When I started racing, I lived in Omaha, Nebraska. The closest track to us in 1987 was Blackhawk Farms Raceway. That was nearly a four-hundred and fifty mile trip. And don't forget that the speedlimit was actually fifty-five miles per hour at the time. Anyway, given that we could leave before five in the afternoon, it was still going to be a lot of driving at night.
Always on a budget, we started with older vans that had round sealed beams. Later, square lights, which I didn't think necessarily had any better light production. The halogen beam was a little better. New lighting designs now have replaceable bulbs in a set up that seems to have better reflection.
But can it be better?
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| Better Lighting for the Short Bus |
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| Original Light Housing |
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Our subject's original light housing is a diffusing type. That means that the light source will ultimately go through something clear that refracts the light that comes directly from the bulb and from being reflected off the back of the housing. Because it is diffused, it can have what I'll call and unfocused look. I always though that they produced a lot of glare. This has been most noticeable to me when driving in poor weather conditions where it seems like there is a good amount of light being pushed upward, illuminating the snow/fog/heavy rain so much that I can hardly see the road in front of me.
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| Original Beam Pattern |
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| OEM Headlight Housing |
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| New Clear Housing |
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My first change was to replace my OEM headlight diffuser type housings with new clear type housings. This is a common style on many OEM applications, but it isn't for Ford Vans. I was able to source these easily from eBay for a reasonable amount of money. The reason I started here was two fold. First, I wanted to focus the light more in my direction of travel rather than diffusing it. Because the bulb is shielded with a mirrored piece, that light is bounced off the back of the housing's reflector. The clear piece the light finally goes through does not have the massive diffusion that the OEM unit has. If I wanted to go to some kind of higher output lighting, the diffuser would only serve to make my light more muddy.
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Removing the old housings and replacing them with new one is a very simple process. For some time, many manufacturers have used these style housings with quick, sliding pieces that allow them to be removed with no tools to access the rear of the housing to replace bulbs, or to be replaced in the event of damage from road debris or an accident.
The lighting appears much more brilliant instantly with the new distribution of light from these housings with less lens diffusion and good focus of the light from the rear refractor.
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| Clear Headlight Housing |
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Looking at the new clear housing beam pattern on the "test door", one notices that the light is very brilliant, and that it even has more light in areas where it was milky before. For these pictures, the vehicle was not moved and the vehicle was running at idle. No adjustments were made to the new housings for aiming. Bulb wattages were exactly the same, and the beams were on low.
The bulbs from the old diffuser housings are of unknown age, and that may reduce light output slightly. However, the new clear housing certainly allows the available light to be more effective.
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| Clear Housing Beam Pattern |
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Now that our light has a clear shot to get out into the world, if the light output could be further improved, hey, life might be better. But what is the best option? What is the cost? Originally, I looked into HID replacements. HID is High Intensity Discharge. It is a light that has the advantage of producing a lot of light, measured in lumens, for little in power, measured in watts.
A few years ago, there weren't many HID replacements for dual element bulbs, a bulb that had both a high and low beam in a single bulb. Recently, I was able to find two kinds of HID bulbs for my bus. One had an HID bulb that when placed in the "high beam" mode, the bulb moved it's location to mimic the different location of the "high beam" element in the headlight housing. The other kind had a small shield that moved over teh HID unit that effectively shielded light from the bulb, and that allowed the beam to mimic the pattern of a regular bulb. These kits were in the price range of $170 to $350, plus my installation time, to replace my standard halogen bulbs. A regular bulb has two filaments. One is usually around 55 watts, the high beam 60 watts. The filament locations in the bulb, in addition to the additional lumens in the higher wattage filament, generate the different pattern for high beams. I think you can find standard halogen bulbs for anywhere from $10 a pair to $50 and more a pair.
HID lights produce more lumens. Must all be good then, huh? Well, that was the easy answer on the surface. But the more I looked the more interesting things got. A lot of the marketing of HID lights focuses on the temperature of the light, and some of the halogen bulb manufacturers have been doing the same. The selling point is that a higher temperature has more lumens, and you should see better with this bulb that is closer to daylight. First, the light produced by HID lighting has a different color and arc. It's really just a whole different opportunity all its own. The trick with this light is that HID lights produce light that is worse than halogen lights in our ability to perceive and differentiate color. Was it a yellow line, or white? There are even more reasons why an HID set up might not be the best. I though that it was an easy way to see, and the HID color in the headlamp was cool looking. But could I get what I really wanted, the ability to see better, from just a halogen bulb?
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Given the cost of HID conversion, the threat of glare, the potential problems of a reflector not made for HID, and the loss of color differentiation, I decided to go with a different halogen bulb. Some bulb types are "blue", mimicing the color of HID's. These are often bad because they use a blue colored glass that filters out most of the light, except blue, thus, again, reducing our ability to distinguish much. HID's "look" similar, but they are actually white lights with a blue component.
I ended up choosing the GE Nighthawk bulbs.
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| New Bulb |
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| New Bulb Pattern |
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