I lifted this from twin posts on Wrangler Forum and Jeep Forum. It has a lot of good info that I thought might be of interest to the expedition community. This is copy and paste of the post.
"I've been looking into upgrading my headlights and thought I would share the information that I received from Daniel Stern so that it may help others in their decision (I'm not affliated, bla, bla, bla):
The original headlamps are sealed beams. No matter what brand or when made, these are primitive and barely marginally adequate. They produce a dim, narrow, brownish tunnel of poorly-focused light, very little light on the road surface, no side spill, and a great deal of upward stray light that causes backdazzle in bad weather. You can do much better than these, but you have to be picky and shop carefully because most of what's on the market is junk (though all of it is advertised as an "upgrade").
Halogen headlamps:
The lamps you want are type-approved Cibie replaceable-bulb H4 units, $158/pair. All of the
reputable-brand 200mm x 142mm headlamps presently available (Cibie,
Bosch, Hella) are well made of good quality materials, but
the Cibies are the most efficient, best focused, highest
performing units of their type -- more detail on request.
There's a great deal of junk on the market, too. Delta,
Roundeyes, Adjure, Eagle Eye, Eaglite, Maxtel, Eurolite, Neolite, Autopal, Rampage, and
dozens of other off-brand units mostly from China or India. Avoid all
of it.
The optimal bulbs are precision-focus, ultra high luminance 60/55w items, $43.18/pair. It's tempting to grab for big wattage numbers (100/90, etc) but please see bulb test results posted by my colleague Virgil at http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?392498-Interesting-headlight-bulb-test-results .
Any of the "extra white" bulbs is a nonstarter as far as seeing better is concerned. It doesn't matter whose name is on the bulb. Sylvania SilverStar/Ultra, PIAA, Hoen,BlueVision, CrystalVision, TruView, Nokya, Polarg, etc. -- all the same scam. They have a completely blue-tinted glass, which blocks an unreasonable amount of the light that would reach the road if the glass weren't tinted, so they produce _less_ light than ordinary bulbs (not more), and in order to get legal-minimum levels of light through the blue glass the filament has to be driven very hard so these bulbs have a very short lifespan. And there's nothing about the tinted light that improves your ability to see -- the opposite is true, in fact. All it does is change the beam color slightly, to zero real benefit.
Note Sylvania recently got spanked to the tune of thirty million dollars(!) for the false "upgrade" claims they make for their Silver Star bulbs: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...or-their-false-claims-of-headlamp-superiority - and theirs were the least-bad of an overall bad product category.
HID headlamps:
"HID kits" in halogen-bulb headlamps (any kit, any headlamp,
any vehicle) do not work safely or effectively, which is why
they are illegal whether you buy the lamps and the kit together in one go or separately. See
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html . There are no legitimate HID headlamps to fit your Jeep (just headlite-shaped toys/junk).
LED headlamps:
There are a couple of 200mm x 142mm LED headlamps on the market. The king daddy of them all is the JW Speaker item in chrome https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0120QGXIO/?tag=2402507-20 or black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013588TCY/?tag=2402507-20 . If those aren't in the budget, then get the Truck-Lite item https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ED7HNY/?tag=2402507-20 . Beam focus and width aren't as good as the JW Speaker lamp (beam pattern contains streaks and spots), but this is still objectively a fine headlamp.
LED headlamps are *not* advisable if you do a lot of wintertime driving with heavy snow and slush; the LED headlamp lenses run cold, so snow and ice build up on them instead of melting off as from a halogen lamp's warm lens.
_Lamp aim:_
Lamp aim is by far the main thing that determines how well you can (or can't) see at night, so no matter what, you will need to see to it that the lamps are aimed carefully and correctly with an optical aiming machine per the "VOL" instructions at
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html (Truck-Lite units per "mechanical aim"). Even if the stock lamps were correctly aimed, you must check and adjust the new lamps.
_Fog lamps:_
Most factory items are useless no matter what bulb is
installed (though you can make them dangerous by installing
anything other than the specified bulb). Please see http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/fog_lamps/fog_lamps.html for thorough information about what fog lamps will/won't and can/can't do, and if your driving conditions do call for fogs, let me know and I can make some recommendations.
