Sport Headlight Conversion (lots of photos)

[firefighter_2000]

Here is my post about my sport headlight conversion. If anyone has ANY questions or need any more information please feel free to send me a message or email me at firefighter_2000 AT hotmail.com



Here is a shot of my truck with the OLD headlights. Very dim, and NOT safe.



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Headlight Assemblies: Purchased from Headlightsdepot on ebay. Cost: $168. 45 including shipping. Excellent quality light assemblies. Made by TYC in Taiwan. Both 9004 & 9007 bulbs are included. Only problem is the rubber welts. Not the best quality in my opinion.

They arrived taped together (two separate boxes one for each headlight)



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They were packaged well, wrapped in plastic.



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View of the front:



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View of the top:



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View of the bottom:



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View of the Back:



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View of the side: Notice the rubber welts. They weren't as good quality as my old ones. I removed the old ones and installed them in place of these.



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[firefighter_2000]

Harness

Headlight Harness: Purchased from SUV lights. Cost: $153. 00 including shipping. There are TWO of these. One for each side. Great harness, VERY well put together. Not sure on the quality of the materials. Everything has Chineese writing on it. May be just fine, but just not sure.

From left: Relays/Relay sockets; Two 25 amp fues/holders; 9004 female plug for wiring FROM old headlight plug; 9004 plug; 9007 plug.



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Close up of relays. The black with white wires comes from the headlight plug, goes to ground on one relay, and loops to the other ground on the other relay The reds, at the bottoms of the plug, come from the fuse/battery. The blue & white wires head back to the plugs to the new bulbs, one for low beam, one for high beam:



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Close up of fuse holders (25 amps each):



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Female plug for old plug from old headlight; This is what activates the relays. Black with white stripe heads back to grounds on the relays, the blue & white ones head to the "activation" side of the relay. One for low beams, one for high beams.



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Plugs for bulbs in the headlights. They are marked from SUV lights which one goes to the 9004 & 9007, as marked in second photo. The black wire with ring terminal is a ground and just goes to a nearby fender bolt.



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[firefighter_2000]

Removal & Installation

Removal of old headlights:

Removed the screw under the corner light (Phillips head) and pulled straight forward. Remove the bulb and discard the housing.

Remove the three 10mm bolts holding the housing in:

Under the corner light:



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Top corner of the headlight:



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Bottom, under the bumper. Accessed from under the truck:



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Actually jerked the old housing from the mounting base to get it out. Removed the headlight bulb;



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Housing and mounting base both removed. No cutting required on mine, as is on some of the earlier non-sport models.



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After I got the old headlights out, it was determined that bumper removal was going to be required to make installation easier & safer. Didn’t want to risk breaking the new ones. Didn’t take any photos of the bumper removal or installation of the headlights. Didn’t remove the bumper brackets (3 bolts) but just removed the bumper from the mounts. Kinda a PITA, but worth it, and much easier for installation. Its VERY straight-forward. Remove the corner light, install the three 10mm bolts and stick the bumper back on. Sorry for no photos, but there was some colorful language and some throwing of tools to get the bumper off and back on.

 

[firefighter_2000]

Finally.

Finished installation:

Very happy with the finished product. Great fit. Great looks. And most of all, GREAT light output & visibility at night. Up & down adjustments can be made with the Phillips head adjuster under the bottom of the light housing. Side to side adjustment is on the side, under the rubber welts.



Front view passenger side:



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Side view passenger side:



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Front view drivers side:



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Side view drivers side:



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Rubber welt:



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Full front view:



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Wire harness zip-tied to the battery hold down bolt:



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Plug from the old headlight plug going into the harness and the two ground wires going to the front 10mm fender bolt. I put a washer down, then the ring terminals, then screwed the bolt back down:



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Last… Did the fog light modification. Jumped pin 3 & 5 (as marked on the relay I removed). This is specific to the 1999 models. Other years are different.



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[BDaugherty]

Great writeup. Lots of good pics, too. Could you elaborate about the foglight modification? Is the purpose to allow foglight operation with highbeams? How does the relay fit with the jumper?

 

[firefighter_2000]

Relay...

My apologies. It is so that the fog lights will stay on, even when the high beams are on. The relay is not actually what activates the fog lamps, but an interlock to turn them off when the high beams come on. I removed the relay completely, and installed the jumper. Now my fog lights stay on even when the high beams are on.

Craig

 

[AHolbert]

I'm planning on doing this same conversion tomorrow, got the same headlights and harness as you. Does it matter which relays go into which sockets ? Two of the relays are 20/30a, and two are 30/40a, the SUVlights harness does not come with instructions (at least mine didn't). Great write up and pictures too... . thanks !! Oh yeah, where did you mount the relays ? I'm guessing they should be mounted with the wires feeding into them from the bottom to keep moisture and gunk from accumulating on the contacts ? Thanks again for the write up and any help.

 

[firefighter_2000]

Didnt notice

If you'll look at the pics in the fourth post you'll see I zip tied them to the battery hold down bolts. I mounted them with the wiring going into the bottom. Also, I will look, but I didnt notice the amps on the relays. Thought they were all the same.

Craig

 

[WBodine]

Awsome post plan on doing the same to my truck.

 

[AHolbert]

Thanks for the reply, I did'nt look closely enough at your pictures ! I emailed Suvlights about the different amp relays and will post the reply when I hear back, thanks again !

