halogen headlights

Hell he's so overstuffed it would take a Lull to raise him.

Reply to
Roy
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Is that a nice way of saying that NO ONE makes a mantel big enough for wide ride?

Reply to
azwiley1

correct.... it seems I also saw somewhere that Sylvania

Excerpts from Daniel Stern's Blue Bulb page:

"The cost? Bulb lifetime. The filament changes made to produce enough extra light that the bulb will still be legal despite the blue-filtration losses mean the filament's lifespan is shortened considerably."

"The Sylvania SilverStar bulbs have a very short lifetime, because the filament is overdriven to get a legal amount of light despite the blue glass."

I think my light circuit upgrade, with relays and shorter heavier wires routed more directly from battery to bulbs, did away with a lot of voltage loss present in the stock circuit. The overdriven Silver Stars won't live long under full power, but I would never have known with the stock wiring. I'd just be impressed that my voltage-starved Silver Stars were shining noticeably brighter than my voltage-starved stock bulbs did.

Since the upgrade, the Xtravisions have already surpassed the poor Silver Stars' meager lifetime. And the truck's original 6-year-old 9004 bulbs are doing fine as inboard High Beams.

Reply to
General Dog

now that's one hell of a mantel!

Reply to
Chris Thompson

Just think of the good that I'm doing for the economy...getting all those moldy $$$ out flowing again. Engineering consultants don't come cheap....

Denny

Reply to
Denny

Well, I guess since I don't drive a Dodge, I drive a Silvy that was factory with the dual headlight set up and I use the 9005 & 9006 series bulbs, I don't have to worry about anything. I guess it just boils down to using what ever works for you. Shame though, that Dodge had such a poor design on the head lights.

Reply to
azwiley1

It's a shame you missed the point. When your Silver Stars last for 4 years, that doesn't indicate that your Chevy has a nice light circuit design. It indicates that you're spending watts to heat up wires instead of filaments.

Reply to
General Dog

I didn't miss anything. You are quoting that because of the design of the bulb, it has a shorter life span. Compared to what? It's a freaking light bulb, how damn long is it suppose to last? If is it lasting me 4 or more years and a cost of 40 bucks for a set of two, how is this a problem?

Also, if you were to read his site a little closer, he is using that H1 bulb as a reference, which is a bulb that is not on my Silvy, but even if it were, a long life bulb (per the site) is rated at 1200 life hours. You don't think that in a four year period, 1200hr life hours is not exceeded? Again, how long (in years) should it last?

Another thing that I don't see any reference to on his site, is where you get the notion that I am "heating up wires" All that it states is that "The Sylvania SilverStar bulbs have a very short lifetime, because the filament is overdriven to get a legal amount of light despite the blue glass." I believe you are making an assumption here, based off the "upgrades" you made to your vehicle and trying to compare them in retrospect to mine. Sorry, but the light circuitry on our vehicles are vastly different and just because something is one way on yours does not mean the same for me.

Reply to
azwiley1

Compared to Sylvania's own Xtravision bulb, for example. Putting blue tint on the Silver Star glass has to cost something - either brightness, or life, or a little of both.

For you, it's not much of a problem. A four year life, rather than 6 or perhaps 8, is still very reasonable. And you like the whiteness more than you want a few more years of bulb life. I probably would have remained happy with mine too in the original higher-resistance circuit.

Four years is enough. Silver Stars aren't going to live 4 years in a good circuit.

Your heating up everything that has electrical resistance. If you dim your dashboard lights, you may notice that the dimmer switch gets warmer. Same phenomenon. Ask Nosey. Read Stern's page about relays.

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It means exactly the same for both of us. Power (watts) is dissipated across a voltage drop. Your Silver Stars last acceptably long because resistance in the rest of the circuit is reducing voltage at the bulbs.

Reply to
General Dog

No need to ask me anything. I think azwiley1 knows more about electricity than the both of us.

Reply to
Nosey

But see here, you are comparing the high resistance Dodge lighting circuit to your own Dodge "low resistance" modified circuit and then trying to make a direct comparision to my Silvy's lighting circuit. Have you measured the resistance levels on the Silvy's lighting circuit? Do you know what the resistance levels are on each of the four bulbs? I know I don't off the top of my head as I have never had a reason to measure it.

Ok, you had a "bad" experience with the SilverStars. In your set up they don't seem to last long, no problem. However, there is no way that one can reasonably say that the other bulbs would infact last the 6 or 8 years you state. Are they classed as a longer life bulb, sure, but this is subjective to the vehicles, the amount they are used and other enviormental factors (like Mike's deer hunting truck

Again, do you have specific knowledge of the lighting circuit in the Silvy?

True, to a point.

If you dim your

Never have I had such a problem. As an FYI, I do most of my driving in the dark, to and from work daily (1.5 hrs each way (which sucks)) and have made three or four cross country trips from AZ to NY and back for which the lights were always on. Not at one time did I have anything even get remotely warm from anything other then the heater.

Not saying that it can't happen but that it has never happen in my truck.

