Headlight Improvements

[smganger]

I just bought a 1995 GMC Suburban TD. One of the first things I want to do is improve the headlights- I am going to at least change over the wire harness first. I have seen lamp assy- the diamond lamps or the projector lamps- that might be further improvement over the stock assy? I would also replace the existing bulb. Would higher wattage halogens be better than Xenon or "H.I.D."? There is no such thing as too much light! Ant thoughts would be welcome.

[JimWilson]

I don't know what "diamond" lamps are, but for pure, even light distribution virtually nothing beats projectors. But those are NOT dictated by the type of bulbs you use -- they can be used with whatever the manufacturer of the projector housing has decided he wants to use (halogen, HID's, etc).

Does the 95 allow you to replace the bulb, or are they sealed beams? If they're the latter then you can't just replace bulbs. If that's the case both Hella and IPF make replacement units that are a lot better. And IIRC, the IPF allows you to use whatever type of bulbs you want, so you can use something like the Sylvania Silverstars.

Replacing the wiring harness can indeed enable you to use higher wattage bulbs. But you have some considerations:

* They're illegal. Anything higher then stock wattage is against the law for on-road use

* They generate a lot more heat, so lens/reflector damage is a real concern

* Your battery and alternator better be up to the task, otherwise you'll toast either/both of them faster

Don't confuse Xenon and HID; they're not the same. You can get quartz bulbs with xenon gas in them, as opposed to halogen, which is what the Silverstar and PIAA Extreme Whites use. All HID's use xenon though.

Xenon gas burns "hotter" then halogen gas does, but in this case hotter does not mean heat. Light is measure on the Kelvin scale, which rates the color of light in degrees. So by saying hotter you only mean closer to the color of the sun (which is the holy grail for people who design and engineer lighting products).

HID upgrades should ONLY be done as a complete system; lights, lens and reflector. Anything less and your results will not be sufficient.

There's IS a point where you can have too much light, not only for on-coming traffic but for you! I'm an advanced lighting fanatic -- someone who has chased the elusive goal of the ultimate in lighting for more then 2 decades -- so I have a bit of experience in this area. ;) Trust me, you need to choose cautiously and wisely. Done properly you can have your cake AND eat it too (great lighting for you, while not blinding others). But it ain't easy, that's for sure.

And in case you're gonna ask, here's my setup...

* Silverstar bulbs for high and low beams

* suvlights.com wiring harness, with diodes to keep the lows on when the highs are engaged

* PIAA model 520 SMR foglights with PIAA Super White bulbs, wired in such a manner that I can use them whenever I want to (even if the highs are on)

The reason I "only" have Super Whites in my fogs -- which produce a slightly less white and intense light then the Silverstars do -- is that the fluted plastic lens on the factory headlights don't allow the same amount of intensity and color through as the clear glass of the foglights. Were I to have added Silverstars to the fogs as well the color output of the 2 sets of lights would haven been different, creating unequal fields of vision. Definitely not a good thing for night driving!

As you've probably already surmised, I can see REAL good with this config. But, this setup DOESN'T blind others, because they're installed and aimed properly. See, the best of both worlds. :D

[kerry witherspoon]

Jim seems like you put a great deal of time into serching a good system how would you rate it to stock. would you also email me a list of what you used, kwitherpoon@shaw.ca

[JimWilson]

Pretty much everything I used is listed above, unless there's something you're looking for that I don't quite understand. Let me know.

The improvement is like night and day (pun intended :D ). I can see now like GM never imaged I would be able to.