Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:12 am by WEW51L110
I know you said that LED headlights are outside your budget. I won’t attempt to lure you in that direction. But, since the subject has presented itself, I feel I need to add my experience with headlights on the L model. After my truck was rebuilt, I decided to try the LED headlights and got a set of the Trucklites similar but not exactly like Nikkinutshop has indicated. They fit OK in the original headlight buckets and functioned without any modifications to wiring or hardware. I could never seem to get them aimed to my satisfaction, at least on low beam. When I went to high beam, they were great. I could see very well and all of the highway signs that are reflective just glowed brilliantly. But low beam was less that adequate in my opinion.
I’m a guy who likes to utilize modern technology in old vehicles type of guy. With the current safety trend being to have daytime headlights, I notice many newer Jeeps (7” round headlights) outfitted with headlights that had a halo arrangement of LEDs for daytime and a pretty keen LED arrangement for nighttime. So when there was an annual Jeeping event held here in the county, I checked out the aftermarket vendors to see what they had. I came away with a set that would give me that daytime halo and good nighttime visibility. They are made off-shore and cost more than I’m willing to divulge. Got them home and found out the hard way, they wouldn’t fit in the L buckets. The bucket was too shallow by about 3/8”. Since I had spent so much $$ on them I decided I’d try to modify the buckets enough to make them work. I ended up eliminating most of the bucket except for the outer rim that attaches to the adjustment screws and contains the notches to orient the bulb properly. With the bulbs now mounted and the wiring that comes with them to make the halo function installed, I can activate the halo with an app on my phone. Unfortunately it does not come on when I start up the truck, but I can live with that, because by activating the halo via phone app allows me to utilize the other functions the halo does. There are a rainbow of colors I can program for the halo and I do so only at car shows. State laws dictate that only white light is allowed on the highway. By using the app, I can make the halo change colors as fast as I want, I can make them one particular color if I want, or I can make them flash on and off or any combination. I usually just cycle them through the range of colors and that’s all. By doing this you’d be surprised at how many more people, especially small kids, notice the truck. People who aren’t particularly interested in trucks will take notice just because of the halo lights cycling through colors. I know most of you will say “so the guy wasted a lot of money just to make his truck stand out more”. My thinking is this. If I can interest any one child or adult in getting involved with an old truck or car, it will help to keep this hobby going. If the younger generation doesn’t pick it up, our efforts to restore, preserve or even hot rod will fade away. (And since the lights are LEDs the energy draw is very small and doesn’t run the battery down even if they’re on the entire day.)
L110 owner since 1974, finally rebuilt 2014.