Electrical distribution and lighting upgrades?

[ratdude747]

A headlight issue got me thinking on some things. Mainly, that I probably ought to either relay-isolate my headlights or swap them out for LEDs (that draw less amperage). For the the former though, I need to do something with my power distribution... and even if I go with the latter (which I likely will), I still probably should fix such.

Lights: From some digging, it seems these will fit (as Summit lists them as a H6054 replacement and the listed dimensions seem to check out?):

https://www.grote.com/white-light/forward-lighting/led-sealed-beam-headlights/90951-5/

A bit of hometown bias here (as Grote is HQ'd just down the road from my house and my employer)... but they generally make good stuff. May by on the christmas list (or at least the "if I get a decent bonus" list).

Power distribution: Here's what I have currently:

Like many messy hodge-podges, it's the results of several additions over time. The two glaring issues (to me at least) are:

-The redundant ground connections to the battery clamp (one is trailer ground, the other is trailer brake controller ground)

-The overstacked starter solenoid post (has 2-3 stock fusible links, an eyelet for radio and trailer brake fuses, an eyelet for the trailer circuit breaker, the battery cable, and the PMGR starter power cable).

Here's what I'm thinking of doing (or have gotten the parts to do such):

-Add a ground stud to the inner fender and tie all non-starter grounds to such (the negative battery cable used has a 10-12 gauge aux wire currently used for EEC-IV and radio grounds, which would be used and the grounds conencted moved to the stud). While I am a bit concerned about ground loops, both of my 1995 Rangers had grounding studs connected to the battery in such a way (radiator support), which is why I'm thinking this is a better way to go.

-Replace the positive battery cable with the same cable I used for the negative battery cable (a 51" cable from Wally World), only taped red. Run the aux lead (10-12 gauge) to the starter solenoid. I have no plans to revert to a moving shoe starter, so I think this is a logical step and reduces how much junk is on the starter solenoid

-Like I did on my 1995 Rangers, add an auxillary fuse block and move existing fused "aftermarket" circuits to such. This eliminates in-line fuses and combined with the ground stud, provides means for adding more circuits in the future.

Good ideas? Or am I overengineering things?

[Gsmblue]

For the headlights, yo can buy a prefab wiring harness with relays that plugs into the original headlight sockets. You then connect to +ve and ground. I have this in my Bronco and F150 and it works well.

I like the rest of what you suggest. If you go with a ground stud on the fender, make sure your fender has good continuity to the battery. Gary put a bunch of straps in from the fender to the bulkhead and the rad support, something I have on my list to do.

[ratdude747]

For the headlights, yo can buy a prefab wiring harness with relays that plugs into the original headlight sockets. You then connect to +ve and ground. I have this in my Bronco and F150 and it works well.

I like the rest of what you suggest. If you go with a ground stud on the fender, make sure your fender has good continuity to the battery. Gary put a bunch of straps in from the fender to the bulkhead and the rad support, something I have on my list to do.

My thought was that since the LEDs draw less current than the stock bulbs, the gains from a relay harness drop off, and wouldn't be worth the added expense.

The fender stud would have a direct connection to the battery via the existing aux pigtail on the existing negative cable. All things that aren't the starter with a direct battery ground connection (EEC-IV, Radio, trailer, and trailer brake controller) would move to said stud.

[Gsmblue]

My thought was that since the LEDs draw less current than the stock bulbs, the gains from a relay harness drop off, and wouldn't be worth the added expense.

The fender stud would have a direct connection to the battery via the existing aux pigtail on the existing negative cable. All things that aren't the starter with a direct battery ground connection (EEC-IV, Radio, trailer, and trailer brake controller) would move to said stud.

Sounds like a good plan!

Link to harness just for interest.$32. I seem to remember paying $25 for mine, maybe I got it from somewhere else. It has been a couple of years.

https://shop.broncograveyard.com/1980-1986-Ford-Bronco-and-F-Series-Truck-Heavy-Duty-Headlight-Harness/productinfo/34805A/

[Gary Lewis]

Sounds like a good plan!

Link to harness just for interest.$32. I seem to remember paying $25 for mine, maybe I got it from somewhere else. It has been a couple of years.

https://shop.broncograveyard.com/1980-1986-Ford-Bronco-and-F-Series-Truck-Heavy-Duty-Headlight-Harness/productinfo/34805A/

I'm only going to address the headlight question given the amount of typing I expect to do on that subject alone.

First, I am a follower of Daniel Stern, of Daniel Stern Lighting. He's forgotten more about lighting than I'll ever know, so I believe what he says. And according to Daniel you have basically two choices if you want to upgrade your lighting:

• Normal Look: To keep the period-correct look and get good lighting you are going to have to stay with halogen bulbs. And at present the best combo is the Koito shells and the Tunsgram +120 bulbs. I just ordered that combo for Big Blue.

