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My headlight setup

M

M1A1TankerTom

NAXJA Forum User
Location
California
I have been out wheeling a lot lately and the one thing I realized is when the sun starts going down my headlights suck! So I have read dozens and dozens of threads on here and have decided this is the setup I am going to run. Please let me know what you think. If you think I should run something different let me know before I drop the money!

IPF H4 headlamp housings
http://www.quadratec.com/products/97017_1600.htm

ARB/IPF upgraded wiring harness
http://www.quadratec.com/products/97018_2430.htm

Hella H4 130/90w bulb
http://www.4wheelparts.com/Lighting...Bulb.aspx?t_c=14&t_s=67&t_pt=6065&t_pl=101484
 
housings- great.

the wiring kit- holy BALLS that expensive. you can buy one for like 25 shipped or even make your own for 10 bucks.

the bulbs- good, but dont expect long life with high wattage bulbs. i'm running 55/60s now (gonna upgrade them when i have some spare cash, but still MUCH brighter than stockers or even silverstar sealed beams) and i LOVED the 55/130s i had on my subie, they only lasted a bit over a year though. 90/130s might be a bit bright for the street.
 
I have the 820H's and am very happy. I am using the original IPF H4 bulb Magic J. Glows after turning off. 55 watts i think. I replaced the #18 ground with a #10 by replacing a connector at the bulb socket and grounded the bulb at the fender. The battery side wiring is all #14 and that is fine for the power I run. All toll $55 with a little shopping around. They shine bright with great cutoff, which is critical for lifted rigs

I did get a bad chip in one lens. Not sure how. I replaced the lens. Now, I cover the lights with rock guards.

p.s I heard that the IPF Fatboys have a short life.
 
I have the same housings and I like them a lot. Much better then the cheap Autopal housings you see on Ebay. Those didn't last long in my Jeep at all.

Don't buy that wiring harness. Buy this one:
http://www.eautoworks.com/product-eAutoWorkscom-189849.htm

The BigOffroad harness is the exact same harness as the Eautoworks one. I have installed 2 of the Eautoworks harnesses and they work great.

I ran 100/130's on the street and didn't have any issues with anyone flashing me (about a year with those). Then I switched to some of the 55W IPF Super J bulbs. They lasted a lot longer and had whiter light then the cheap 100/130's I had before. I am now running Hella 80/100W bulbs and they are the best all around bulb I have used. Nice light output, very good life so far and cheap! You can buy them on Ebay for much less then most of the fancy bulbs:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Hell...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

I am also using Lamin-X film on my IPF housings.
 
xcm said:
build your own harness, that way it comes with a free basic electrical lesson.
http://jeep-xj.info/HowtoHeadlightLoom.htm

the hardest part is converting metric to standard measurements (google, ftw)

BTW, awesome avatar playwithit. loved that movie.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment and for the link. Might find time to do a full upgrade on the harness this winter.
 
ert01 said:
Don't buy that wiring harness. Buy this one:
http://www.eautoworks.com/product-eAutoWorkscom-189849.htm

The BigOffroad harness is the exact same harness as the Eautoworks one. I have installed 2 of the Eautoworks harnesses and they work great.
Click to expand...

I think I started this, but to be fair- the BOR harness has higher rated relays (40A) than most of its siblings. The exact same harness used to be available on ebay, but I can no longer find it. You could probably dig around and find the relays separately, however. But, if you're going to run really high power lamps, I would recommend building your own for a lot less than the Painless setup, unless you just don't want to bother with it.

Another good writeup here, complete with where to buy the parts you need.
http://fitchva.com/jeep/?p=48
 
The eaworks is the cheapest, and works good for the price. There is one the lmctruck.com site (search for pn) which is 10$ more not sure what the difference is. I have a similar setup, IPF housings and for now I am running the cheapo xenon bulbs I purchased from quadratec when I got the housings. and they work great.
 
hubs97xj said:
I think I started this, but to be fair- the BOR harness has higher rated relays (40A) than most of its siblings. The exact same harness used to be available on ebay, but I can no longer find it. You could probably dig around and find the relays separately, however. But, if you're going to run really high power lamps, I would recommend building your own for a lot less than the Painless setup, unless you just don't want to bother with it.

Another good writeup here, complete with where to buy the parts you need.
http://fitchva.com/jeep/?p=48
Click to expand...

fwiw... i've installed 6 of them on different cars. i only blew the 30A relays when using the 55/130 osram bulbs in my subie.. switched to a 40A and no issues til i smoked the bulbs. you can can a 40A one from that site as well iirc.
 
What is the drawback to just using spade connectors on the back of the bulbs instead of these H4 connectors?
H4HeadlightPlug.jpg

Looking at the back of the headlights seems like you could just crimp/solder the spades on the wires and plug into the bulb. Could save a few more bucks on this upgrade unless I am missing something.
 
Sounds like a solid setup but you're spending way too much money. I run the autopal housings with ddmtuning HID's and eautoworks harness and only spent $140. They are f'n bright but are NOTHING like retrofit HID's. The beam pattern isn't the greatest but of you aim them down a bit you won't get flashed constantly. Also, I'm guessing by the name you're on an Abrams tank crew? My dad started in an M60 and ended up in an Abrams back in the 80's. :patriot:
 
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hubs97xj said:
I think I started this, but to be fair- the BOR harness has higher rated relays (40A) than most of its siblings. The exact same harness used to be available on ebay, but I can no longer find it. You could probably dig around and find the relays separately, however. But, if you're going to run really high power lamps, I would recommend building your own for a lot less than the Painless setup, unless you just don't want to bother with it.

Another good writeup here, complete with where to buy the parts you need.
http://fitchva.com/jeep/?p=48
Click to expand...

I did build my own... I am an electrician by trade. On my XJ I am running oil/gasoline resistant 10Awg wire and I'm running 30A relays with inline resettable circuit breakers. I have yet to blow a relay, even when I had the 100/130W bulbs.

I installed the eautoworks harness on my brothers Jeeps because I didn't want to go to all the trouble of making a harness when I can buy em for $18. My relays and inline fuse holders alone cost more then that up here.

I do recommend using either some dielectric grease on your connections or some Kopr-Kote. I use Kopr-Kote on all my connections and it works wonders for keeping your terminal posts on your battery clean. (as a side note, I also use it on all my bolts/nuts as it is a great anti sieze as well as a good conductive paste.)
 
30a vs 40a relays...

Taking the highest wattage bulb discussed here - 130w - two bulbs = 260w.

Using basic electronic equations - Amps = watts / volts

260watts / 13.6 volts = 19.1 amps.

Why do we need 40a relays to do this?
 
The chinese harness is rated for 100W lamps. This is a connector that saw 100/90W lamps for a few months, and stock 60/55W lamps other wise. Maybe a year old at this point? I posted about this in the spring, probably more detail in that thread. The other connector was not this bad, although obviously deformed from the heat. I've tossed them, and don't have clearer pics of both.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii244/AHhub/forum stuff/DSCF5561.jpg

I recommend building your own harness if you're going to run high wattage lamps, not because of the relays (math says they're fine), but because of the smaller wiring and cheap connectors.

edit- direct link, I need to resize pics.
 
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