YES you can have safer brighter headlights on your Newmar

[tom chelbana]

With the time change, weather conditions, animals, poor road conditions and good sight of what is in front of you, you need bright headlights. All 3 of our Newmar's had very poor headlights which we changed out. One of the better up grades which doesn't take much time or money. A Newmar owner contact me about how on safe he felt with his 18 DS because of dim lights. This really isn't a Newmar problem because they are required to use the DOT lights we have. An interesting item on our 18 LA which are the same light from 15 to 22 LA are that when we turn on our high beams the low beans stay on too and we really need to be cautious. If your headlight lens are sun faded polishing them helps a lot but when all is said LED headlights are the way to go.
If wanting to change to the bright low beam headligths you will need to check the number that is stamped on your bulbs in your coach right now. Will be a 4 didget number and for most coaches the bulb is a 9005. One can go to Amazon with the number and up grade to the safer bright LED lights. I also up graded our high beams to LED for those Quartzsite dry camping in the desert. We try to not travel in the dark but right now it's getting dark around 4:30. Do respect fellow drivers when using high beams. The LED lights should be about 40$ for 2 and 80$ for 4. Drive safe and when in doubt turn you headlights on.
Newmar Man

[flyboy013]

My 2018 MADP has headlight assemblies from 07-13 Chevrolet Silverado (GM436 stamped on headlight assembly). While the headlight is also stamped with HB3 (presumably the bulb that it was designed for), I actually have H3 bulbs, which are primarily fog light bulbs. Needless to say my headlight brightness sucks. HB3 (which I believe are the same as 9005) has a different base shape and will not fit into the headlight assembly. Short of replacing the headlight assembly for some unknown performance assembly, I seem to be stuck. I'm open to ideas.

[johnbro27]

Our '04 already had LED replacement bulbs when we bought it and I still can't see squat. I polished the lenses to remove the yellow, was a big help, but they're dim and I think one is mis-aligned. Argh.

[Unplanned Tourist]

Not all LED replacement bulbs are equal. Low quality and/or poorly aimed headlights will blind oncoming traffic.

To see if you headlights are aimed properly, park on a flat road at night. Turn your lights on low beam. Measure from the ground to the center of your lights. Now walk 50-100 feet out in front and see where the cut-off line is. (A big piece of cardboard works great) It should be 10-12 inches lower at 100 feet, or 5-6 inches low at 50 feet. Any higher, and the oncoming traffic will be blinded and you could possibly end up in a crash.

If you don't have a definate cut-off line, you have the wrong LED replacement bulbs. This is a proper cut-off line for low beam.

As a side benifit, you'll see better at night as well.

[jaydee325]

I don't believe for a second this is not at least partially a Newmar issue. They select head light capsules for standard automotive applications. The location, height, width apart is totally different that what the auto OEMs intended and tested for.

Get with the program Newmar, do some testing and select the appropriate head light capsules that are safer.

Having skewered Newmar, I also acknowledge that Newmar is not the only motorhome manufacturer who skimps on safety here.

[David 70]

The cheap Amazon LED bulbs are usually not the right bulbs for the headlights designed for halogen bulbs. Headlights depend on the reflector in the headlight to direct light in the correct pattern. If the LED is not in the correct position, it will not reflect properly. I put some cheap ones in a pickup once and they were bright, but it was like using a big flood light. I have replaced original headlights in my pickup and my motorhome with the housing designed for LED and they work good. As unplanned tourist described they need to have the cut-off line in the right place so as not to blind other traffic.

[inthepines]

almost everyone of those are for off road use only they are not DOT/ FMSCA

and maybe it's all good for you but the poor guy passing you the other way was just effing blinded. If you're upgrading, make sure it's DOT/ FMSCA and be considerate...

[tom chelbana]

We have found that replacing our low and high beam bulbs made all the difference when having to drive at night. The LED lights we installed in our Essex were in at least 10 years and we had over 150K miles on coach. It appears a number of Newmar owners haven't had the big improvement we and numerous other owners who we have suggested to use. Would like to hear from owners who do make the change, what effect the Led lights had on their brightness for night time driving.
Newmar Man

[txcpl]

Over this winter I plan to replace the entire headlight assembly on our coach. The headlight assembly is from a 2013 Chevy Silverado. I have located a couple of assemblies which are CAPA certified, meaning they meet all DOT standards. I've polished lenses before, but 6 months later, back to the same dingy yellow color. will be staying away from Amazon cheap stuff. You get what you pay for if you do your homework.

