kentetsu: keep in mind youll be dissipating more than 100W of energy inside a TINY little halogen fixture, while bumping the living **** out of it and exposing it to thermal shock (cold rainwater, snow, deer guts, etc.)

i wouldn't expect a combo bulb (hi+low) to last very long with both filiments lit. time to go four-lamp like a camaro. yeee haw!

 

You DO NOT want FOG lights hooked up woith your brights. Driving lights yes, but not fogs.

The point of a fog light is to shine light way down low near the ground where there is much less fog. High beams defeat this purpose and infact hurt you vision in the fog because they just reflect off of all the water particles. With fog lights you would actually want them on a separate switch and turn your headlights (hi & low beams) OFF for best vision through thick fog.

I cannot stress this enough.

If your extra lights are driving lights and not fog lights then yes, hook them up with the high beams, but if you want effective FOG lights put them on a separate switch.





also, you can modify the combo switch to have that mid point you are talking about. There's a white plastic piece inside that moves the contacts back and forth. Grind this down a tiny bit and then the overlap will be bigger between when the highs come on and the lows go off. It works really well.

But like SparkienSuggah said (and I have read many time before) you do not want both high & low beam on at the same time since it will cause the headlight housing to get extra hot and then the bulb inside will burn out a lot quicker. so far mine seem to be holding up okay, but I've only had it like this for 3 or 4 months.

I don't use them both very often since usually when you have high beams on its because you're going faster and looking far ahead of you. Thus you don't want bright light shining close to you and hurting your night vision.



Kentetsu, hope I'm not comming off like an ***, just want to clear up a few common misconceptions about lights.

 

Yeah, meant driving lights rather than fog lights. Daniel Stern includes instructions on how to run both high and low beams at the same time, so longevity and heat might not be a problem. Anyway, just throwing out some options...

 

To allay any fears out there my lights are driving lights by KC, old skool style rectangular, I live in the country and drive a lot of highway miles at night so I wanted greater driving vision not fog lighting.

 

good to know guys.

Definitely a good idea to hook them up to the high beam circuit then so you go on less switch to fumble for.

Another idea is to use a 3 way switch (on-off-on) for the driving lights. Hook up one of the ON positions so that it goes through the highbeam circuit, and hook up the other ON position to be fully manual so they can come on whenever.

 

what is the best headlight to get not bulb

 

kentetsu have u seen the wiring that just plugs in w/o the relay its called kyo , its just plug n play no relays at all and say u can no run higher wattage lights and not have any problems

 

I believe that what you are referring to are just the beefed up plugs. These were needed in some cases when going to the "silverstar" bulbs (stock plugs were getting hot and melting, causing fires). I would say stay away from that stuff. If you install the relays, all of the power is running straight from the battery, through the relay, then to the headlights. This is much better than stock because stock sends the juice through all of the small gauge wiring of the switches and then to the lights, which really cuts down on the actual amount of juice that reaches the lights. The relays also take all of the strain off of the small wiring and the headlight switches. This is the way that it should have been done at the factory, but unfortunately nobody seems to care when actually building cars. As far as what bulb to use, stay away from anything blue. I'm using (I think this is right) Phillips X-tra vision bulbs and they are awesome. Hope this helps.

 

yeah it helps big time cause i was about to do this for my moms car too besides mine and was going to spend 20 a piece for both. I have seen the set up from daniel s and i heard there is 1 from vb too , but i dont see it in my book, can someone show me pic of it and if therre is a diff between both of these from vb and ds

 

Check earlier in the post it has a pic of the VB harness. It is exactly the one APC makes = shitty.

 

Yeah, I will assume that the kit from Stern would be heavy gauge but the one from VB is junk.

 

i wonder how long it will take to get here from canada and im n cali. and do u no how much they run and if they make it for other cars too

 

i just bought the harness set-up from daniel and want to no how much u guys payed for it and if so can i see pics of it

 

I paid $1 for my setup

 

how so cheap

 

50cents each for two generic 25amp relays with pigtails at the local surplus store, plus some misc wiring & solder that I had laying around. I reused the stock plugs & some wiring as they are more than adequate for any street legal halogen bulbs.

oh, and this is canuck $$$ too




no sense buying some bling bling setup when I can make it all myself.

 

yikes then i wont tell u how much i payed california cashola

 

Big Ern I would greatly appreciate it if you would post some of your pics of your altenator set up. Aren't the GM altenators cheaper and put out more amps than the second gen altenators?

 

yes, they are usually a lot cheaper since they are much more common, and put out more amperageas well.

I will dig up the pics I took of my install and do a write-up tonight. I'll post a link to the thread in here when I'm done

 

Thanks alot

 

i talk to daniel kewl guy explained to me all about the harness

 

I'm interested also Big Ern, thanks

Steve

 

Sorry guys, I've been really busy the last few days. I'll try to get it done mon or tues. If I don't, send me a PM because i probably forgot

 

Big Ern, maybe post this in a new thread labelled for GM alternator upgrade. Just a thought.

 

ya I will. I'll put a link in here tho so you guys can find it