• Modern: If you don't mind the modern, or as some would say the bug-eyed, look you can go with LED's. HOWEVER, according to Daniel there are only two that are acceptable, and they are complete units as LED "bulbs" do NOT work properly in a shell made for halogen bulbs due to the geometry. And those two are the JW Speaker and the Truck-Lites, both of which are expensive.

I strongly urge you to read what Daniel wrote and I posted in the Lighting Upgrades thread. And while that post is over a year old, I've discussed this with him within the last week and he says nothing has changed.

The issue with the LED bulbs in a halogen shell is that a halogen bulb has its filaments at precise positions within the shell and at a given orientation. And the filaments give off light in a 360 degree range along a line. But LED's currently cannot do that, and since the optics of the shell are designed to use the halogen bulbs the light from an LED bulb will not work correctly.

And speaking of working correctly, you might want to watch this video from Diode Dynamics on how headlights are tested. Getting the proper amount of light to the right location ahead of the vehicle is very complex, and people posting their "reviews" of various lights don't appear to understand that - or at least aren't concerned about it.

Then there is the DOT-approved issue. There is no such thing as a DOT-approved headlight. The Department Of Transportation does not review nor approve things. Many, if not all, manufacturers put "DOT" on their headlights to imply they meet the specs. But according to Daniel only the JW Speaker and Truck-Lite LED headlights do meet the specs.

[ratdude747]

I'm only going to address the headlight question given the amount of typing I expect to do on that subject alone.

First, I am a follower of Daniel Stern, of Daniel Stern Lighting. He's forgotten more about lighting than I'll ever know, so I believe what he says. And according to Daniel you have basically two choices if you want to upgrade your lighting:

• Normal Look: To keep the period-correct look and get good lighting you are going to have to stay with halogen bulbs. And at present the best combo is the Koito shells and the Tunsgram +120 bulbs. I just ordered that combo for Big Blue.

• Modern: If you don't mind the modern, or as some would say the bug-eyed, look you can go with LED's. HOWEVER, according to Daniel there are only two that are acceptable, and they are complete units as LED "bulbs" do NOT work properly in a shell made for halogen bulbs due to the geometry. And those two are the JW Speaker and the Truck-Lites, both of which are expensive.

I strongly urge you to read what Daniel wrote and I posted in the Lighting Upgrades thread. And while that post is over a year old, I've discussed this with him within the last week and he says nothing has changed.

The issue with the LED bulbs in a halogen shell is that a halogen bulb has its filaments at precise positions within the shell and at a given orientation. And the filaments give off light in a 360 degree range along a line. But LED's currently cannot do that, and since the optics of the shell are designed to use the halogen bulbs the light from an LED bulb will not work correctly.

And speaking of working correctly, you might want to watch this video from Diode Dynamics on how headlights are tested. Getting the proper amount of light to the right location ahead of the vehicle is very complex, and people posting their "reviews" of various lights don't appear to understand that - or at least aren't concerned about it.

Then there is the DOT-approved issue. There is no such thing as a DOT-approved headlight. The Department Of Transportation does not review nor approve things. Many, if not all, manufacturers put "DOT" on their headlights to imply they meet the specs. But according to Daniel only the JW Speaker and Truck-Lite LED headlights do meet the specs.

The Grote modules are an entire bucket and DOT spec'd:

They're an OEM for a handful of companies (John Deere and others I think?)...

Specs in the datasheet below. Seems like the light is in the right places?

Grote-5-x-7-LED-Headlamp-GLB2016-239.pdf

 

[Gary Lewis]

The Grote modules are an entire bucket and DOT spec'd:

They're an OEM for a handful of companies (John Deere and others I think?)...

Specs in the datasheet below. Seems like the light is in the right places?

Grote-5-x-7-LED-Headlamp-GLB2016-239.pdf

The DOT puts out spec's and each company is to do their due diligence to determine if theirs meets the specs. There are hundreds of products on the market which clearly don't meet the spec's but have "DOT" on them, so that doesn't mean anything.

As for having the light in the right place, those charts are far, far from telling that since they do not address the DOT-spec'd cutoff. In fact, those charts are exactly what I've seen for driving lights, which have no cutoff.

Again, the Diode Dynamics video helps explain how complex this is.

Last: I've done a ton of reading about this. I've perused Daniel's site, followed all of the many links on it and have read them thoroughly. I've watched the Diode Dynamics video multiple times. I've read the many "reviews" of the various products, most of which are laughable. And I've read everything on the candlepower forum regarding headlights. The bottom line is that this is a very complex area and the vast majority of the products out there are junk and are illegal. So if we don't want to become experts on headlights and buy the computerized systems to do the testing we need to find someone that is an expert and follow their advice. That cannot be a vendor as all of them will tell you their product is the best one out there when the majority are horrible. I've found my expert, Daniel Stern, and I'll follow his guidance. And since Daniel says only the two LED products (JW Speaker & Truck-Lites) are acceptable I wouldn't consider the Grote.