Daytime running lights:
If yours is a Canadian-spec Jeep (either by original
manufacture or by private importation), or you're not in
Canada but have had the Daytime Running Light function
enabled, you will either need to stay with the stock
headlight wiring (and its attendant limitations) or rework
the daytime running lamps; the stock DRL configuration runs
the high beam circuit at reduced duty cycle. This is not
compatible with LED headlamps or with any kind of relay installation.
There are many different DRL implementations permitted in
Canada, and the requirement is that you have an acceptable
type of DRL; they don't necessarily have to be the same type
the car came with. Deactivating the factory DRL circuit is
easy; find instructions at
http://www.lightsout.org/disable.html (disregard all the
blather on that site about how evil and stupid DRLs are).
Re-enabling (or adding) DRLs:
Daytime running lights significantly reduce your risk of being in a crash during the daytime, and are required equipment in Canada, throughout Europe, and in a large and growing number of other countries throughout the world because they are a very cost-effective safety device (i.e., they work). You can easily enable this functionality in your vehicle using a DRL-1 module ($59); see http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/DRL/DRL1.html for instructions and demonstration videos. This is the best way to put a daytime running light function on a vehicle not originally equipped (or which has had its headlamp-based DRLs disabled for installation of headlight relays). The module enables the steady-burning operation of both front directional signals as daytime running lights (except, of course, when you're signalling for a turn). They produce a light distribution with a wide view angle, are generally well located for DRL service at the outboard edges of the front of the vehicle, consume considerably less power than any headlamp-based DRL implementation, use light sources of generally much longer life than a headlight bulb, do not encourage improper nighttime use of lights, and do not require additional lighting devices to be added. A large variety of vehicles from a wide array of makers use this implementation. It is steady-lit operation of the bright amber turn signals (except when they are flashing to signal a turn) -- it is not steady operation of the dim parking lamps; parking lights are not bright enough and don't have the right view angles to serve the daytime running light function. Turn signal DRLs comply with US and Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards #108 and are approved in all states, provinces, and territories.
Additional lighting upgrades:
Your vehicle's front amber side marker lights can be made
80% brighter for safer side-on visibility of the Jeep at
night, for $4.59/bulb. Direct swap.
If you wish to discuss other lighting upgrades (auxiliary
high beam "driving" lamps, etc.) I am at your service.
*For items with a price quote in this email:*
Any items I've quoted prices on are items I sell myself. For those, please use the instructions that follow this section.
*For items I've linked in this email:*
Kindly please use the links I provided so Amazon will toss me a small referral bonus -- without increasing the price to you. That is how I am able to afford to keep offering sound advice through personalized consulting whether or not I sell the optimal parts for your upgrade.
_HOW TO ORDER:_
Orders may be sent via e-mail. You may also voicemail or fax your order toll-free on 1-866-861-8668. Please note this is a secure recorded orderline only.
PLEASE INDICATE:
- The *vehicle(s)* for which the parts are being ordered,
- The *items* you wish to purchase,
- The *address* where you want the items shipped if it differs from the billing address,
- Your *telephone number*
- The type of *shipping* you wish.
All items are warehoused in the USA. Priority Mail shipping is standard on shipments within the US, to Canada, and internationally; all other service levels are available on request. FedEx shipping is available upon request.
Please also state whether the delivery driver has your permission to leave the parcel at your doorstep if you are not available to accept and sign for it in person, though be advised PayPal and most credit card processors including mine require signed delivery for shipments over a certain value; waiving the signature waives all buyer _and_ seller protection for the transaction.
_PAYMENT METHODS:_
I accept PayPal. If you wish to use PayPal, please send your shopping list and I will send you a PayPal invoice from which to pay. Please _do not attempt_ to pay by PayPal until you have received a PayPal invoice for your order.
I also accept Visa, Mastercard, and Discover. Orders are processed securely and customer card info is never retained after processing your order.
*All* of the following information is required in order to process a credit card order:
-Card number
-Expiry date
-CVV code (last group of 3 or 4 digits on back of card)
-Your name as it appears on the card
-Billing address
-Phone number
I look forward to receiving and filling your order.
