Community Forums

Malcom · 12-06-2021, 12:14 AM

[QUOTE=jacwjames;6001160]I usually don't drive at night, back in ~2015 we got caught and had to drive at night and the headlights did not do their job. So I bought a pair of the Sylvania bulbs that should have made an improvement.
Found out this last week that they didn't, at to drive at night a couple times and it was not great. So I just started stopping before dusk. Prior to the trip I had even polished the headlight lenses.

I want to upgrade my bulbs to LED, anyone have any recommendations?

I see some are 2 sided, others are 4 sided, I would assume the 4 sided would be better.

We had all the same issues as others in the post. In order to solve the lack of road lighting at night issue, we focused on a fog light upgrade, as others here have mentioned. Initially I looked for an LED replacement fixture that would match the body opening - no success. Next I looked at an HID upgrade to the existing fixtures. I did find an HID kit that had the lighting capabilities we were looking for and I could sufficiently modify the housing to accept the HID lamp and associated heat sink tabs. The pictures tell the story.

Note we did change the BMW Series 5 halo headlights solely because of polycarbonate fatigue and esthetics, road lighting was still extremely poor.

The road lighting at night is now excellent! Malcolm

jacwjames · 12-06-2021, 06:29 AM

I got around to digging into my headlight & running lights situation.

The way my running lights worked was to come on with the High Beam Lights. They were so poor that I couldn't even tell the difference. While I was driving in the dark every car/truck/semi that passed me had better lights.

So first thing I did this weekend was take the running lights out and confirmed they worked, they did. Plugged them back in while resting them on my generator so I could see them go off/on. Using different combinations of switches I finally found they only came on with the high beams.

So started looking at my wiring. Monaco prewired for the DRL relay but did not install. This would have turned on the running lights with the low beams cut to 80% but the relays themselves are expensive and sometimes none existent.

I sent an email to another 2002 Monaco Windsor owner who went through the same thing and he even tried the DRL relay but advised against it as his failed pretty quickly and when it did it kept his lights on and the relay got very very hot.

He said that years ago another Windsor owner provided a fix by removing the a different relay and jumping across the wires in the relay block. So I tried this yesterday and it worked. I now can turn the driving lights on independent of the other lights. This is a good start.

I have a set of LED running lights on order and will install and see how that does as far as improving the lighting.

I also have a headlight polishing kit on order to polish the headlights. Hopefully the combination of the above will fix my problem.

If not I will consider installed LED bulbs in the headlights as a last resort. I do not intend on having to drive at night but if I have to I want to be able to see.

Rusty Kramer · 12-06-2021, 02:17 PM

Malcom,
I feel your pain on the BMW lamps. My Dynasty suffers from the same issue. These BMW 5 series light are daylight running lamps and nothing more. I replaced my broken fog lamps with some driving lights but they are not great. I need to try another set.

CRV2 · 12-06-2021, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacwjames

If not I will consider installed LED bulbs in the headlights as a last resort. I do not intend on having to drive at night but if I have to I want to be able to see.

Just a thought to share, I have a pickup truck and the headlights went dim over time and I tried LED bulbs but they didn't work out so well for me, what did work well though is replacing the bulbs with "HELLA" higher wattage bulbs. If I remember correctly the standard bulbs are 55~65 watts and you can get 80~100 watt (and higher) bulbs to replace the lower wattage bulbs. They are labeled for off-road use, however they were not so bright that anyone would be blinded by them and work well with housings made for regular bulbs. Some people have reported though that they are too hot for some plastic housings so keep that in mind. Something like this one, but make sure the bulb # is right for yours if you try these. ~CA

https://www.ebay.com/itm/33417884258...IAAOSwHathZUTD

or maybe these

https://www.ebay.com/itm/19412029110...epid=179777543

Bussinit · 12-06-2021, 03:24 PM

Look into the M4 lights. You won’t regret it. I tried the cheap LEDs and they are terrible. I even tried the higher wattage Hella bulbs and was not impressed. Plus those things get very hot.

I have a 2000 signature with the 7” glass Hella housings. I can’t really tell what you have but it looks similar. I bought the M4 LEDs but worried about the dispersion of the beam pattern. I even tried to return them before installing after reading all the same advice that others have given above about being the “jerk” blinding everyone in my path. M4 responded by explaining that their bulbs are specifically designed to fit in halogen housings and asked me to at least give them a try before returning them. So I did. Whether or not their claims are true the improvement was night and day. I even took pictures of the beam patterns side by side and before and after with the halogens and LEDs and the pattern is unchanged but much brighter. I’ve had them in for a couple of years now and have never been flashed by oncoming traffic. They have a very nice spread and a pretty sharp cutoff at the top similar to how HIDs and factory LEDs are.

