Headlight Upgrade: Single Hi/Lo to 4 Bulb

[Stratosurfer]

All,
My 97 Tahoe is the C/K model: sealed beams grille and headlights. I'm fine with it except I have the pleasure of driving the Burb at night in this 'Black Hole' called Central Texas and have noticed a striking difference between the Burb on the 4 bulb system and the Tahoe's sealed beams when pulling the brights for the rare, but on occasion on-coming traffic. On the Tahoe on low beams at 70MPH (is there any other speed?) it seems that a deer in road directly in front of the headlights and not 50 to 75 yards distant is not at all illuminated. The Burbs low beams seem to get much further out and frankly one is not forced to 'instrument flight conditions' as on the Tahoe.
My thoughts are to a) swap out the grille and lights from a wrecked 4 bulb system 2) upgrade my sealed beams and/or: 3) add driving lights to my current rig
In my mind this has become a serious safety issue. Here in central Texas my county is a 'open range' county, if the rancher's cattle get out on the road, the cattle have the legal right of way. Deerstrike's around here are a daily occurrence.
Any thoughts on my most time and dollar efficient direction to take care of my blind spot out front on the low beams of my Tahoe would be appreciated.

[DennisG01]

Well, I have never been happy with my 4-bulb set-up. But, maybe your headlights aren't adjusted properly (or the your Burb's are asjusted too high)? But, before going to the hassle of changing things out... Driving lights are inexpensive (depending on your tastes, anyway:rolleyes:) and easy to hook up. They will also be an improvement over either of your trucks current set-up.

I added driving lights to mine - I also added a pair of cheap driving lights as back-up lights, too. The back-up lights are GREAT!

[a5150nut]

Kennedy offers a kit for thiis problem. Or you can do like I did. I was up to see my brother in snow country and discovered the nasty problem of high beam icing over because they run so cool. When I hit high beams nothing. So I added a head light relay to have the low beam stay on while the high beams are on. (this also fills in the area in front of the truck that goes dark while using high beams.)Also feeding the relay direct from alt or bat. helps. You can use two relays and provide direct power to low and high beams.

And ALWAYS keep all ground conections clean and tight. Major problem with these trucks.

[trbankii]

All,
My 97 Tahoe is the C/K model:

C is 2wd and K is 4wd... Cannot be a C/K model... ;)

[Stratosurfer]

Well,
I was trying to remember the correct model designation and winged it on the C/K model: HOWEVER, my manual is titled C/K model I suppose in opposition to the L ? models (LE, LT).

[93_Burrito]

LT, LS... those are trim designations. Describes what general interior amenity package your truck has.

[Colorado Kid]

I find this whole topic rather strange, because I had a '91 with the 2 sealed beams, and now have a '96 with the 4 "aerodynamic" (like a brick) lights, and I miss the good even low beam pattern of the sealed beam system! (I had them both for most of a year, so I had the chance to compare several times).

I'd suggest that you get some brand new quality halogen sealed beams and make sure they're aimed right (if they've seen an inspection station they're probably aimed for ant hunting).

From the post just above, the trim level not mentioned is "base", which I believe describes Strato's Tahoe.

[bl78ljb]

I have trucks with the sealed beams and the "composite" headlights. I find I like the sealed beams better, especially after upgrading the harness and swapping out the regular sealed beams for housings that accept H4 bulbs. Up here in rural Maine the only place you see a street light may be the center of town for the Fire Department and that is not a guarantee so it is very dark. With the 90/130 watt H4 halogens it looks like day light, then add a set of fog lights (for white out snow and fog) and / or driving lights to that and you can see in almost anything. Also with the extra wattage you don't have to worry about the lights icing over, plenty of heat to melt it off in a short time. However, I would NOT run this wattage w/o an upgraded harness as I tried for a while and melted a connector. However, the 4 lights on at the same time would be great, but may require an upgraded alternator as this setup with the high output H4s would run 36 amps!

[HammerWerf]

Bryan,

Your H4 Bulbs and reflectors/lenses. This sound a lot like what I would like to do to my 99 Sub. Do you have any pictures? and/or a description of how they fit and look? And what it took to get them to fit?

I like the European pattern while driving. More light where you need it, and less in oncoming traffic eyes. The old French Yellow headlights were real gentle.

HammerWerf

[DA BIG ONE]

The only real way to improve night lighting is with driving/cornering combo aux lighting.

I went deep into my pockets and installed Hella DynaView (large) driving/cornering lights and can't say enough about how good they are in those dark areas of nowhere USA. I installed round CJ jeep headlight protection grills to protect the glass lens. These lights also light up turns as you go onto them and shut off cornering feature after you are out of turn. List for about $700. +, JC Whitney had them for $400. however, I don't know how much they cost now.

[Robyn]

Well now, been there done that.

I would install a set of aircraft landing lights either up top on a light bar or on a grill guard.

When I used to travel cross country a lot I used these little jewels a bunch.
There are so many good after market lights available now that will light up the road for 10 miles that you should not have any issues.

I had my "road lights" set up on an old style foot operated high beam switch directly hooked to the batteries.

This made it easy to get the "burners" shut off when I met other traffic.
The stock lights will keep you out of trouble when your in the city though.

Good luck with seeing the light :D

Robyn

[bl78ljb]

Hammerwerf,
The H4s are not in my '98 Suburban, but are in my '90 T-10 Blazer (rectangular single sealed beams), '88 'Burb (4 headlights one on top of the other - older body style), and my '78 Blazer (round headlights).

For my '98 'Burb I have a set of Eagle Eyes clear replacement headlights and upgraded bulbs (don't remember the wattage off hand only mild though as I haven't upgraded the harness yet), and that seems to work quite well. See my pics in the members pics section.

DA BIG ONE - does Hella not make the clear covers for your lights?? I just purchased some for my fogs and they are made out of a Lexan-type material and are not supposed to shatter and keep the smaller stones off the lenses as well (a big bonus here in the stae of Maine where even a chip in your auxillary lights will now flunk your safety inspection!)