Been perusing the sylvania site on headlamps. According to their specs all high beams are 1700 lumen and lows are 1000 lumen. Be that normal, long life, silvestar, etc. But yet the comparision pictures they show the silverstars are the brightest, not to mention the most expensive and shortest life. ouch. So how is it that all of them have the same lumen spec but have different brightness? I'm sure some have run the silverstars. Are they really the brightest?
Do the xtravision show any difference. Is this just marketing hype and all are really the same?

TIA,

Jim

Silver stars are CRAP! I bought a pair, they lasted a month, both blew..took em back for a new pair, five weeks and they blew...took them back and got a pair of APC bulbs and some money back...had them in close to six months now. The APCs are much better than stock and preety close to the silvercraps, but not quite....a 10 on he bang for your buck meter...IMHO

Ox

They may appear brighter even though putting out the same number of lumens or candlepower. Your eyes or the camera may react differently to different wavelengths of light and a higher wavelength (blue shift) may look brighter than a lower wavelength (red shift).


Dennis

I just went with the Kennedy harness and the upgraded bulbs that he sells..... only on the high beam side. They last forever there.... only six months on the low beam side.

SO I had the harness... stock bulbs in the low beam and upgraded I believe 100w in the high beams. When on high it was rolling daylight. (fogs too)

I upgraded my low beams to HID which I really love. The problem is my high beams appeared pathetic; very yellow and dim. So I replaced the high beams with Silverstars and the difference is marginal at best. I replaced only one side and compared the illumination to the stock bulb and the only difference was a slightly blue color shift with the same brightness. The replacement wasn't worth the cost in my opinion. Kennedy is probably the way to go.

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Question.gifDoes anyone have a wiring diagram to make your own light harness? I am especially interested in how the diode fits in the system for four light high beams. I have lots of time, a handfull of 40 amp relays and 500 feet of awg 12 wire. Thanks..

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Question.gifDoes anyone have a wiring diagram to make your own light harness? I am especially interested in how the diode fits in the system for four light high beams. I have lots of time, a handfull of 40 amp relays and 500 feet of awg 12 wire. Thanks..

poke around on the net for Daniel Stern lighting. He has
a paper that explains it all. If you search on the site
here you will also get a bunch of stuff on the project.

Jim

tut69,

There a few different ways to accomplish the "all-four-on" headlight mod.

One popular method is to place a diode between the low-beam and high-beam driver outputs on the BCM. ARMY has documented this in the following topic. High Beam Relays (http://dieselplace.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3123&KW=headlight+booster&PN=0&TPN=1)

Terry also further documented ARMY's method at HeadLight/FogLight Mod (http://207.53.239.181/~terry/truck/Light-Switch/).

I believe Max Powers's implementation is basically the same except he hooks up the diodes under the hood instead of in the cab.

Adding booster relays and heavy gauge wire to the OE relays will also help. I measured a 1 volt drop in my stock 03 harness. The diodes can be used on this setup too instead of puting across the BCM outputs. Getting the extra voltage and resulting current to the bulbs will boost power and light output.

Another way do do it is with the flash-to-pass circuit. When I get time I plan to try re-wiring the flash-to-pass input on the BCM to the high beam switch. This will also turn on all the lights.

Another good option is to just buy JK's booster harness but it's also fun to roll your own if you have the time.

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Geek.gif

I've had the Silverstars for about a year now and they still work great, (knock on wood) both low and high beams. Installed the Casper harness about 6 months ago and that works good too.


Diesel Dragon http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Cool.gif

Thanks to jpblock and jholly.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Clap.gif Ill work on it this weekend and let you know how it turns out.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Approve.gif

I have a set of xnarc headlights by sylvania in my 01. definitly worth the money much much brighter than stock.

Folks... be clear as to what year trucks you supply info for. I think 2003 was a big wiring change.



Edited by: hoot