The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

I've been busy with shit have you tested the 200's yet?

 

On my TO-DO list. Setting up the 2nd Gen lights is a bit of a PITA compared to the 3rd Gen ones, but I need to get to that!

 

Busy stripping my machine down, but I might get them in Saturday

 

Can anyone confirm which harness is needed on an 07? Trucks currently in the shop and I wanted to order everything now so I can install when I get the truck back. If not ill just wait to get the truck back so I can do the test.

 

Should be the conventional power switched harness:
https://www.headlightservices.com/Wiring.html

 

Cool thanks for the quick reply and the amazing write up! Have you found other upgrade bulbs besides the ones linked in the op?

 

Peak intensity chart is in the thread, I'll copy/paste it below. The Osram 85/80w bulbs are long gone, and the IPF Fatboy bulbs were stupid expensive and now appear to be discontinued as well leaving the highest performing option amongst the tested set as the Osram 100/90w Superbrights. The Superbrights also have the insanely powerful high beam. Other accompanying charts in the thread also reference power draw and color temp.

 

Appreciate it!

 

Philips Racing Vision GT200 H4s (+200)



The latest performance H4s from Philips and the highest + rated bulb on the market at an impressive +200. The current best rated stock wattage low beam bulb in this thread is the Philips Racing Vision +150, so I was eager to see how these compared.

Stock Osram 9003 left vs Philips +200 right


The Philips +200 H4 pulls an impressive 69w on low beam, or 5A at 13.8v.


Compared to stock these are a significant low beam upgrade, providing 57% more output intensity in a 2nd Gen headlight.


Compared the Philips +150s vs Philips +200


I was surprised to see slightly higher lux numbers for the outgoing Racing Vision +150. Initial thought was that the +200s must have a darker blue coating, which reduces output. I don't have the old +150 Racing Visions on hand to compare. However, if you look at the color temp the old Racing Vision +150s were actually slightly higher in color temp, meaning that a larger performance loss from a coating on the +200s was unlikely.

Looking at the spectrometer readings, confirms the bulbs have an extremely similar signature, meaning the blue coatings are likely about the same.


I went back over the original thread numbers and found where the key difference is, in my tests the Racing Vision +150 pulled 5.2A at 13.8v, aka about 72w vs the newer +200 pulling 69w. I confirmed with both +200s that they both pulled 69w. I don't have the +150s any more to double check the amp draw on multiple bulbs.

However when comparing rated life, the Philips +150s spec 200 hrs.




The life of the Philips GT200s is spec'd at 400 hours






So based on my numbers it looks like the Racing Vision +200s take ~2.8% output intensity loss (pretty negligible) but deliver 2x the bulb life. Impressive to see such great gains in bulb life while maintaining such a high level of performance. This places the low beam performance at 2nd best for a stock wattage bulb just barely behind the original Racing Vision +150 with significantly better life. Seems like a trade off most would appreciate.

Note that like the previous Racing Vision +150, these also coat the high beam filament with a blue coating reducing high beam performance. The best performing stock wattage bulbs without a degraded high beam is the Tungsram/GE Xenon +120.

 

See above.

 

Nice my friend, love when you test shit as it gets real in depth.

 

Osram Hyper 70/65w Gen2 bulbs - Preproduction experimental
This is the second generation of the 70/65w Hyper bulbs covered in the original thread. These bulbs never made it to full scale production.

Clears


Osram 70/65w Hyper Gen2 (left) vs Stock Osram 9003 bulb (right)


Bulbs pull 59.6w on low beam by my readings


Compared to stock these come in at about 58% higher peak intensity.


Comparing the Gen2 vs Gen1 versions of these bulbs, the Gen2 comes in at about 7% higher peak intensity. The Gen2 bulbs were also upgraded to use a quartz capsule and higher pressure gas for improved performance and longer bulb life.


Comparing the Hyper Gen2 to the latest Philips Racing Vision GT200


The low beam performance difference is negligible. The Hypers Gen2 will excel in high beam performance with a higher wattage high beam and a clear capsule, vs the Philips blue coated high beam filament which degrades performance. Interestingly, the Osram bulbs drew 4.32A to achieve this output, while the Philips GT200s pulled 5.0A, likely losses incurred by the blue coating on the Philips bulbs.