Cheers and drive safely,
Daniel Stern"
"I've been looking into upgrading my headlights and thought I would share the information that I received from Daniel Stern so that it may help others in their decision (I'm not affliated, bla, bla, bla):
The original headlamps are sealed beams. No matter what brand or when made, these are primitive and barely marginally adequate. They produce a dim, narrow, brownish tunnel of poorly-focused light, very little light on the road surface, no side spill, and a great deal of upward stray light that causes backdazzle in bad weather. You can do much better than these, but you have to be picky and shop carefully because most of what's on the market is junk (though all of it is advertised as an "upgrade").
Halogen headlamps:
The lamps you want are type-approved Cibie replaceable-bulb H4 units, $158/pair. All of the
reputable-brand 200mm x 142mm headlamps presently available (Cibie,
Bosch, Hella) are well made of good quality materials, but
the Cibies are the most efficient, best focused, highest
performing units of their type -- more detail on request.
There's a great deal of junk on the market, too. Delta,
Roundeyes, Adjure, Eagle Eye, Eaglite, Maxtel, Eurolite, Neolite, Autopal, Rampage, and
dozens of other off-brand units mostly from China or India. Avoid all
of it.
The optimal bulbs are precision-focus, ultra high luminance 60/55w items, $43.18/pair. It's tempting to grab for big wattage numbers (100/90, etc) but please see bulb test results posted by my colleague Virgil at http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?392498-Interesting-headlight-bulb-test-results .
Any of the "extra white" bulbs is a nonstarter as far as seeing better is concerned. It doesn't matter whose name is on the bulb. Sylvania SilverStar/Ultra, PIAA, Hoen,BlueVision, CrystalVision, TruView, Nokya, Polarg, etc. -- all the same scam. They have a completely blue-tinted glass, which blocks an unreasonable amount of the light that would reach the road if the glass weren't tinted, so they produce _less_ light than ordinary bulbs (not more), and in order to get legal-minimum levels of light through the blue glass the filament has to be driven very hard so these bulbs have a very short lifespan. And there's nothing about the tinted light that improves your ability to see -- the opposite is true, in fact. All it does is change the beam color slightly, to zero real benefit.
Note Sylvania recently got spanked to the tune of thirty million dollars(!) for the false "upgrade" claims they make for their Silver Star bulbs: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...or-their-false-claims-of-headlamp-superiority - and theirs were the least-bad of an overall bad product category.
HID headlamps:
"HID kits" in halogen-bulb headlamps (any kit, any headlamp,
any vehicle) do not work safely or effectively, which is why
they are illegal whether you buy the lamps and the kit together in one go or separately. See
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html . There are no legitimate HID headlamps to fit your Jeep (just headlite-shaped toys/junk).
LED headlamps:
There are a couple of 200mm x 142mm LED headlamps on the market. The king daddy of them all is the JW Speaker item in chrome https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0120QGXIO/?tag=2402507-20 or black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013588TCY/?tag=2402507-20 . If those aren't in the budget, then get the Truck-Lite item https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ED7HNY/?tag=2402507-20 . Beam focus and width aren't as good as the JW Speaker lamp (beam pattern contains streaks and spots), but this is still objectively a fine headlamp.
LED headlamps are *not* advisable if you do a lot of wintertime driving with heavy snow and slush; the LED headlamp lenses run cold, so snow and ice build up on them instead of melting off as from a halogen lamp's warm lens.
_Lamp aim:_
Lamp aim is by far the main thing that determines how well you can (or can't) see at night, so no matter what, you will need to see to it that the lamps are aimed carefully and correctly with an optical aiming machine per the "VOL" instructions at
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html (Truck-Lite units per "mechanical aim"). Even if the stock lamps were correctly aimed, you must check and adjust the new lamps.
_Fog lamps:_
Most factory items are useless no matter what bulb is
installed (though you can make them dangerous by installing
anything other than the specified bulb). Please see http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/fog_lamps/fog_lamps.html for thorough information about what fog lamps will/won't and can/can't do, and if your driving conditions do call for fogs, let me know and I can make some recommendations.