I had a similar experience driving at night and in the rain with nearly colliding with a bridge support because I couldn’t seen more than 30 feet ahead of me.

These lights are truly a game changer.

Bussinit · 12-06-2021, 03:50 PM

Here are the pictures. LEDs are in the right, obviously.

Low beams

[ATTACH]350805

High beams

[ATTACH]350806

Fffrank · 12-07-2021, 10:55 AM

One more thing -- when I installed LED bulbs I took the time to properly aim them and adjust the "focus" to not blind other drivers. In 12,000 miles of seat time (much of that at night) I have not once been "flashed" to dim my lights.

oceansailor · 12-07-2021, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurt Averill

I had very poor headlights - I ended up replacing the cheap import headlight housings Monaco used with an OEM housing

Where did you buy the replacement housings? I'd love to replace mine. I've sanded/polished them and sealed them with ClearCoat, but that doesn't last too long.

oceansailor · 12-07-2021, 02:14 PM

I'll weigh in on the side of the folks recommending relay kits (@jacwjames - as I recall, you're fairly well clued in electrically; it's a very easy upgrade.) I did this on my Jeep where I found out that the headlights were only seeing about 10.5V by the time all the switches, poor contacts, etc. were done with it, and the difference was literally night and day.

If your coach is anything like mine, there's a good distribution panel close to the front; use a fused 12V source to supply a pair of relays and use the existing high/low wires to trigger the coils. Whatever other upgrading/improvements you do, this one should be first on the list.

Schematic for reference:

jacwjames · 12-07-2021, 05:00 PM

I got the LED running lights installed yesterday. The put out quite a bit more light, still have to work on adjusting them. With the change on the wiring I can now use the running lights separate from the HI/Low beams. I think these changes will make a big difference.

I also have a headlight polishing kit on order and will polish out the headlights. If it works I may not need to install LED bulbs.

Kurt Averill · 12-07-2021, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oceansailor

Where did you buy the replacement housings? I'd love to replace mine. I've sanded/polished them and sealed them with ClearCoat, but that doesn't last too long.

My headlights are out of a 99 GMC Astro van - I bought GM replacements through an on-line GM parts dealer. The install was a little bit of a pain - Monaco hacked up the original mounting points and pointed the buckets in the general direction of where they needed to be. I had to cut up the new ones similarly to how Monaco did to get them mounted - and I had to shim them quit a bit to get the adjustment screws in range - but it was worth it. You can sure see the quality difference between the GM and the crappy TYC knock offs.

oceansailor · 12-07-2021, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurt Averill

My headlights are out of a 99 GMC Astro van - I bought GM replacements through an on-line GM parts dealer. The install was a little bit of a pain - Monaco hacked up the original mounting points and pointed the buckets in the general direction of where they needed to be. I had to cut up the new ones similarly to how Monaco did to get them mounted - and I had to shim them quit a bit to get the adjustment screws in range - but it was worth it. You can sure see the quality difference between the GM and the crappy TYC knock offs.

Excellent, thanks! Not sure where you came across the idea of using those - I thought I was either stuck with the originals or, if I was lucky, finding a better set in an RV wrecking yard - and it's good to know that there is another option.

Scooter363y · 12-08-2021, 12:13 AM

I have upgraded both the high and low beam headlights and the fog lights on my 2004 H R endeavor. And I really like the upgrade. I had a difficult time driving at night before this upgrade.

Before this upgrade I spent time polishing the headlight lenses several times a year trying to boost light output.

After the upgrade it’s a joy to drive at night. The replacement bulbs were just regular (9005,9006) replacements from Amazon. Installation was nothing special, but I took one of the Steele brushes (looks like a Steele toothbrush) and clean the plug before I put them in.

I replaced the fog lights with new units too.

A much needed replacement

RV safe
Scooter

Bomberguy · 12-08-2021, 12:26 AM

I had similar problem, and elected not to drive at night. I have a 2007 HR Endeavor. Cleaning the lenses helped, but I still couldn't see well enough to comfortably drive at night. Tried a few hologen bulbs, but they didn't improve my situation.

Learned that M4 includes a complete kit with transformer for each light. Reviews were excellent so I ordered the kit for my coach. The kit was very easy to install....you actually use the same light wiring and light plug. Basically you untwist and remove your bad or weak bulb, disconnect from the electrical plug, and attach the plug to the new M4 kit and twist the new bulb in, attach the transformer with provided zip ties and you are done. It is a well designed kit. I've had these installed over two years with no issues.