pretty much tricked out now.
Take care: Bob

Quote from: Raymond Jordan – October 02, 2010, 02:57:43 pm

Hi Bob,
So good to see you posting here. How have you been? Still doing the yearly trip south of the border, and Arizona? Have your modifications made any changes to the fuel use? Good health, and safe travels,

Affiliate Notice