The cute little 3-M headlight restoration kit costs around twenty bucks and works well. My lenses look good as new, anyway. With that, the PIAA Xtreme White Plus bulbs, and a relay kit behind all of that, I'm very happy with how well the headlights work. I was happy without the relay kit, but it makes an appreciable difference and now I wouldn't want to be without it. But then, living where I do it makes sense to be as freaky as I am about good headlights.

And I don't want to see my forum friends posting up photos of their caved in trucks so I'm a bit too noisy about it, I guess.

 

Lol, this is how I receive the dent at the corner of the cab of my truck. Three deer standing in the middle of the road, I'm doing 50ish, I slow down....throw the truck in the dirt on the side of the road, now doing about 20ish as I'm passing the deer still in the road... One gets spooked and runs right into the side of the truck. This was about 7 years ago and I still have the dent.

 

http://www.am-autoparts.com/2001/Dod...eadLights.html

Pretty cheap.

 

I heard him tell it on an analog TV, long before the internet, PC's, YT etc.

 

The secret: If you can't avoid driving into the middle of or too close to the edge of the herd, lean into the horn for the last two seconds or so to motivate them to skedaddle away from the noise. Start too early and they'll want to freeze and look to identify the source, start too late and they won't react quickly enough. It doesn't always work, but nothing works 100% of the time when deer are panicked, and it works a lot better than not sounding the horn.

 

What does having the headlights on relays buy you in terms of a noticeable difference?

 

Works pretty well when you can see them. It's the night time or when they come sprinting out of the underbrush in an orthogonal path when you are at their mercy. Sorry no pics.

 

all the fuses, switches and connections on top of thin gauge wire can cause a voltage drop between the battery and the headlight. the voltage drop is enough that if you were run a positive wire from the battery to the light you could see the difference. plus if you have read as many threads about light switches/dimmer switches failing and headlight wiring frying on those second gens and some first gens you would want to install them. they don't really cost that much. you can buy a kit for about $30 or make your own if you are good with wiring.
now a pic of 1 of my backup lights on relays. can you tell which one it is?

 

Don't drive through this pasture....

 

The lights are much more brighterer. I've got mine plumbed directly to the battery so with no reliance upon chassis grounds, and with that setup the bulbs live fully up to their name and their reputation. I've got what I'd consider to be outstanding light for being completely DOT compliant.

As for it being the deer you see that you can hope to do something about: This is true, and why I'm a big fan of lots of light and my Nautilus horn. I'm going to add another Nautilus just because the bigger the noise the bigger the reaction. I don't often need the noise but when I do I want lots of it.