[ratdude747]

The DOT puts out spec's and each company is to do their due diligence to determine if theirs meets the specs. There are hundreds of products on the market which clearly don't meet the spec's but have "DOT" on them, so that doesn't mean anything.

As for having the light in the right place, those charts are far, far from telling that since they do not address the DOT-spec'd cutoff. In fact, those charts are exactly what I've seen for driving lights, which have no cutoff.

Again, the Diode Dynamics video helps explain how complex this is.

Last: I've done a ton of reading about this. I've perused Daniel's site, followed all of the many links on it and have read them thoroughly. I've watched the Diode Dynamics video multiple times. I've read the many "reviews" of the various products, most of which are laughable. And I've read everything on the candlepower forum regarding headlights. The bottom line is that this is a very complex area and the vast majority of the products out there are junk and are illegal. So if we don't want to become experts on headlights and buy the computerized systems to do the testing we need to find someone that is an expert and follow their advice. That cannot be a vendor as all of them will tell you their product is the best one out there when the majority are horrible. I've found my expert, Daniel Stern, and I'll follow his guidance. And since Daniel says only the two LED products (JW Speaker & Truck-Lites) are acceptable I wouldn't consider the Grote.

I'm reading mixed reviews... everything from "works great, used them on our semi fleet" to "rebadged Maxxima, run away!". Although no light Maxxima sells looks like it, so I don't fully trust that review.

Can't be any worse than really junk HID setup I have on my ranger, which is in the category of "can't afford to fix it right, but am too embarrassed to junk it and put it back to stock. In that case (factory composite lights) my plan had been to find some OE housings (found one, but not the other) and convert them to HID projector units (and use decent quality HID lights, projectors, and ballasts). But never could justify $350 and the labor of the housing conversion to do it (not to mention being one NOS OE housing short).

Maybe this LED idea is "too expensive to do right" as well. What I have works... other than a burnt up light switch (which is aftermarket; I have the original switch which I later found out wasn't faulty). I thought silverstar sealed beams were obsolete but apparently they are still available. I have one on the driver's side (came with the replacement core support I installed as part of the deer wreck rebuild). Maybe I nab a set of those and call it good...

----

On a different note: I don't care for the look of the truck-lite's or the JW speakers (and I'm not paying $450 a lamp for the latter!!!).

[Gary Lewis]

I'm reading mixed reviews... everything from "works great, used them on our semi fleet" to "rebadged Maxxima, run away!". Although no light Maxxima sells looks like it, so I don't fully trust that review.

Can't be any worse than really junk HID setup I have on my ranger, which is in the category of "can't afford to fix it right, but am too embarrassed to junk it and put it back to stock. In that case (factory composite lights) my plan had been to find some OE housings (found one, but not the other) and convert them to HID projector units (and use decent quality HID lights, projectors, and ballasts). But never could justify $350 and the labor of the housing conversion to do it (not to mention being one NOS OE housing short).

Maybe this LED idea is "too expensive to do right" as well. What I have works... other than a burnt up light switch (which is aftermarket; I have the original switch which I later found out wasn't faulty). I thought silverstar sealed beams were obsolete but apparently they are still available. I have one on the driver's side (came with the replacement core support I installed as part of the deer wreck rebuild). Maybe I nab a set of those and call it good...

----

On a different note: I don't care for the look of the truck-lite's or the JW speakers (and I'm not paying $450 a lamp for the latter!!!).

If they don't have the equipment to properly test then it is just someone's opinion.

And I agree, I don't like the look of those two LED lights, nor the price. So I went with Koito's and Tungsram +120's, but that still comes out to about $250 for the setup. If you can get by with the Silverstars then it'll be much cheaper, although they don't last a long time. Still, you can replace them once a year and it'll be cheap in comparison to the good LED's. But, don't forget the relay harness. (Daniel Stern sell ceramic headlight sockets.)

Daniel says one vendor is working on what might become a good solution. It is shells made for LED bulbs and uses a big name LED bulb - and only that bulb. It isn't ready and I may be driving at night in Jan or Feb, so went with the halogen solution. But those can be moved to Dad's truck if a period-correct LED solution that is acceptable comes out, so I won't be losing anything.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'll say that when I went with a 3G alternator and PMGR starter I moved a bunch of hot lugs to the HMEG megafuse holder and ran a 10Ga.feed from there, since the fender relay was only being used to pull in the starter solenoid.

I later bought a cheap six position (5/30's and a 40A) relay & fuse box and migrated headlamps, horn, fog lights, etc.

I put my starter on the 40A cube relay.

This cleaned up a lot of "spaghetti" behind my battery.

I find that ground pigtail on the battery terminal a convenient place to tie in my headlamp socket grounds and the ground I've run into the cab for my amp and head unit. (they are all bolted to the radiator support with a nut clip)