Daytime running lights:
If yours is a Canadian-spec Jeep (either by original
manufacture or by private importation), or you're not in
Canada but have had the Daytime Running Light function
enabled, you will either need to stay with the stock
headlight wiring (and its attendant limitations) or rework
the daytime running lamps; the stock DRL configuration runs
the high beam circuit at reduced duty cycle. This is not
compatible with LED headlamps or with any kind of relay installation.
There are many different DRL implementations permitted in
Canada, and the requirement is that you have an acceptable
type of DRL; they don't necessarily have to be the same type
the car came with. Deactivating the factory DRL circuit is
easy; find instructions at
http://www.lightsout.org/disable.html (disregard all the
blather on that site about how evil and stupid DRLs are).
Re-enabling (or adding) DRLs:
Daytime running lights significantly reduce your risk of being in a crash during the daytime, and are required equipment in Canada, throughout Europe, and in a large and growing number of other countries throughout the world because they are a very cost-effective safety device (i.e., they work). You can easily enable this functionality in your vehicle using a DRL-1 module ($59); see http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/DRL/DRL1.html for instructions and demonstration videos. This is the best way to put a daytime running light function on a vehicle not originally equipped (or which has had its headlamp-based DRLs disabled for installation of headlight relays). The module enables the steady-burning operation of both front directional signals as daytime running lights (except, of course, when you're signalling for a turn). They produce a light distribution with a wide view angle, are generally well located for DRL service at the outboard edges of the front of the vehicle, consume considerably less power than any headlamp-based DRL implementation, use light sources of generally much longer life than a headlight bulb, do not encourage improper nighttime use of lights, and do not require additional lighting devices to be added. A large variety of vehicles from a wide array of makers use this implementation. It is steady-lit operation of the bright amber turn signals (except when they are flashing to signal a turn) -- it is not steady operation of the dim parking lamps; parking lights are not bright enough and don't have the right view angles to serve the daytime running light function. Turn signal DRLs comply with US and Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards #108 and are approved in all states, provinces, and territories.
Additional lighting upgrades:
Your vehicle's front amber side marker lights can be made
80% brighter for safer side-on visibility of the Jeep at
night, for $4.59/bulb. Direct swap.
If you wish to discuss other lighting upgrades (auxiliary
high beam "driving" lamps, etc.) I am at your service.
*For items with a price quote in this email:*
Any items I've quoted prices on are items I sell myself. For those, please use the instructions that follow this section.
*For items I've linked in this email:*
Kindly please use the links I provided so Amazon will toss me a small referral bonus -- without increasing the price to you. That is how I am able to afford to keep offering sound advice through personalized consulting whether or not I sell the optimal parts for your upgrade.
_HOW TO ORDER:_
Orders may be sent via e-mail. You may also voicemail or fax your order toll-free on 1-866-861-8668. Please note this is a secure recorded orderline only.
PLEASE INDICATE:
- The *vehicle(s)* for which the parts are being ordered,
- The *items* you wish to purchase,
- The *address* where you want the items shipped if it differs from the billing address,
- Your *telephone number*
- The type of *shipping* you wish.
All items are warehoused in the USA. Priority Mail shipping is standard on shipments within the US, to Canada, and internationally; all other service levels are available on request. FedEx shipping is available upon request.
Please also state whether the delivery driver has your permission to leave the parcel at your doorstep if you are not available to accept and sign for it in person, though be advised PayPal and most credit card processors including mine require signed delivery for shipments over a certain value; waiving the signature waives all buyer _and_ seller protection for the transaction.
_PAYMENT METHODS:_
I accept PayPal. If you wish to use PayPal, please send your shopping list and I will send you a PayPal invoice from which to pay. Please _do not attempt_ to pay by PayPal until you have received a PayPal invoice for your order.
I also accept Visa, Mastercard, and Discover. Orders are processed securely and customer card info is never retained after processing your order.
*All* of the following information is required in order to process a credit card order:
-Card number
-Expiry date
-CVV code (last group of 3 or 4 digits on back of card)
-Your name as it appears on the card
-Billing address
-Phone number
I look forward to receiving and filling your order.
Cheers and drive safely,
Daniel Stern"
