wrcsixeight
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2013
- Messages
- 116
Just yesterday I arrived in Florida leaving Southern California 10 days earlier, with a bunch of sight seeing out west, then a lot of night time driving from western New Mexico to Florida. I used to prefer driving less scenic or downright boring interstates at night for lesser traffic and lesser winds, but now with the proliferation of drop in LED's stuffed into halogen reflectors, aging eyes intolerant of excessive glare and generall growing misanthropic tendencies, I found myself getting incredibly angry. The Big rigs/18 wheelers/truckers seemed to be the biggest offenders in the glare department, but there were plenty of other offenders, and some of the newer vehicles with factory LEDS also had me holding my hand upto the mirrors and cursing and letting off the gas slowing down to force them to pass me.
I started the trip sitting behind GE nighthawk 6054 sealed beams getting within 0.3v of alternator voltage through a 10awg relayed harness, voltage that I control manually for more precise battery charging.
A lot of roads were daylight headlight sections, and in Arizona I discovered one bulb had failed, during the day. My digital multimeter with engine off showed 12.6v on both high and low beams with just the low beams on with the H4 plug still on the bulb, but as it should be with the bulb disconnected and connector probed. I was in a Very small town with only one AP store, and the only 6054 bulbs available were Sylvania Xtravision and the Silverstar, and I was turned off by the 35/65 wattage on the xtravision and bought one overpriced 55/65 Silverstar for $25.50 grumbling the whole way. I was also remembering reading something on this forum several years ago about the xtravision having a better beam pattern, or in some way being superior to the silverstar. I'm not into the whiter light blue glass marketing mumbojumbo but was then thinking the negativity of the Sylvania SS was the blue glass ovverdriven lowbeam filament short life and BS marketing.
Before installation, I turned on the lights and the failed passenger side was obviously still failed but the driver's side was still working. I installed the Silverstar and when I turned the lights on, I discovered the Driver's side GE nighthawk 6054 low beam failed. So these bulbs failed within 1 operable hour of each other as they were installed at the same time several years ago, and really did not have many accumulated hours on them.
I went back to the same AP store and bought the other 6054 silverstar and installed it and then found it was pointing much further down, and there is no easy way that the bulb could not be installed properly in the bucket to account for this different aim, so I found a wall with some flat area in front of it, and raised it and drove around a bit adjusting the aim until I thought the light output was generally where it should be. When I got on the interstates I Adjusted them again for 65mph which was slightly higher. Pretty easy to adjust my bulbs and I kept a phillips head screwdriver handy. I will do a more precise reaiming with the wall method now that I have reached my destination.
The Sylvanias beam pattern compared to the GE Nighthawks seems a bit wider with some trianguilar artifacts closer to the vehicle, and less of a hotspot off in the distance, but they did seem to highlight the white line on the side of the road pretty well. Did not get much of a chance to form a subjective opinion on the high beams.
I did like the GE nighthawk beam pattern better, but the Sylvanias are not as bad as expected. The 200MM cibies are still on the Want, rather than Need side of my lists.
While I know this is a bit hypocritical seeing as how my bulbs were subjectively aimed, but I am rather amazed just how poorly aimed so many other vehicle's lights are aimed, how many hottest spots were well below that the driver could ever see. I was doing a lot of comparisons to many other vehicles as they passed me, as I rarely drive above 68mph unless I am holding up traffic. The newer cars with excessively blinding LEDs, I believe were factory LEDS but am not 100% positive, but the trucker's glaring headlights was the most annoying and prolific.
I started the trip sitting behind GE nighthawk 6054 sealed beams getting within 0.3v of alternator voltage through a 10awg relayed harness, voltage that I control manually for more precise battery charging.
A lot of roads were daylight headlight sections, and in Arizona I discovered one bulb had failed, during the day. My digital multimeter with engine off showed 12.6v on both high and low beams with just the low beams on with the H4 plug still on the bulb, but as it should be with the bulb disconnected and connector probed. I was in a Very small town with only one AP store, and the only 6054 bulbs available were Sylvania Xtravision and the Silverstar, and I was turned off by the 35/65 wattage on the xtravision and bought one overpriced 55/65 Silverstar for $25.50 grumbling the whole way. I was also remembering reading something on this forum several years ago about the xtravision having a better beam pattern, or in some way being superior to the silverstar. I'm not into the whiter light blue glass marketing mumbojumbo but was then thinking the negativity of the Sylvania SS was the blue glass ovverdriven lowbeam filament short life and BS marketing.
Before installation, I turned on the lights and the failed passenger side was obviously still failed but the driver's side was still working. I installed the Silverstar and when I turned the lights on, I discovered the Driver's side GE nighthawk 6054 low beam failed. So these bulbs failed within 1 operable hour of each other as they were installed at the same time several years ago, and really did not have many accumulated hours on them.
I went back to the same AP store and bought the other 6054 silverstar and installed it and then found it was pointing much further down, and there is no easy way that the bulb could not be installed properly in the bucket to account for this different aim, so I found a wall with some flat area in front of it, and raised it and drove around a bit adjusting the aim until I thought the light output was generally where it should be. When I got on the interstates I Adjusted them again for 65mph which was slightly higher. Pretty easy to adjust my bulbs and I kept a phillips head screwdriver handy. I will do a more precise reaiming with the wall method now that I have reached my destination.
The Sylvanias beam pattern compared to the GE Nighthawks seems a bit wider with some trianguilar artifacts closer to the vehicle, and less of a hotspot off in the distance, but they did seem to highlight the white line on the side of the road pretty well. Did not get much of a chance to form a subjective opinion on the high beams.
I did like the GE nighthawk beam pattern better, but the Sylvanias are not as bad as expected. The 200MM cibies are still on the Want, rather than Need side of my lists.
While I know this is a bit hypocritical seeing as how my bulbs were subjectively aimed, but I am rather amazed just how poorly aimed so many other vehicle's lights are aimed, how many hottest spots were well below that the driver could ever see. I was doing a lot of comparisons to many other vehicles as they passed me, as I rarely drive above 68mph unless I am holding up traffic. The newer cars with excessively blinding LEDs, I believe were factory LEDS but am not 100% positive, but the trucker's glaring headlights was the most annoying and prolific.