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Great writeup and pics - I have the same lights, but used the Danial Stern relay kit and fabricated my own harness from 10 ga. wire from bulbs/relay and to battery - really stabilizes voltage to bulbs. The wire gauge on the harness you have looks good too, and sure easier than "rolling your own", unless wire size is important, as it was to me. You'll LOVE those light's design and ability to also light out at 90 degrees to the side of the vehicle - out here in deer/elk country, and heavy forested areas, that really helps avoid close encounters of the unwanted kind!



On my '02, I had to remove enough bumper bolts to allow the bumper to swing down, but didn't totally remove it - some guys don't even have to do that - seems to depend on individual trucks, and tolerances - fit and finish.



I thought running the fog/driving lights with the hi-beams was illegal? I have my setup set so the lo-beams are still on when I switch to hi-beam - but being allowed to run the driving lights on too would be a nice added plus!

 

[AHolbert]

Suvlights told me I received two sets of differant relays simply because they had run out of the normally supplied ones, it did not matter which relays go into which sockets. Conversion is finished and this was a worthwhile conversion. Very happy with the results, I can see once again at night !! Very simple and straightforward even though I had to enlarge the cutouts (I expected that). I also did not remove the front bumper. I simply loosend it so I could swing it down, that gave me plenty of room to remove and reinstall the headlight assemblies. Very worthwhile BOMB, should have done this long ago. Also, as a little bonus, my Headlightsdepot light assemblies came with an extra set of 9007 Superwhite Halogen bulbs (a total of 6 bulbs received with the assemblies), haven't tried these bulbs yet. The as-installed bulbs are much better than what was in the truck before. I'm sure the heavier gauge wiring to the bulbs has a lot to do with it along with the new assemblies themselves.

 

[Whiteranch04]

Great writeup, I have the exact same setup from the same place, cant wait to see again as my 2001 is very dull and almost blind at night. What kind of those blue lights could somebody run in these new sportlights?? Would they draw too much amperage?? I know nothing about hid lights but know they blind me kinda at night but they must be better than stock. Where would a guy order or buy the brightest blubs that last pretty good? I dont mine paying extra due to all of the dammed hogs we have on the roads at night down here. Two people were killed last year at night from hitting wild boars.

 

[BarryG]

White Ranch you might try looking at Daniel Sterns web site

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply



Lots of good info on lights, HID, bulbs, harnesses etc and talks about blue lights and their actual lack of performance just a different color light that looks brighter but puts out less lumens.



His site is worth reading and is easy and fairly quick to get through.



Also his recommendation to me for bulbs in the sport housings from an email he sent me



"Far and away the best 9007 bulbs presently on the market are the

>> Philips Xtreme Power items:

>> <b>Philips <font color="red">Xtreme Power</font> 9007 / HB5</b> (TWO PACK)

>>

>> The best 9004s are the GE Night Hawk 9004NH items, which you can get

>> from Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more .

>>

>> Do not buy blue or "extra white" bulbs (Silver Star, Crystal Vision,

>> TruView, Hoen, PIAA, etc. ); despite the heavy advertising push and

>> claims of "brighter and whiter" light, they actually produce _less_

>> light due to the blue glass they use. "

 

[1tuffram]

Great writeup and pics - I have the same lights, but used the Danial Stern relay kit and fabricated my own harness from 10 ga. wire from bulbs/relay and to battery - really stabilizes voltage to bulbs. The wire gauge on the harness you have looks good too, and sure easier than "rolling your own", unless wire size is important, as it was to me. You'll LOVE those light's design and ability to also light out at 90 degrees to the side of the vehicle - out here in deer/elk country, and heavy forested areas, that really helps avoid close encounters of the unwanted kind!



On my '02, I had to remove enough bumper bolts to allow the bumper to swing down, but didn't totally remove it - some guys don't even have to do that - seems to depend on individual trucks, and tolerances - fit and finish.



I thought running the fog/driving lights with the hi-beams was illegal? I have my setup set so the lo-beams are still on when I switch to hi-beam - but being allowed to run the driving lights on too would be a nice added plus!

Gary, do you have an approximation of what the cost was for making your own harness vs purchasing the SUV harness? What size wire are the SUV harnesses made from?

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Gary, do you have an approximation of what the cost was for making your own harness vs purchasing the SUV harness? What size wire are the SUV harnesses made from?

SORRY - been too long ago - but I doubt any commercial setup is beefier than what I ended up with in terms of wire size and voltage drop...

 

[firefighter_2000]

40

A previous poster in another thread said that the SUV lights harness was about 40 bucks more than if you built it yourself. To me, it was easier to just buy the harness. I cant feel any heat from anyof the wires in the harness even after the lights have been on for some time. I feel like the wire gauge is more than sufficient to run the bulbs even all of the fillaments at the same time with no problems. I think you'd be happy either way you went. I just chose the SUV harness because Im lazy.

Craig

 

[Shelby Griggs]

I did this a few years back using the SUV harness, ended up having to replace ALL four relays due to headlights refusing to turn off, I think this was due to water intrusion and corrosion, either grease the contacts and seal the case Or mount the terminals DOWN!



It is necessary to do the fog light conversion (at least on my 2001), something to do with feed back through the fogs, in any event when I left it stock, when using the fog lights, at least one, if not both headlamps remained latched in the high beam position, wasn't a problem when not running the fogs, the relay jumper for the fog lights got the high and low beam to work again.



SHG

 

[diesel DOG]

Nice post thanks for your effort!

 

[firefighter_2000]

Glad

Glad it could help anyone. I plan on adding some PIAA foglights soon, and then some of the fold out towing mirrors. I'll try to do a photo report on those as well.

Craig