Coachmen: Crappy Coachmen Headlights

[Bonzoso]

Hi all, I'm posting here in case Forest River has used these headlights in other than Coachmen MH's. I avoid driving at night, but I had a situation where we got lost in rural IL where I had to drive on a rainy dark rural evening. I found out after owning my rig for a year that the headlights are terrible. Couldn't see 100ft in front of me. I have a 2018 Coachmen Pursuit Precision ds27 and a picture of the headlight assembly is below.

I've read a few posts online how awful MH headlights can be and am wondering if anyone can give me some insight on improving either these headlights or somehow replacing them. Doesn't seem to be much info out there for even something close to this design. Anyone know if the bulbs are replaceable. I've crawled up underneath and can't tell. Thanks up front.

[AFChap]

Headlight aiming is critical. When I checked my diesel pusher a few years ago I found the headlights were aimed extremely high and to the right from the factory. You need to have the headlights aimed with the coach loaded about how you normally travel. That will help some. But there apparently is no total cure. It has to do with the fact that you're sitting pretty much on top of the headlights rather than behind them. I have a friend who drives million dollar tour buses, and he says the same thing about the headlights on them.

[craigd853]

Might want to see if there is an LED replacement bulb to replace the current bulb. Pull the
current light out and look to see if you can upgrade the lighting. Also as someone else suggested make sure your lights are properly adjusted. Pretty sure your old bulbs are incandesent bulb and LED would be night and day different. Good Luck

[Unplanned Tourist]

A lot of MHs have minimal sized wiring for the headlights. Installing relays with heavier wires and better ground wires often helps once the lights are properly aimed.

Simply replacing incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs without aiming often results in your lights blinding oncoming traffic.

If you do put LED bulbs in, be sure to check the "cut-off" on low beam.

[Bonzoso]

Originally Posted by craigd853

Might want to see if there is an LED replacement bulb to replace the current bulb. Pull the
current light out and look to see if you can upgrade the lighting. Also as someone else suggested make sure your lights are properly adjusted. Pretty sure your old bulbs are incandescent bulb and LED would be night and day different. Good Luck

I'd love to pull the bulb but I can't for the life of me see how the bulb comes out, I'm going to try to get a picture of the back side of the housing and hopefully someone can enlighten me.


By the way the headlights are aimed properly but the projection beam does not give much downfield illumination. Certainly not enough to see what's going on as you're doing 55 or 60 mph down a dark road.

[Bonzoso]

I finally figured out how to remove the bulbs on the projector lamp which is the low beam. This is an H3 bulb. The bulb is not a brand that I recognize so it is probably crap like the whole headlight assembly which I identified as looking somewhat like what 2014-15 Chevy Silverado 150 assemblies look like.


Anyway now I am looking for replacement bulbs by a reputable manufacturer. From what I've run into a standard LED replacement does not seem like a good idea. Most reviews indicate that with projection headlights you get significant dead spots using LED bulbs. HID bulbs will probably need wiring upgrades. So now I'm looking to improve the probably cheap crappy aftermarket halogen bulbs that Coachmen used. Any suggestions for a good H3 halogen low beam? Again, Thanks up front.

[craigd853]

Originally Posted by Bonzoso

I finally figured out how to remove the bulbs on the projector lamp which is the low beam. This is an H3 bulb. The bulb is not a brand that I recognize so it is probably crap like the whole headlight assembly which I identified as looking somewhat like what 2014-15 Chevy Silverado 150 assemblies look like.


Anyway now I am looking for replacement bulbs by a reputable manufacturer. From what I've run into a standard LED replacement does not seem like a good idea. Most reviews indicate that with projection headlights you get significant dead spots using LED bulbs. HID bulbs will probably need wiring upgrades. So now I'm looking to improve the probably cheap crappy aftermarket halogen bulbs that Coachmen used. Any suggestions for a good H3 halogen low beam? Again, Thanks up front.

Hello again sir, I was unaware of what you are saying about the dead spots when going with LED over bulb type in a projection style head lamp assembly. The newer LED lights are adjustable as to the way they should be oriented in your particular assembly to alleviate any dead spots should this occur. It comes with directions as well on how to do this should you need to. Now if you are talking about back scatter which is what you get when you don't have projection style lenses then I understand what you are talking about. For 20.00-50.00 dollars I think it would be worth your time and money to at least try and if you are not satisfied then you can remove them. Of course you can do whatever suits you as this is your rv, but I have used both LED on projector and the older style headlamp assembly and have had good results with both. This is a sensitive subject here so beware that there will be lots of opinions and some are founded and others are just well opinions. Noone likes driving down the road and being blinded by an oncoming car who has a cheap set of LEDS in their headlamp assembly that is not a projection style lense such as yours. I do believe that you will be fine and you will thank yourself for at least trying the LED type. Good Luck in what ever you decide and be safe.

[Unplanned Tourist]

Here's a little test you can do after you switch to LED (if that's what you decide)

Take your rig out to a quiet road at night and have your spouse drive ahead, turn around and drive towards you to see if the lights are blinding or not on low beam. Good luck and enjoy your rig.

[Bonzoso]

Originally Posted by craigd853

Hello again sir, I was unaware of what you are saying about the dead spots when going with LED over bulb type in a projection style head lamp assembly. The newer LED lights are adjustable as to the way they should be oriented in your particular assembly to alleviate any dead spots should this occur. It comes with directions as well on how to do this should you need to. Now if you are talking about back scatter which is what you get when you don't have projection style lenses then I understand what you are talking about. For 20.00-50.00 dollars I think it would be worth your time and money to at least try and if you are not satisfied then you can remove them. Of course you can do whatever suits you as this is your rv, but I have used both LED on projector and the older style headlamp assembly and have had good results with both. This is a sensitive subject here so beware that there will be lots of opinions and some are founded and others are just well opinions. Noone likes driving down the road and being blinded by an oncoming car who has a cheap set of LEDS in their headlamp assembly that is not a projection style lense such as yours. I do believe that you will be fine and you will thank yourself for at least trying the LED type. Good Luck in what ever you decide and be safe.

I should mention that I saw a few you tube videos that showed the results of LED bulbs in projector lenses. In the one case the youtuber took video on a dark road with one LED and one halogen. The LED was certainly brighter but there was a dark plane in the middle of the beam horizontally. He tried adjusting the bulb but couldn't get rid of it. Maybe that was his particular case. I don't know but I may give them a try since many also seem to think they are the cat's meow.


Here's a question for you all. Almost all of the H3 LED bulbs I have seen indicate they are for Fog lights. Anyone know the reason for this and are they appropriate for low beams also? Forgive all the questions but I haven't had to mess around with headlights since back in the days when cars use old incandescent bulbs. Thanks

[RickNC]

I have had good results with the Auxito brand led headlight bulbs sold on Amazon. I had them in my previous motorhome , my truck and just put them on my E-450 FR motorhome. Significantly brighter on my E450 with whiter light, no dark spots.