Aircraft landing lights on vehicle. And other upgrades.

Other Types of Lights Automotive
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I got tired of deer and dogs and the stray pedestrian wearing black clothes with no flashlight walking in the country side at 3am… suicide running in front of my vehicle And the wild free range Jeep Wrangler and Dodge pickup drivers with LEDs in halogen housings and light bars that they leave on while passing in the oncoming lane. So I took matters into my own hands to make one of the most powerful halogen installations possible.

Originally my set up consisted of 100 watt Philips Rally Vision #9005 lamps in the high beams. Which are more than sufficient.. but I was craving more power… So I upgraded my alternator to an AD244 and then proceeded to immediately install Blazer International rubber work light fixtures on my grill (Part# 195C123 5-7/8), and then #4509 lamps.

The beam on the #4509 lamps is amazing. It is flat and very bright. But they are only rated for 25hours. Which would get annoying spending 15 bucks every 3 months or so for new lamps.

So I then Migrated over to the Quartz-Halogen version of the lamp. The 100 Watt #Q4509. The specific model I used was made by Norman lamps and the lamps are rated for 100 hours. The light output is slightly higher and beam intensity also slightly higher. But the light pattern was a spot instead of a flat beam. Not as Ideal. I ran this set up for a while though and it worked amazingly for a year on the same set of lamps. The lamps actually still work and I have repurposed them into other stuff.

I then found after much research… the big bubba of all PAR36 lamps… The #Q4631… 250 watts, 500 hour life, an oval beam pattern and an acceptable beam intensity… This is truly a winner. This thing will slap light bars around for their lunch money and for a fraction of the price of even a mediocre bar let alone the good ones… So currently I have about 700 watts of beam I can put to use. Whether it be to vaporize deer or to vaporize Jeep Wranglers that have not had any worthwhile competition til now. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing the dolt that wont turn off his brights after a warning flash in his cab trying to squint through the land based sunlight emitters.

For alternator you will want a pretty good one. mine is 220A and from factory my truck came with a 100A so I have plenty of extra capacity to satisfy my lunacy for stuff like this. For wiring to the lamps you will want either 8 gauge or two 10 gauge wires paralleled (whatever you have laying around or want to buy). For solenoid or relay you will want it to handle at least 50 amps. For fuse you will want a Maxi 60 Amp fuse or some equivocal fuse of same amp rating. It does not matter as long as it blows at 60A. The Solenoid you use should be rated for continuous duty. Don’t use a starter solenoid unless you don’t care about reliability. The coil windings in starter solenoids are not really made to dissipate the heat that would be generated from constant use.

Before anyone gets accusatory.
No I don’t drive 24/7 with these on.
No I don’t drive in the city with these on.
No I don’t ride peoples bumpers with these on.
No I don’t ride on the freeway with these on when there is other cars.
No I don’t live in the city.
Yes. I am able to see someone is about to peak a hill by seeing their headlights "sun rising’ over the horizon. and I can see their lights reflecting off of the bottoms of power lines, the sides of houses, and trees. so I turn these off before their eyes can make contact with them.

Parts list:

100 Watt Philips Rally Vision #9005

70 Watt Narva Rally #9006

38 Watt Philips Standard Fog #898

250 watt #Q4631 Aircraft Landing Lamp (What I currently use… I purchased this box cuz the cheep price per lamp… bulk savings)

Blazer International rubber work light fixture 195C123 5-7/8 (it comes with 35 watt flood lamp bulb that you could use for some other project. They cast a trapezoidal beam. But for this project you just peel that lamp out and install the aircraft lamp instead)

Amazon.com: Blazer International 195C123 5-7/8" Round Par36 12V Work Light with Trapezoid Beam : Automotive

29 Watt / 8 Watt #3457 (For Flashers and Tails. Flashing/Braking Filament is 100 lumens brighter)

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/long-life/lighting---electrical/bulb-flasher-fuse/brake-light-bulb/c01ba6fdfed2/sylvania-3357-3457-long-life-incandescent-mini-bulb-pack-of-2/syl2/33573457llbp

10 Watt WY10W (For side markers. No it wont melt the headlights. These are hard to find though since they are mostly a European thing. I got lucky and found a bag of 80 for 10 bucks on eBay a while back. You might have to decide between hunting for them or just using LEDs if you want brighter peanut lamps. I like sticking to incandescent because it looks better IMO). For places where a 916,912 or WY10W wont fit. there is always the 2825 which is a lot more accessible than the WY10W at the part stores. but it is like 7 watts instead of 10.

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8 Thanks
2

Thanks for the info. Now I will have to start planning my next project.

1 Thank
3

It looks like you kept a set of low and high beams in addition to the landing lights. That’s smart, better thinking than the guy I met in undergrad that replaced the high beams in his car with landing lights and couldn’t see much when he dimmed them for oncoming traffic.

1 Thank
4

Noice!

Back when my old Cav had quad 4×6 lights, I got H4 shells and was running 90W/130W bulbs in them.

When the lows burned out, I just swapped the inboard/outboard bulbs. Outboard again had functional highs/lows, and the now high-only bulbs were in the inboard lights.

Great beam pattern for lows, decently sharp cutoff, and the “defocussed” brights just threw a nice circular beam down the road.

So basically 180W lows that gave a nice even blanket of light vs the “2 flashlights” spots and “useful spill” people crow about. And 520W of Halogen Hell should I choose to unleash it.

Separate 30A relays for each circuit with inline fuses. Never got arsed to put in a separate fuse box. Lowbeams kept the “mission critical” breaker.

