Review: upgraded headlights

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peiserg

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I did a bit of searching before i went ahead with this..

got tired of my relatively dim headlights on my 1975 fj40. I already have the sylvania Halogens as an upgrade over OEM.

I switched to the 7" Roundeyes and was pretty impressed with the improved clarity at night. installation was 0.25 bananas... just do a direct swap out, as if your old headlight burned out.

On the plus side... this has replaceable BULBS as opposed to needing to replace the entire apparatus like OEM. So my next set will be the 110W instead of the 55W stockers. Downside... $109 is a LOT compared to replacing with OEM or halogens (maybe $30?)

Next, i saw a few people upgraded the wiring harness with the ARB harness. It's pricey ($100). But if you have a voltage drop from old wiring... it's an easy fix.

Putting it in is a 0.5 banana job. super, super easy.. took me about 75 seconds including ziptying the new harness in place. Instructions were sucky necessitating a call to ARB to clarify.. but then it was SUPER easy.

The harness adds about 5-10% to the brightness of my headlights, at the most. My wife didn't notice the difference untill i specifically asked her if the new side was brighter.

Worth the $100? For me? No... but if you have a voltage drop, then definitely.

Oh yeah.. it allows you to retain COMPLETE stock control of your headlights, even though they run off a separate harness. THe new harness plugs into the OLD headlight harness to receive the signal to turn on or off! Pretty slick.

THe bulbs were worth it. For my truck, as it turned out, the harness was unnessesary. Though i could see how in a truck with real poor wiring it would be a great upgrade.
 
I just upgraded to the Roundeyes halogens as well and really like the difference over the Sylvania halogen. The clear lens makes it much brighter and so easy to hookup a caveman could do it. (Sorry Geico). Not sure about the ARB harness, but Ron Francis makes a relay kit for the halogen that is $45 that looks promissing and I am considering.

As a side note, I almost never got mine after my labs managed to intercept my little brown package before I got home. On my doorstep I was greeted with the tattered remains of an almost unidentifiably, scrape of cardborad, execept for a small few words that said "Round Eyes". After a few minutes of searching in the dark I found the remains of what looked like a plane crash in my front yard. Luckily, the headlamps survived miraculously, with only a few small scratches on the lens cover! :cheers:
 
How well sealed are the bulbs in these units. The P.O. put some units in my rigg off another application, but every time I cross deep water(most of the time) I end up with head lights full of water blown bulbs and silt/mud so was considering going back to sealed beam units to counter this problem.. maybe this could be the right product
 
I just put some Narva H4 conversions in mine, they do the job for me.. Installed a harness that takes the signal from the stock lamp connector, so that in the event of relay failure I can simply disconnect the harness from the stock connector, and connect the stock connector to the H4.
 
Less than 5mins. Plug-n-play! Hardest part was finding where to mount the relays.
The cool thing about the Summit Harness is there is an addtional plug for running aux lights, I am assuming with the High Beams on
 
I installed a similar harness from summit about 4 years ago. That with the IPF housing and Hella 55w/100w bulbs make an awesome upgrade for the 40. The IPF lenses are about $30 ea, and put out a very nice pattern much nicer than the hella housings.
 
I have a hybrid, that gives me lots of choices (and light!). I installed the RoundEyes lights, and instead of using the H4 bulbs (which I have in the glove box in case they are needed), I have installed a high/low H4 HID kit (see http://www.carhidkits.com/xenon-hid-kit-99/bi-xenon-hid-kit-208.html fpr more information...) -- plugs into the wiring harness, and has its own connections to the battery (for the digital ballasts)... Light is brighter than 110W H4 halogen bulb... And, if I ever need to, I can simply unplug the HID harness (and unscrew the bulb just like the H4), and install the normal H4 bulb...
But, this is not a cheap solution...
 
Last edited:
jasonfzj80 said:
I installed these:
Susquehanna MotorSports - Auto Performance Product
Pair of 7" Round Hella's with 65w/100w bulbs that they offered at the time for like $70 about 4years ago and they are great.

I recently upgraded the wiring harness and should have done that when I upgraded the headlights. The harness I got from Summit Racing for $26.
Matrix 01-133 - Matrix Upgrade Wiring Harnesses - Overview - SummitRacing.com
Click to expand...

Jason,

The 65w/100w bulbs are not available now, which one shuould I choose from their choices? thanx
 
peiserg said:
Next, i saw a few people upgraded the wiring harness with the ARB harness. It's pricey ($100). But if you have a voltage drop from old wiring... it's an easy fix.

Putting it in is a 0.5 banana job. super, super easy.. took me about 75 seconds including ziptying the new harness in place. Instructions were sucky necessitating a call to ARB to clarify.. but then it was SUPER easy.

The harness adds about 5-10% to the brightness of my headlights, at the most. My wife didn't notice the difference untill i specifically asked her if the new side was brighter.

Worth the $100? For me? No... but if you have a voltage drop, then definitely.
Click to expand...

My headlights are all the sudden dim. I would like to replace the headlight harness with the ARB as stated in the OP's post but am having trouble finding it online. Feb 75' FJ-40. Any ideas? Thanks!
 
Look for headlight harnesses with ceramic plugs on Ebay/Amazon. I picked mine up for about $15.00. It included two relays and all the connectors and wiring in loom. You plug a stock headlight plug into it and attach battery power and ground and plug in to your headlights- thats it. I couldn't buy the relays and connnectors for that price at the parts store.
HTH
Will
 
I have the trucklite mk2 led headlamps and they are much brighter than halogens and are 30 watts so there is no need for extra wiring.
The dip beam spread is much wider and illuminates the verges better. Main beam is dip plus some more above the dip cutoff line but I still want more distance so I have some non led spotlights as I haven't found any LEDs that have a real sharp focus. The distance issue is not that bad, it is just that the near field is so much brighter your eyes adjust to that and I'm sure the long distance is brighter in reality but the contrast is different.
The led units are a direct swap but they are not 100% waterproof out of the box. I had to remove a fabric sticker from the back and tap out the housing to 1/8 and run some nylon breathers into my dash.
 
Anyone try JW Speaker????? Pricey but I hear they are a true improvement
 
Anyone try the JW Speaker 7" evolution 2 headlights? Pricey but curious how good they are
 
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