Again, do you have specific knowledge of the lighting circuit in the Silvy?

Reply to
azwiley1

While I don't remember the year of your Chevy, in the late 90's if you got the standard Cheyenne trim level you got the old H 6054 lights. Somewhat equivalant to the standard Dodge lights vs. the sport lights? But even with that said it's inexcusable to have to pay extra to get adequate lighting. I think the original Intrepid lights were even worse.

Reply to
BigIronRam

I used some Sylvania Xtravision lights in my wife's '93 Ramchager. Remembering the '93 is "old tech" and uses the H 6054 lights. They were pretty good for a while but slowly, ever so slowly got dimmer and dimmer. Couldn't quite get a handle on what was wrong, even had the charging system checked. Finally took a long trip with a lot of night driving, it was almost like being blind, ran high beams all night got flashed once, it was probably someone behind me, can't remember. Anyway, got to our destination and I'm talking to my Dad about it and he says "bad ground", gotta be it, corrosion. Naw, we live in Texas, we're not sure what corrosion is. So we're sitting in the dining room looking at the front of several vehicles and it dawns on me, the lights in the Ram are dark, all the cars lights are bright looking. I've got spare lights in the truck in case one goes out so I decide to replace them. I get them out I'm holding one in my hands looking down on it and realize almost all the silvering is gone, I can see my hands through the light. They were both that way, I've NEVER seen silvering gone on a light except for junkyard excursions and only broken ones in really really old cars. I've never seen lights fail this way before. Now I'm back to GE lights in the older Rams.

So if you got this far you must have as much time on your hands as I do today :-)

Sorry to be so long winded today.

Reply to
BigIronRam

It's a new body style 99 Silvy. This is when Chevy started changing from the C/K series (back) to the Silverado line, there was no Cheyenne package available. It's the Silverado with the LS or LT packaging at a few different levels.

I do agree with you 100% though, it is a shame that we have to pay for better lighting because the manufactures will not flip the bill and put them in. If the European makers can, including Benz, you would think that at least Chrysler would.

Reply to
azwiley1

Doubtful...

"Have you measured the resistance levels on the Silvy's lighting circuit?"

He apparently thinks Chevy and Dodge can each use different versions of Ohms Law.

"Do you know what the resistance levels are on each of the four bulbs? I know I don't off the top of my head as I have never had a reason to measure it."

It needs to be calculated, but he apparently thinks you can get something meaningful by measuring the resistance across a cold bulb.

Reply to
General Dog

What ever, little do you know about me or my back ground.

No, I don't think that, nor did I imply that. I did ask you though if you knew the resistance of the Silvy lighting circuit, which you did not answer. Obviously you don't know. Stock for stock how do you know that the resistance in your Ram was not equal to, greater or less then that of my Chevy? You don't. So to imply that the resistance of my lighting circuit is as restrictive as you seem to be implying, is ludacris. You can't substanciate it. Wire gauge, wire run lenght, relays, etc all factor into the resistance level of the circuit, but gee, you should know that right?

Where did I ever state anything about measuring a bulb, warm or cold? I stated just want you left in place above. So please don't put words where they are not. My point, which you apparently over looked or missed (you must be practicing Buddism!) is that you (nor I) know the resistance of the lighting circuit on the Silvy. Which means, that to back up your statements concerning bulb life, heating of the wires, et all., are not substantiated. You are making assumptions not verified statements.

Pointing back to Dan's website. Have you (or anyone) ever ask how he verified his data? Not saying it is not correct, but was the data complied from manufactures, from a test bench, from real world applications or from all of the mentioned?

Reply to
azwiley1

You're the guy who installs car stereos, right?

Here's where you implied it: "Sorry, but the light circuitry on our vehicles are vastly different and just because something is one way on yours does not mean the same for me."

My own light circuitry is also vastly different than it used to be. So? I can still compare the two. And based on your impressive 4-year Silver Star bulb life, I can pretty well guess that your factory Chevy wiring is comparable to factory Dodge wiring.

I should know it, I do know it, that's why I've been chattering about wire gauge, and length, and relays, and amps heating up light switches.

You stated that you never had a reason to measure it.

"I have never had a reason to measure it."

You can't measure the resistance of operating light bulbs. And there's no need for us to know what it is anyway.

My statements concerning bulb life, heating of the wires, et al aren't theories.

He distrusts manufacturers' hype.

Looking around Sylvania's site, I found this:

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Line No. 1 - Standard Line No. 2 - Cool Blue Line No. 3 - Long Life Line No. 4 - ? Line No. 5 - SilverStar Line No. 6 - Xtravision

Surprisingly, SilverStar is rated 10 hours better than Xtravision on High Beam. But SilverStar is by far the lowest on Low Beam. Neither is particularly long lived though.

So based on a 150 hour expected life at 12.8 volts, and considering mine burned out in a year, and considering you drive a *lot* at night and yours lasted 4 years, you really think your bulbs are getting close to their full

12.8 volts? I certainly don't.
Reply to
General Dog

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