2 Thanks
5

Did he convert his sealed beam high beams to aircraft lights? Interesting lol… if i had a sealed beam truck that i only used offroad that would not be a horrible idea. But on road is another story.

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I actually got my buddy to convert his headlights to those H4 housings with those exact bulbs! He was having issues finding the right headlights. He tried stock sealed beams and they were too dim. He tried the silverstsr ultra sealed beams… not much better. He then got some amazon bug eyed leds. Dim on black pavement/not good in rain… then trucklite LEDs from a garbage truck… the beams were too pencil shaped and same issue as before with the bluish light crap in rain. He loves the H4 HELLA lights.

I have been upgrading as many people as i possibly can to better halogen. … it is never enough though. For every 1 person I fix up there is 1000 people with wrong bulbs in wrong housings. Lol.

My high beams are opposite of yours. They are focused in the middle shooting really far away but also have a decent amount of spill. The aircraft lights are honestly kinda unecessary but… i am. Lunatic.

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Dew it… if you want to be a complete menace to society try and get the 115V #4555 to work…

Or the 28V #4556…

I am lazy and happy where i am at. But if I get a smart car or prius. Or an offroad rig.. i might be tempted to make them look rediculous… but i would love to see someone else do it lmao.

I have a ton of 1000 watt high pressure sodium lamps and running gear. If i ever get a dedicated offroad rig i was planning on making a “light bar” with custom reflector assemblies to focus tubular HPS lamps into a beam. That would be the route i go next.. 1000 watts at 160Lpw… do that math lol. And then times it by 2.

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Ew… the plastic Hellas?? They even say to not run any bulbs hotter than 65W or so, as to not melt them! I bought them but immediately returned them.

Oh, and the crap line of making 55W bulbs bright like 85W bulbs by focussing the light better…

The shells I got were from JC Whitney, not sure if Eagle Eye was the bulbs only, or the shells, too. Big honkin’ chunk of glass and steel. Yeah, the reflector was pure polished steel through and through. Lasted forever unless a good sized rock would take out the front lens. Made my own guards from half-inch hardware cloth to protect the beasties, set off about a half-inch. Worked, as it saved one lens by getting dented pretty good and absorbing most of the impact.

Anyhoo the Hellas promised a much better beam, so I bought a set to try. Plastic. Junk. Like I said, I just returned them and got another set of the EEs.


I also stocked up on JCW’s driving lights when on sale. Nice pencil beams. Would wait until after dark, then park across the parking lot facing the nice light blank wall, and take sometimes a half-hour or more to tighten/aim them perfectly. Even the come-with 55W bulbs gave enough focussed light to see way far ahead, and I’d just leave them on like fog lights.

The beams would just skim along the ground on the lower edge of the beam. Far enough away, they’d be dim enough to not bother oncoming cars. By the time the car would get close enough for the beam to be objectionable, the beams would only hit midway up their grille, so the driver would be above the hotspot.

But they’d always get sandblasted and popped by being under the bumper. More hardware cloth, and I’d cut sheets of clear plastic almost like nascar windshield tearoffs.

Oh, and any bulbs that would come with that blue coating to make them “whiter”, I’d just take a razor to them and scrape it off, then clean thoroughly with alcohol.

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No the ones he got are metal and glass. But mystock headlight housings on my truck are plastic and they are not melting. Guess it depends on the housing…

Sadly my fog lights even being 27 watts and now 39 watts… piss people off. They are integrated into the headlights so i cannot adjust them separately. They work great though for me. I guess they are just too high up but aside from just not using them at all… which is not happening. I cannot fix the issue for oncomming traffic without sacrificing my normal headlight performance. Thanka Gm…

I also dislike the blue coating. Luckily the rally lamps dont come with such stupid gimmicks.

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Ach… my mis steak.

I was thinking of PIAA, not Hella.

Yeah, shoulda known by the price that Hella wouldn’t be cheap shiite.

PIAA was the POS.


And yeah, biggest downside of composite lights. Nfw to adjust anything.

11

You definitely got my wheels spinning thinking now.

Always wanted to do something with aircraft landing lights since my father used them to build spotlights around 1970. Remember he was excited when he found an enameled sauce pan in Murphy’s that was the perfect size to fit the light. Spotting is legal here and used to be a huge thing. He would love to see someone else spotting and say “look at their wimpy light” then flip his on. He would always laugh. Those were great times. Miss him.

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Yeah, this was in the early 80’s and I think his car was from the mid 70’s with 4 headlights. I only rode with him once or twice and didn’t like that big change in lighting when he dimmed the landing lights and only had the stock incandescents to see with.

From what I remember the landing lights put out a huge amount of light but weren’t focused. You could see great with them on but…

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I used to work down by JC Whitney/Warshasky as well as Blue Star (a competitor that was basically identical to them) in the early 80’s. You’ve seen part of that neighborhood that had been cleaned up when they shot Cadillac Records there, it was down by the automotive row in Chicago when cars were new. The outside scenes used in Hill Street Blues were shot about a half mile from there too.

I went in there a few times and the place was “interesting”. So was the scene outside with all the people working on their cars installing parts they got there. Such a strange mixture of automotive snake oil, gee gaws and actually useful parts for such a wide variety of cars.

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Yeh, we used to have some speed shops around here and in Lawn Guyland where people would buy shiite and install it right in the lots.

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Last week installed this thing in my car, I do not need any lights now, lol. NV 300. It is amazing what this thing can see. It was supposed to be mounted on the roof, it came with a special housing, but I removed the camera and rigged it behind the grill.

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Ain’t gonna get sandblasted over time?

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It Probably will one day, but when that day comes only time will tell.