Wiring Headlights for dual high beams

I want more light at night when I put the high beams on!

On a four-headlight car,

How about rewiring the low beam bulbs for low/high beams, and kept the original high beams also? You'd get four high beams on at the same time, would that draw too much current for the wiring, or cause some other problem?

Or, I could go to two high/low beam bulbs, and put some aircraft landing lights in the old high-beam buckets.

Or, how about one of those "bulbs" that converts from a sealed beam headlight to a modern H4 socket-type bulb? Are they any good / brighter?

Ideas, thoughts, opinions?

 

I know for newer Chevy trucks you can buy a harness for $25 that turns all four on when the hi-beams are activated.

 

Brighter headlights

John Spina with Casper Electrionics sells a plug and play wiring harness that uses the original headlight wiring as a trigger for relays that take power from the alternator terminal to supply the headlights.

Without the resistance of the harness and headlight switch the lights are a lot brighter. Now you could add intense or higher wattage lights without concerns of the limitation of the 34 year wiring harness.

Caspers Electronics

Hope that helps

 

I've seen the set up in JC Whitney as well

 

Unless its different on a '71, I have been under the impression that is how they work from the factory. Low beam bulps have 3 prongs/2 wattage settings and the high beams have two prongs/1 wattage setting. When you have low beams on, just the two low beam bulbs are lit, when you hit the brights, the high beam bulbs go on and the low beam bulbs switch to high beam.

Yup, that is how they work according to my Chassis Manual, unless I misunderstood the question?

 

I converted my headlights to the new H4 housings. I did it mostly because I like the "jeweled" look of the lights, but the housings each take a low beam - high beam bulb. The factory wiring has a low beam high beam combination on the outside 2 and highbeams on the centers.

The housings I bought (off e-Bay) were slightly smaller than the headlights they replace and required some small shims. I also had to open the holes in the headlight buckets for the bigger bulbs.

Once I was done I was really impressed with the light output. The low beams have a razor sharp cutoff and it's dazzling with the highbeams going.

My parents have a cabin on a lake in Maine and there's about 2 miles of dirt road to get there. There isn't a street light around for 30 miles. The difference in the quantity of light was very noticeable. Low beams lit the road nicely, with a sharp cutoff, high beams lit everything up to the tree tops.

 

73Electra225, yup, you're right, that's how it's wired, I should have looked closer at my manual...ou:

Anyway, I think using the existing harness to trigger some relays with direct feeds to either H4 bulbs or the landing lights, whichever fits closest.

Thanks all for the info!!! :beer

 

Some food for thought... the low beams on a 4 headlamp vehicle has two filaments in it. The only problem with your idea is that the high beam filaments on low beam will blind other drivers. My suggestion is to go with your last suggestion; use the aftermarket H4 system. This solution allows a myriad of intensities for your choosing, and the lamps themselves utilize advanced photometrics, which will better focus the available light. Ray