sport conversion wiring

[jltcasper3]

i have a 98 truck and want to do the sport conversion. i am debating on how to wire them. i will use relays and heavy wire of course. how do the oem sports work from the factory, what lights are on on low beam and high beam?

how have you guys wired the sports if not using the oem sequence?
should i wire them so all 8 filaments are on for high beam?

i will probably be using the new morimoto 9007 2stroke3.0 bulbs fyi, can these handle both high and low on at the same time i wonder?

 

[Iron Duke II]

I'm interest to see what others may have share as well.
I google a little on the topic and didn't find anything specific for the 2nd gen that went to answering your question.

 

[BigPapa]

When I did my Sport conversion, I initially had them all on when on high. While I was aiming them, I had them on high and I was right in front of them. The heat coming off them was unbelievable to me. I was worried about deforming or crazing the plastic lenses, so I wired them so the main outside lows were all that was on for low beam and high on all four were on for high beam.

 

[petersonj]

Personally, I see no benefit to having all bulbs filaments lit when high-beam is selected. For starters, the two inner bulb reflectors are not designed for a low-beam application, so light is not focused, but scattered everywhere.

@BigPapa mentions another reason not to - heat. A third reason not to is that when a low and high beam are on together (when not designed to be that way), this combination makes a bright spot on the roadway immediately in front of the vehicle. This bright area will cause eye pupils to constrict some and let in less light, which in turn diminishes ones ability to see the roadway in the distance that is illuminated by the high-beams. This defeats the whole point of using high-beams in the first place.

The factory Sport Headlight package is intended to work as follows:

Two outside bulbs - 9007 low beam and high beam.
Two inside bulbs - 9004 - high beam only.

The Sport Headlight package operates identically to the four headlight systems of the '60's and '70's. Kind of like re-inventing the wheel, but a good re-invention.

The photo below shows a pair of relays that I mounted on the driver side of the radiator shroud. One is low beam for left side, the other is high beam for left side. I duplicated the relay setup on the passenger side of the radiator shroud. I kept the factory independent fuses in the circuit should one side or the other fail, I will still have a working headlight.

- John

 

[jltcasper3]

When I did my Sport conversion, I initially had them all on when on high. While I was aiming them, I had them on high and I was right in front of them. The heat coming off them was unbelievable to me. I was worried about deforming or crazing the plastic lenses, so I wired them so the main outside lows were all that was on for low beam and high on all four were on for high beam.

were these with halogens or leds?

 

[jltcasper3]

my understanding is for factory oem sports: The Sport version of the Ram uses the 55 watt low-beam filaments of the outboard (9007) bulbs for low beam and all four 65 watt high-beam filaments for high beam. The low-beam filaments are not used with the high-beam filaments on either Sport or non-Sport.
so in lamens terms correct me if im wrong:

low beams on only
inner bulbs--9004
high--off
low--off
outer bulbs--9007
high--off
low--on

high beams on only
inner bulbs--9004
high--on
low--off
outer bulbs--9007
high--on
low--off
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
so is this how the oem setup works first?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
would it be better to run all 4 lows on for low or is this too much?

 

[petersonj]

so in lamens terms correct me if im wrong:

You are correct. I said the same thing with different words in my previous post.

were these with halogens or leds?

I think your question was answered in his description of wiring the high beams together with the low beams. He said "the heat coming from them was unbelievable". That pretty much says that the bulbs are halogens.

would it be better to run all 4 lows on for low or is this too much?

I mentioned this in my earlier post - "the two inner bulb reflectors are not designed for a low-beam application, so light is not focused, but scattered everywhere."

- John

 

[BigPapa]

John is right on.

 

[Iron Duke II]

Personally, I see no benefit to having all bulbs filaments lit when high-beam is selected. For starters, the two inner bulb reflectors are not designed for a low-beam application, so light is not focused, but scattered everywhere.

