short headlight life

[tonkater]

I've been thinking of upgrading to an aftermarket headlight harness for all three of my trucks. However I've heard that some guys are experiencing very drastically shortened life of their bulbs - whether oem, sylvania heavy duties or etc.
If these harness draw power directly from alt and not bat , could the fluctuations in alt output be what is killing the bulbs ( kind of like "dirty power" to our home computers)

Besides the headlight life issue , I'm also concerned with whether this change , plus changing to running all 4 bulbs on high beam could create any kind of fire hazzard ?

[FirstDiesel]

tonkater


I'll give you my 2 cents here. I have run high output Hella H4 lamps in my sportcar for years with no noticeable bulb life issues. Since the truck doesn't use H4's I and the Hellas were expensive for 4 bulbs I tried Eiko lamps. When they light they are wonderful but so far I have gone through 4 bulbs in 4 weeks. The dealer claims they have had no issues with these bulbs but since each one has failed in a different mode of failure I refuse to blame the truck, especially since the stock bulbs are fine.
I think bulb life equals manufacture quality. That doesn't mean a "name brand" bulb might still not be junk.

As for a fire hazard with all 4 lamps on, I guess it would depend how you do it. Buy one of those cheap kits that just jumps the lamps together and uses the stock wiring, maybe. Get a Kennedy harness, no way. The thing is stout!!

[ccds]

try doing a search for headlight harness you will get lots of info from members that have already gone through some of the problems you are having.

here is a sample:

http://forum.thedieselpage.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=000144&p=

I have used JK's harness and bulbs since Oct. and not one problem....

smile.gif

[mdrag]

tonkater,

I've had the KD harness on my truck since 11/2001 with the 70W/100W Philips bulbs and no problems to report - except that I don't like it when I have to turn OFF the high beams tongue.gif

It is my understanding that high performance bulbs such as the Philips Rally series will have a shorter lifespan than regular bulbs - a good analogy would be noticably reduced rear tire life with frequent performance box exercising... :D

As far as a fire hazard, the KD harness is VERY heavy duty with fusible links on the power leads, and if installed correctly - should not pose a fire risk. I would be much more concerned using one of the cheaper conversion that use relays and the OEM harness - especially if you go to higher wattage bulbs.

I'm moving this topic to the 2500HD/3500 HD Trucks and Drivetrain forum.