whats the brightest sealed beam headlight bulbs without conversion

[89 allegro]

i have a 1989 chevy and the other night i had to drive home and my headlights were really not bright at all, so much that i had high beams on and was never flashed to dim the in 80 miles.they have the halogen H4656 and 4651 bulbs in them now,the 4x6 4 light system. i looked on the internet for advice and just got more confused about what would be best.i hardly ever drive at night but we had a emergency and had to get home and it was really hard to see coming thru alot of country roads and there were deer everywhere ,so it took me along time to get home because i was driving slower because i could not see them till they were so close if they did come out ,it would have been bad for the both of us.im kinda leaning towards a sylvania XTRA VISION BULB or PHILLIPS CRYSTAL VISION ULTRA ,does anyone have advice or suggestions so if i have to drive at night again, its alot brighter.as i said before ,i hardly ever drive at night but i need the bright lights when i do, im getting older and its getting harder to see as it is ,especially if its dark.any advice or suggestions would be appreciated .thanks 

 

[Isaac-1]

Consider an LED sealed bulb upgrade, they are WAY better than any halogen upgrade you can do, and are getting cheaper all the time, I did mine a bit over 2 years ago at a cost of $200 for a DOT approved LED 2 headlight system, and all I can say is WOW.  The one I used is no longer available, but perhaps something like https://smile.amazon.com/Headlights-Headlamp-Headlight-Wrangler-Cherokee/dp/B07G31G4VB for a 2 headlight system or this if you have a 4 headlight system https://smile.amazon.com/Headlights-Freightliner-Kenworth-Peterbilt-International/dp/B074888L2C/

 

[Larry N.]

Isaac may have your solution, but I thought I'd mention that often the weak headlight problem is the plastic in front of the bulb being frosted. Often if it's polished or replaced you can then see again.

 

[89 allegro]

these are old style sealed beam bulbs ,their glass ,not like the new style plastic,but i know what your talking about with those.

 

[Isaac-1]

Right, these are LED conversions that replace the old 5x7 rectangular glass bulbs with drop in replacement LED units (or near drop in if you opt to use one with on bulb daytime driving lights / turn signals, which would require splicing in an additional wire or two).  My coach had the 2 bulb style 5x7 sealed beam glass bulbs, yours I assume has the 4 bulb setup with separate high beams.

 

[89 allegro]

yep, i will check into that , i have the 4 bulbs ,4x6 and i will check into the LED set , i was replying to larry about the plastic style lights that have to be buffed out letting him know mine are all glass.thanks for your help.

 

[Isaac-1]

Sure, just as you were posting your last post I was editing to add photos of the old / new lights (since converting to the new lights I have also updated the old faded plastic bezel)

Here is what they look like now with fresh chrome style bezel and turn light lens

 

[89 allegro]

and you didn't have to change any of the wiring or anything ,just plug them up ? because i read some where on the LED lights they had to add something ,and my bezel is black around mine ,but its not a inch wide ,more or less just covers the screws.

 

[Isaac-1]

For mine I did have to add two optional wires to enable the on bulb turn signal lightand on bulb daytime driving lights, otherwise it was just a short pigtail adapter that plugged in place of the original glass bulb connector.  Without adding those wires the bulb would still work as a regular headlight, just without the enhanced features.  Depending on the shape of your connector plug or if it has proprietary non-standard pin assignment you might need a universal adapter pigtail like https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07BDJR61P

The 4 bulb set I linked to above does add one additional wire for DRL (daytime running lights) which you can optionally hook up to any ignition switched source and add in a small inline 1-2 amp fuse.  Otherwise it should be plug and play.

Ike

p.s. one issue I did have was needing to substantially adjust the alignment screws after installing the LED units, when I first installed them they were pointing at the ground about 35 feet ahead of the coach, instead of a hundred or so feet.

 

[89 allegro]

thanks for all your help and pictures, i will be checking into them .thanks again

 

[PopPop51]

Before you spend any money, check your battery. Dim headlights are a common sign of a battery on its last legs.
If the battery is OK, check the wiring and connections on the primary headlight circuit (the circuit that's switched by the headlight relay) as well as your battery's chassis ground, as it could be a corroded ground or positive connection.
And the advice about checking for frosted lenses is also excellent.

 

[89 allegro]

yep, i checked all of that and even cleaned all the grounds , and just put all new batteries 2 months ago, its just the lights are not bright enough for me ,i dont see good at night anyway ,so just trying to boost the light some to help me out.i have had this motorhome 5 years now and only driven twice at night ,so its not alot ,but i just wanted to get it as good as i could just in case.thanks for your advice

 

[namumac1]

Sylvania Silver Star sealed beams are good and bright.

 

[Isaac-1]

Perhaps, but they are not even in the ballpark with modern LED's, it is a power efficiency issue, you get way more light out of LED's for the same number of amps, and all headlights are going to be limited by the size of the wiring and fuse of the original sealed beam unit.  So as a result LED's put out WAY more light even when they are drawing fewer amps / watts.  A 9 watt LED puts out as much light as a 60 watt incandescent bulb,  traditional Halogen sealed beam headlights were about 55 watts, though most operated at closer to 45 in the real world, imagine then how much light comes out of a 45 watt LED.

 

[namumac1]

Perhaps, but they are not even in the ballpark with modern LED's, it is a power efficiency issue, you get way more light out of LED's for the same number of amps, and all headlights are going to be limited by the size of the wiring and fuse of the original sealed beam unit.  So as a result LED's put out WAY more light even when they are drawing fewer amps / watts.  A 9 watt LED puts out as much light as a 60 watt incandescent bulb,  traditional Halogen sealed beam headlights were about 55 watts, though most operated at closer to 45 in the real world, imagine then how much light comes out of a 45 watt LED.

Thr OP said he didn't want to do a conversion so the Silverstars will work.

 

[Isaac-1]

namumac1, true, but often people don't have all the facts, in this case switching from original bulbs to Silverstars includes nearly the same steps as switching to LED's (Remove the old bulb, and install the new one, the only difference is instead of the connector being on the back of a glass bulb it will be a pigtail wire lead coming out of a metal housing).  A set of 4 Silverstars will cost about $82 (per Amazon) and will be slightly brighter than the existing halogens, the above set of LED's cost $127 and will be a vast improvement, brighter, wider field of illumination, more even illumination, and on top of all that consume far less power. 

To me spending the extra $45 to go from 19th century lighting technology to 21st century lighting technology is a no brainer, when I upgraded mine to LED 2 years ago, back when LED headlights were over $100 per bulb it was a little harder to justify, but not much, they are such a major improvement.  Even then if it meant missing one deer it was well worth it.

Ike