The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Better lighting while maintaining 6V

I am in the process of upgrading my 1952 pickup's external lighting without converting to 12V and thought others here might find the information useful.

Pictures are posted at the following link (I can't seem to enable bbcode or else I'd inline the images):

https://plus.google.com/photos/1016...71790989873000929?authkey=CNvcgPD10O2cfQ

First up, tail lights. Due to the license plate light, at least the lower right bulb must be white light. Due to the weird inclination of the bulbs, any solution must avoid being too directional. Lastly, the more lumens, the better. The best option I could find were these LED bulbs straight outta China:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pair...ke-Tail-Stop-Singal-Light/584926090.html

There are three COB emitters around the perimeter and a big COB in the center with a hemispherical plastic lens. They claim 100 lumen brightness per bulb and I believe it; you can actually see my brake lights during the daylight.

I recommend using plastic tail lenses rather than glass: the light transmission is much better and they don't break if you accidentally drop them on concrete.

The running lights in the grill have been previously converted to blinkers. With weak 6V incandescents and clear lenses, it was hard to see in the daylight. Even at night, it would be nice to have them blink amber rather than white. Due to the horizontal orientation of the bulb, it is imperative to have non-directional emitters. This is the best bulb I could find for the application:

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...Tail-Reverse-Lamp/808279_1050627590.html

These pineapple style LED bulbs work great for this application and are much brighter.


In order for the turn signals to work with LEDs, the flasher must be swapped out. This is the only thing I could find that fit the bill:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-NEW-6-v...suzuki-/251429558993?hash=item3a8a5e9ad1

The only thing I might do differently is to pull the light housings and paint the inside white or reflective. But that was a bunch more work and I think that the improvement would be marginal at best.

Oh, and dielectric grease is your friend.

edge, welcome to the garage, and thanx for posting this useful info .... to answer your initial conundrum about posting images, there are some things here that are restricted for those in 'moderation' [until you've made 4 posts], but you'll find that actual inline images never work here, only links to images on other hosts

Bill

Another option is to paint the inside of the housing gloss white then put a #81 bulb in the bottom socket for the tail light (6cp as opposed to the OEM #63 3cp). Then put a slight bend in the bracket between the sockets to allow a #1129 21cp bulb to clear the housing and lens (as opposed to the OEM #81) for the brake light.

My 6v '38 tail light on the left compared to my modern 12v truck on the right.

You are right about the plastic lens passing more light than the glass.

Next weekend I plan on taking care of the headlights:

Hella euro-spec H4 housing:
http://www.busdepot.com/0301600118

Plus 6V halogen H4 bulbs:
http://www.busdepot.com/665543

Plus some 6V relays to keep current out of the switches:
http://www.newark.com/te-connectivi...lay-spdt-6vdc-40a/dp/21M4888?ost=21M4888

Plus a fuse block for good measure:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MARINE-BOAT...Gear&hash=item3f2aec32e4&vxp=mtr

The Hella housings and H4 bulbs are already installed. They are drop in replacements for the sealed beam bulbs, so an easy job to swap: four screws out, swap bulbs, four screws in, next light....

The complexities arise when adding relays and rerouting wires. Still, it isn't that complex, just annoying as there is a bunch of time spent laying under the dash.

One of reasons I went with LEDs rather than bumping up the incandescent wattage was to lessen the load on the electrical system as much as possible in order to make up for the slightly higher wattage headlamps. Plus, the LEDs should last a lot longer than a flaming hot filament in the high vibration environment that is an old truck.

I wish LED headlights were a little more advanced. There are bulbs like those linked below that are almost there: they have LED COBs the same diameter as H4 filaments are long for both high and low, put out more lumens than a halogen, and consume less watts. The problem is heat and packaging. They run so hot that they come with cute little fans and heat sinks. None of that is going to fit or work inside the headlight bucket and cutting the bucket to expose everything to slinging gunk off the front wheel seems even worse. Then there is the fact that I would have to hack or replace the 12VDC to 26VDC converter that comes with the bulbs to accept 6VDC input....

I bought 2 pair of 6v H4 bulbs, hopefully by the time I need new bulbs, they will finally have the kinks worked out for LED replacements.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free...car-led-H4-High-low-lamp/1093006208.html

I replaced the sockets with an 1157 two filiment socket and used an 1154 6v lamp and the light is about equal to a 12v system. Also using halogen head lights.

I had a look at your socket upgrade in your photobucket. How well do the 1157's fit in your park lamp lenses? Is there plenty of room when the lens is on?

I converted to a single socket using the 1154 bulb but the tail light cp is the same 3cp as stock which can be pretty dim. That's when I went back to the two bulb set up with brighter bulbs as I noted above. 1157 spec 1154 spec

Even with the larger lamp they fit with plenty of room.

Awesome, thanks. I only use mine as marker lights, but I might put an 1156 or 1157 socket in just to make them brighter. Always have to mess with something.