Date:         Tue, 13 Jan 2015 21:20:18 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: H4 upgrade?
In-Reply-To:  <CAAj276zUbU7SocZTS+qsuz73p-MYimAVWad0rKyYXT_up7qaAQ@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

> My only worry is the bulbs ... 
> hard to mess up the housings

These are cheap "boy racer" headlights that do not belong on a Vanagon. Do you really think you can buy quality or performance for $19 a pair including bulbs?

First of all, it's not "hard to mess up the housings."  You are thinking backwards - and looking at the wrong end of the headlamp. It's not the buckets that matter, it's the lenses on the other side. The lenses matter as much if not more than the bulbs themselves. Just because these lenses look cool on an Ebay page doesn't mean they will offer anything resembling optimal light focus/dispersion.  There is a reason why the fluting on lenses from Hella, Bosch, Cibie, etc. looks absolutely nothing like these ones.  Those companies have decades of experience designing and manufacturing headlamps for all the major automotive companies. Their lenses look like they do because they are carefully engineered for optimal visibility without blinding oncoming traffic - not just for a "kewl" boy-racer look.  Same thing with the bulbs. Blue-tinted bulbs actually deliver LESS functional visibility than a good white light, all things being equal.  Google it if you doubt me.

Yes, you will notice a difference using cheap junk like this on your Vanagon versus sealed-beams. (Which themselves are pretty awful; almost anything is an improvement.) It will seem that you are getting better visibility, but in terms of measurable difference they will be more "different" than better. It is a false sense of security because the color temperature and lens design gives you the impression of better visibility when in fact it is poor. Your headlights may well blind oncoming drivers. And they are likely to be a "cop magnet."  While no H4's are DOT approved (and therefore are grounds for a ticket or an inspection failure), the real-world fact is that unless the difference is "in your face" - like these - nobody is likely to hassle you. These look absolutely nothing like any street-legal headlight.

The biggest shame is that if you settle for "window dressing" like this you will have no idea what you COULD have had using properly designed headlamps ... for very little money.  Stop and think here. Headlights are important. For what you spend on your Vanagon, is $19 a pair including bulbs  - less than half a tank of gas - really all your nighttime visibility and safety is worth to you?  Do you realistically think you can get quality for that price? 

Do you need to spend a fortune? No. But you need to spend more than $19. You can do significantly better for under $40, and even top of the line will cost you under $80.  

First of all, anything of reliable performance/quality should be E-code, which means it meets the widely accepted European (and Canadian) standard for street performance. That means you have real headlights, not just an "off the wall" design that's designed entirely for visual impact when you're looking AT it rather than actually using it.  Secondly, all E-codes are not the same. Even among E-code headlights there are variations in quality; E-code performance should be a bare minimum acceptable standard.  

A pair of E-codes, with bulbs, will cost you $39 ($10 more of you want city/driving lights as well).  That's for generic Cibie knockoffs, which are not as good as real Cibies (which cost a lot more) but come reasonably close for not much money and use a similar lens design.  $77 gets you a pair of Hellas with good German bulbs. Those will hold its own to the best headlights you can buy at any price.  Yes, only $77 including bulbs for top-of-the-line - hardly more than a tank of gas for a huge and permanent improvement. If you want to go further than that you can add a relay kit and higher-output bulbs, but you may be surprised to find out how much of an you get even with the standard 55/60 watt bulbs (which are plug-and-play, a 10 minute installation). As for using the cheap "boy racer" headlights with a relay kit, that's a backwards way of doing things. No relay kit can make crappy Chinese headlights perform like good ones.  In the end the headlights become the limiting factor.

Okay, off my soapbox.

Links:

http://www.busdepot.com/nl910ch4/  (Cibie knockoffs without city lights)

http://www.busdepot.com/hq6014  (same with city lights)

http://www.busdepot.com/0301600118  (Hellas)

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com