@BigPapa mentions another reason not to - heat. A third reason not to is that when a low and high beam are on together (when not designed to be that way), this combination makes a bright spot on the roadway immediately in front of the vehicle. This bright area will cause eye pupils to constrict some and let in less light, which in turn diminishes ones ability to see the roadway in the distance that is illuminated by the high-beams. This defeats the whole point of using high-beams in the first place.

The factory Sport Headlight package is intended to work as follows:

Two outside bulbs - 9007 low beam and high beam.
Two inside bulbs - 9004 - high beam only.

The Sport Headlight package operates identically to the four headlight systems of the '60's and '70's. Kind of like re-inventing the wheel, but a good re-invention.

The photo below shows a pair of relays that I mounted on the driver side of the radiator shroud. One is low beam for left side, the other is high beam for left side. I duplicated the relay setup on the passenger side of the radiator shroud. I kept the factory independent fuses in the circuit should one side or the other fail, I will still have a working headlight.

- John

View attachment 136136

Would this LMC Truck kit operate similar to what you showed in the photo?
https://www.lmctruck.com/1994-15-dodge/de-1994-02-heavy-duty-headlight-harness

 

[petersonj]

Would this LMC Truck kit operate similar to what you showed in the photo?

Similar - yes, but some differences worth mentioning. I use four relays so that I could maintain independent right and left fused headlight circuits and for reducing electrical loads, especially in the high beam circuit.

I am not positive, but I think using only one relay for low beam and one relay for high beam would be sharing both left and right headlights on one circuit. Another difference would be that the electrical load would be doubled for each relay. The high beam relay would be operating four bulbs on a Sport Headlight conversion.

- John

 

[BigPapa]

When I did mine, I had already made a harness with relays. I used two relays and 10AWG wire from batteries to headlamps with a diode between high and low allowing high and low to be on at the same time. When I went to the Sport lights, I bought sockets and made my own conversion harnesses that plugged into the original lamp socket and then into the four lamps in the Sport assemblies. As I mentioned earlier, I cut the jumper with the diode that powered all lights when on high beam after going Sport. I never had a problem running just two relays.

 

[Iron Duke II]

Would this LMC Truck kit operate similar to what you showed in the photo?
https://www.lmctruck.com/1994-15-dodge/de-1994-02-heavy-duty-headlight-harness

Even though the LMC Truck kit cites this is for the 94-02's, it adds that "Not for use on models with daytime running lights." Mine has the daytime running lights???

 

[BigPapa]

I thought the Canadian trucks were the only ones with DRL's.

 

[Iron Duke II]

I thought the Canadian trucks were the only ones with DRL's.

My understanding was it was mfg in St Louis for the Canadian market.

 

[BigPapa]

That would be a Canadian truck. Speedo in kilometers/hour?

 

[Iron Duke II]

The oil pressure and coolant temp gauges are metric, oil pressure in kPa (Kilopascal Pressure Unit) and CT in Celsius. Speedo is kilometers/hour.



I posted this info a while back on a thread here and there were several responses from members that didn't think it was Canadian.

 

[BigPapa]

You have a Canadian truck.

 

[Iron Duke II]

The original owner lived in Washington state and retired to Arizona. Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[Road Dog]

Even though the LMC Truck kit cites this is for the 94-02's, it adds that "Not for use on models with daytime running lights." Mine has the daytime running lights???

The DRL is the high beam run at 1/2 power. It's controlled through a module on the left side fender below the fuse box. It's around 3" x 3" x 1". According to my FSM the sport second high beam lamp is controlled (through a relay) off the instrument cluster high beam indicator lamp which is controlled by the DRL module. You can google "dodge ram drl module" for more information.

 

[Thomas]

I installed the Sport type lamps a long time ago. I created a new harness with larger gauge wire and relays to minimize the load on the headlamp switch and maximize the voltage across the bulb filaments.
My original wiring utilized the low beam filaments of the inboard 9004 bulbs with low beams and high beams. After a month or so I noticed a discoloring of the reflector material near the base of each 9004 bulb. At that time I removed any wiring for those filaments.