These Osram Hyper 70/65w Gen2s would have been a fantastic bulb to come to market, offering an outstanding performance low beam without the draw backs of the reduced performance high beam we see in todays highest performance (low beam) bulbs. Disappointing these never made it to production.

Osram Hyper 70/65w Gen2 Yellow
Note that yellow bulbs are not legal for headlight use in the US.


Hyper Gen2 yellow (left) vs stock Osram 9003 (right)


A better image of the yellow color representation without the white bias in the camera.


Osram Hyper Gen2 Yellow vs Stock Osram 9003. The yellow bulbs take about a 7.5% loss over stock due to the yellow filter.


Comparing the clear Hyper Gen2s and the Yellow Hyper Gen2s, the yellow coating eliminates very effectively eliminates the short wavelength light. The coating is a darker than I would have expected insuring heavier losses than a lighting coating. In the above measurement showing color temperature yellow comes in at 2167k. Bulbs like Nokya Hyper Yellow are at 2500k and Hellas Solar Yellow at 2900k. A 2100k bulb seems lower color temp than necessary, resulting in higher filtration losses.



When comparing the clear Hyper Gen2 vs the yellow Hyper Gen2, you can see the yellow bulbs incur a 41% output intensity loss over the clear. That is a pretty substantial loss which could have been improved by using a lighter yellow coating for less output loss and slightly higher color temperature.

 

And yet again, OP has delivered! Fantastic info Crash!

It seems we need to find a way to remove the blue coating from these bulbs (for those who don't like the higher color temp, and/or those who don't like the reduced highbeam performance).

Do you take the close performance between the new +200 and the old +150 to indicate that Philips has changed the way they evaluate their bulbs?

I have another test idea for you, if you wanted you could apply a layer of 1mil kapton sheet across a lamp and test these various bulbs again to give a comparison of performance losses.

[Quote:] "Osram Hyper 70/65w Gen2 Yellow
Note that yellow bulbs are not legal for headlight use in the US.
[/Quote:]

And I don't care! They're fantastic in bad weather. I drove cross country behind a set if these just a few weeks ago, I hit everything from clear skys, rain and fog to light snow, and they performed fantastically. Everybody write your incoming congressmen, selective yellow needs to become a legal headlamp color.

 

OP, in your opinion which of the bulbs you've tested that are currently available best balances lumen output/brightness while being as white as possible?

Tired of my yellow stock halogens and how dim they are. Want something white and bright to use with the harness!

 

Some have experimented with removing the coating. A chemical based solution seems more ideal than an abrasive one, which may cause irregularities in the glass and cause early failure.

Funny you mention the +200 vs +150 evaluation. I have heard about the baseline evaluation points in bulbs being shifted down to lower performance level bulbs for comparison. However, I have no way to confirm what Philips is basing their metric on. All I can say is the outgoing +150s are just slightly higher performing than the incoming +200s, which would fall in line with rebasing the +xxx comparison. But difficult to draw that conclusion with certainty.

I don't follow the kapton sheet logic?

Philips Racing Vision +150 or +200 have the whitest low beam while also having the highest output intensity for a stock wattage bulb. High beam performance will be reduced though. See the output vs color temp charts:

 

When you say "stock wattage" they are still being tested with the headlight services harness, correct?

 

No. They are bench tested at 13.8v which was the measured voltage at the headlight plug, aka no harness. Voltage actually fluctuates while driving between roughly 13.5-14.1v depending on electrical demands of the truck. Running the harness will see approximately a +0.3-0.4v increase. Voltage increase leads to exponential output increase in halogens to the power of 3.4, meaning you will get noticeably better results with the harness.

 

Understood. Thank you.

 

I was basically wondering if you could do a comparison showing the loss due to using a sheet of kapton tape to filter a bulb to selective yellow.

I agree about chemical vs physical removal. There was a thread on cpf's auto lighting subforum a while back, but it was created and then subsequently locked by a moderator "not wanting to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the forum" about removing these coatings. The best method put forth was laser ablation, and no further discussion of alternative methods.

 

Thanks Crash. Good stuff. Hopefully the Black Friday deals start soon. I really want a deal on a harness and a set of DD fogs.