[redbaron73]

There is no led bulb that will fit in a halogen housing and give the proper cutoff.

I took the time to dremel out the housing and install a morimoto led housing in both low and high positions, using the appropriate cutoff for each.

It was time consuming but the result is a low beam that exceeds the quality of all American vehicles I have driven and almost mirrors the BMW lights (only missing the cornering and adaptive leveling).

I have a series of YouTube videos showing the end result. This is a diy project, or there are several people that sell the kit for $2k. I spent about $500 in the parts.

With bulb replacement only you will blind oncoming traffic or create shadows that make it hard to see.

[Dennis C.]

It is possible to retrofit your Newmar factory halogen lights with a projector retrofit kit that utilizes modern LED lights. It’s not inexpensive, but the results are outstanding. I had this done to my 2018 Ventana. I won’t get into the details here, but I used a “vendor” based in Indiana who has been recommended and discussed in multiple forums here. While he makes a good product, his customer service is horrific. He sold me a defective product and then disappeared and wouldn’t return my calls and texts to fix the problem. I eventually fixed the problem myself after much research and many hours and I’m happy with the result. PM me if you want more details on who to avoid if you’re considering this expensive conversion.

[David 70]

Do the newer top end coaches still use headlight assemblies from other vehicles or do they design their own? If you google the DOT numbers on the bottom you can usually find replacements already made for LEDs. I done that on mine and they were reasonably priced.

[tom chelbana]

Yes Newmar uses complete headlight assembly from other vehicles for all their coaches. Just replacing the complete headlight assembly will not give your Newmar a big improvement in lighting. It is the LED bulb that provides you with the bright white light for all around safer night time travel. We didn't need to address the headlight adjustment if the low beam light is set to high for on coming traffic. Did check Amazon for LED headlight replacement bulbs which were priced around 40 to 50 dollars for 4.
Also just replaced backup bulbs for the 18 LA to led too and again much improved.
If you are OK with your headlights then you should leave them alone. In our case felt driving at night with the original non-led bulbs I considered a safty issue.
Newmar Man

[Dutch Star Don]

There seems to be some misinformation going on. First, you can't add an LED bulb to an assembly designed for halogen bulbs. An LED bulb requires a "fisheye" lens to direct the light.

When an LED bulb is added to a halogen light assembly, it will always look much brighter right in front of the coach. If you were to drive down a tree covered street, the LED would light up all the trees and their canopies directly in front of you. When people see this, they think the bulb is so much brighter. One, it is brighter, but the light is being splattered all over the place instead of being directed down the road. Get out on the open highway and the same LED bulbs will not shine any farther down the road then the halogen bulbs did.

Newmar does go cheap when you see other brands are using LED bulbs in LED designed headlight assemblies (fisheye). My Dutch Star uses a Dodge Challenger headlight assembly. That assembly comes in three different styles, Halogen, LED and HID. Newmar could have used the LED assemblies instead of the cheap halogen assemblies.

If you want your lights to work, identify the assembly and buy the entire assembly in the LED version. For mine it would be $400- $500 a side for the Challenger LED lights.

I love gadgets and I love making improvements on my coach, but since new, we've only driven the coach once at night. I can't justify the expenditure for something we'll never use.

Lastly, many years ago when I had my Monaco Diplomat and before LED and HID, I set out to improve the lighting. Monaco was using aftermarket GM headlight assemblies and not the real thing. The assemblies were cheap and didn't direct the light as it should. I changed the assemblies to OEM and added relays and new headlight sockets to power quality Phillips bulbs. Monaco was known for undersized wiring and often had only 9-10 volts at the headlights, hence the relay upgrade.

When I was done, the lighting was better, but I was still overdriving the lights at 60mph. In reality, it was a fun project, but all my work was kind of a failure. Back then I was still working so we would often drove at night.

My final remedy, I replaced the lower fog lights on the Diplomat with a set of Hella FF driving lights. They were powerful and I had them aimed low, but way up the road. I could now drive safely at 60 mph at night and see what was ahead of me and not blind oncoming traffic.

So.....either change out your light assemblies or add some good quality driving lights.