Since a mule deer doe took out my right front headlight tonight I'm in the market for replacements for both sides. I can snag some Spec-D's for under a hundred bucks but I've never knowingly seen them so I'm a mite on the nervy side about them. Has anyone run the things? Got anything to say about 'em one way or the other?

EDITED TO ADD: I'm also looking at some http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-1994-2001-Dodge-Ram-1500-2500-3500-Black-Headlights-w-Corner-Lamps-Set/281252212462?_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D333008%26algo%3DRIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131231133846%26meid%3D46c5694d48bb4312bbd1feadde275f70%26pid%3D100010%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D11%26sd%3D331724270337 brand headlights, so if anyone knows about those I'd love to hear about them, too.

EDITED AGAIN: After doing something that's federally illegal I went ahead and poked the buy button on the Eagle Eye headlights. This doesn't mean that I'm any less eager to hear about them or others -- for all I know, the things are tooth drag.

Or: Has anyone got a set of crystal clear headlights they can recommend with or without qualification? I'm a-thinkin' that clear lenses might let another fraction of a candlepower out, which might be nice if the pattern isn't crap. With the prevalent hazards hereabouts coming from the side of the road, projectors are out. Not to mention that projectors look to me about as ugly as my sister who had to move to Alaska to find a man hard up enough to endure looking at her on a daily basis.

 

Did she ever go to the beach and the tide wouldn't even take her out?


But, no, no suggestions. Sorry.

 

Ya know, now that you mention it I have no recollection of her ever venturing into the ocean despite our childhoods being spent less than two miles from the Pacific. That may be to her credit though, if her avoidance of the water was to prevent stinking up the fish.

 

Not me, but my buddy has the Sped D headlights. They look good, and he told me that the fitment is ok.

 

Never heard of them UU, but would like to know your thoughts when there in your cold, crinkly hands.

I've gotten the socker replacements from AutoAnything and still happy with them. Mainly ensured they have the aim adjustment. Many aftermarket do not.

 

Fitment is a pain in the butt if you have any bumper imperfections. Light output is decent for 2-3months with the bulbs that come with them then it goes drastically downhill. Impossible to aim, I had to shim the mounts with washers to get it close. Look was decent but you could tell they weren't the best fitment. They're not designed for HIDs despite being projectors and many have had melting issues and you'll still blind the hell out of everybody else on the road.


They're junk and you'll be much happier with the Eagle Eyes and good bulbs. In fact that's what I have (though I have LED bulbs). I'm retrofitting them though with a kit that arrived last night. Should have em done in a couple days

 

I wasn't looking at the projector models. Especially not an hour after whacking a Bambi on a dark winter night! Thanks just the same for the feedback, which is helpful just because I'm of the opinion that a vendor who'll sell crap will only sell decent products by mistake.

Thanks for that! I'm either going to stuff my existing PIAA Xtreme White Plus lamps in them, or maybe try another less costly premium lamp on for size. The PIAA's throw a lot of brilliant light, but they're a mite spendy. What matters most, though, is that I bang into fewer bucks so I'll spend on the PIAA's if they're most likely to deliver that.

 

The Eagle Eyes headlights are a bit of a disappointment so far. They do let more light out than even a very clean stocker, but the quality of them leaves a lot to be desired. Convincing the driver side turn signal into place was a challenge -- the stocker requires that you hold your mouth right to get the thing in, but this one requires both holding your mouth right and finding the bleeding edge of destructive force. Or being smarter'n me because finesse the way I do it wasn't getting the job done. Blindly cloning the stock piece was probably a lot easier than clocking the socket to get the marker/signal connector turned to a less infuriating angle. Or maybe there's another design consideration I missed because there's no re-clocking without cutting...

To make things even more interesting, aiming that side is looking iffy. I didn't do a final aiming last night because the light on the eastern horizon told me to say fuggitfernow, but it was far enough to the left that I quadruple checked my work several times -- the first time, then each time I put the sucker back in after attempting to correct it by adjusting the pivot. It remains to be seen if the last adjustment will get the job done.

Over on the other side, I had bumper imperfection... because I so love futzing around on my back on cold concrete with almost no room to work in my one car garage that fits the truck like a condom. It was an excuse to adjust the attitude of the thing, anyway. At least that side took the preliminary aiming easily.

I'll keep 'em if I can aim 'em, but I won't be buying anything branded Eagle Eyes again.

Something else I noticed: In the '98 FSM the cute drawing of how to aim a headlight shows an S-10 staring at a wall. If Chrysler's engineers actually drove S-10's they'd know that the only proper way to aim an S-10 headlight is toward the wrecking yard.

 

Really? I had no problem aiming mine. Hell I even just retrofitted mine. They look and fit like stock but with clear lenses. 2pc and everything.

 

Yeah, but it turned out once I got the correct (more) distance from the screen the left adjusted okay but the right is full up and full in without getting all the way to the target. I'm not going to cry too much about that because in my world the second greatest routine hazard is large animals with suicidal tendencies coming from the right.

UPDATED TO ADD: I just took a closer look, and can confirm that I've got both elevation adjusters maxed out, the right azimuth adjuster maxed inward, and the left about a turn or two from max inward. And on the pair I've got, there's no readily discernible physical sensation of reaching max. The adjuster just pops out of the saddle. No big deal on the azimuth adjusters but it's headlight removal time to get the elevation adjust put back together again. We now resume our normal programming:

I'm actually right in the middle of stuffing some GE Nighthawk Platinums into these goofy things -- letting my hands dry in between swapping out exam gloves as I move to the other side.

I've only got the new headlights out on the open road once and was not at all impressed with the beam pattern, or lack thereof. I expect the new lamps to make it worse, but it's almost always a good time to swap out bad lamps so I'm giving it a go. These headlights look sharp beside the grille, and they do throw scads of light, but driving behind them is uncomfortable because they create a very intense puddle of light at the convergence point and it's populated with ugly filament mask shadows and strange reflector patterns. While the cutoff on the left is really very good, there isn't any obvious cutoff on the right. I actually prefer that (on the right only) if there's a pronounced break out around 45 degrees off of boresight, but these things are throwing light out to around 90 degrees where it does only harm. They also throw way too much light upward into the trees.

Still, I'm suspending judgment for a little bit to see how I feel about them with the nice lamps in and a few more miles behind. Last night, though, I wasn't at all eager to get into elk country so I turned it around and brought it home.

This ain't getting that second lamp installed, so...