7x6 H6054 Conversion Housings

[Alaric Darconville]

Also - I quite like the brown glass lens in my last picture above

Those glasses have a tendency to blur your vision!

 

[-Virgil-]

If you don't want to mess with tape, you might put one of each kind of Bobi lamp on the truck (one kind on the left, other kind on the right) then stand in the middle between them, facing the wall the truck is pointing at, and alternately put a towel over one lamp and then the other so you can compare them back and forth. It'll be subjective (unless you get goin' with that smartphone light meter app) but it will at least roughly answer your questions about what the differences are.

 

[Ofelas]

Alaric -
Which is why I always indulge in even numbers.
Can't fly on one wing!

But Virgil, that would throw off my matching pair.

So, a few minutes after I installed them last night, speaking of tape, I 100mph taped the rectangular adapters to the top/bottom edges of them slanted BOBI nubs, and redid the floor slope/vertical/horizontal adjustments.

Despite my amateurish findings several years back, I now find the BOBIs absolutely outstanding.

Nothing to do with any technique on my part, just that aiming kit is all.

I even told myself the GE/Tungsram 9003s are better than their H4 equivalents :-D

As far as the light meter app - any particular one you suggest for a once-a-day fruit phone?

 

[-Virgil-]

The outer end of each aim pad is at a very specific angle and height to the lens to form a plane at a very specific orientation relative to the light beam. If you gosh-and-golly it with tape, you're defeating the whole point and you might as well just be aiming the lamps at random.

I didn't mean to leave them mismatched, just temporarily for comparison. By "fruit phone" I'm guessing you mean Apple? I use Luxmeter, by Galactica. I think I got it for free, and it lets me do both direct readings and reflected-light readings. Very easy to use.

 

[Ofelas]

Dangit Virgil, you made me go out into the hostile, windy afternoon & double check that.

As it so turned out, the Rain-X + car wax that I'd slathered onto the glass lenses were the issue, rather than the "downward sloped lower teats".

Mea cursory culpa, but at least it only took me all of 5 minutes as I hadn't changed the slope values.

A judicious BrakeKleen wipe later, the adapters held without tape, and I re-adjusted the C logo BOBIs.

A quick spittle of lick & bingo, vacuum cups sealed as usual prior to adjustments, and no duct tape this time as per your recommendations.

I forgot to temporarily install the non C logo BOBIs Dan sent me, even if just one for comparison's sake, but will do so soon.

Luckily enough, the verticals were barely a 1/4 turn off, and the horizontals were bang on. My mad tape skillsz.

And yes, I re Rain-X'd & rewaxed. Even sprayed a tad extra Genuine Mopar white lithium grease on the adjuster/insert junction for that last bit of re-exposed thread.

Yes, iPhone. I will look into Galactica, & I assume you mean "direct" readings as in holding the phone towards the headlamp lens, and "reflected" as in pointed towards the afore mentioned wall?

Oh yeah - I tack-welded my rear hitch platform extension while I was out there, in preparation for my mini air compressor/extended battery tray.

 

[-Virgil-]

Yes, iPhone. I will look into Galactica, & I assume you mean "direct" readings as in holding the phone towards the headlamp lens, and "reflected" as in pointed towards the afore mentioned wall?

Confirmed.

 

[Ofelas]

I'm enjoying the heck out of them Cummins branded C logo BOBIs, especially since the rebranded Hoppy's make up for my previously feeble attempts at aiming.

(Neat collection of lamps, BTW!)

Thank you Sir.

Confirmed.

On a side note - I'm always chasing OEM "hue" vs preserving my collection of rare NOS headlamp switches.

Dang little Philips cyclops fell off from one of the red LED bulbs.

 

[Ofelas]

Couldn't resist picking up an almost NOS pair of BOBIs yesterday. Simply because I'm partial to the BOBIs with the Cummins logo on the lenses, there's another identical pair (NOS when I installed them) on my old '91.5 beater with Megalight +120 9003s in them

They're in immaculate shape - pristine lenses, reflectors look perfect, the old boy bought them from a Car & Driver magazine ad in the late '80s, and used them for one summer before he got rid of the vehicle (he stored the headlamps in his garage for the past 30yrs, they still have the original bulbs so the locating bumps will have to be Cratex'd off for modern 9003/H4s).

 

[Alaric Darconville]

they still have the original bulbs so the locating bumps will have to be Cratex'd off for modern 9003/H4s).

Did the original bulbs' bases break off in the socket? Or why are you abrading anything away? The H4 base should not have changed since its inception, as that's the entire point of the standardization of bulbs.

 

[-Virgil-]

Some of those BOBI lamps took an H4 variant without blacktop, and with a little "bite" out of the round part of its base, and a matching ridge on the bulb seat. I think these special bulbs had wattage ratings at 12.8v stamped on the base, but it's been a very long time since I saw one. Other than these listed variances, they were normal 12v 60/55w H4 bulbs. The presence/absence of blacktop doesn't make any difference, because the BOBI lamps have a bulb shield (made of blacktop!) on the glass balloon over the bulb chamber. Ofelas's idea to smooth down that bulb seat ridge with a Cratex wheel or cone in a Dremel tool is the right way to go; then any H4 will fit.

 

[Ofelas]

Did the original bulbs' bases break off in the socket? Or why are you abrading anything away? The H4 base should not have changed since its inception, as that's the entire point of the standardization of bulbs.

Alaric -

The original H4s on my installed set of NOS C-logo BOBIs are clear top Norma H4s, marked with "12.8v" exactly like Virgil mentioned.

Couple pictures to illustrate what Virgil typed out -

First pic shows the slot in that Norma H4 - this allows it to slide down the ridge on the "neck" of the BOBI seat.

Second pic shows the ridge removed with a Dremel (on that initial set, I was too impatient to order a Cratex wheel like Stern suggested I do). I did wipe that surface clean with alcohol + a skim coat of NOS Genuine Mopar stringy wheel bearing grease though, both applied with different corners of a SubLime cloth, matching the rag color to my exterior paint was tres important to prevent corrosion.

I haven't checked the H4s/bulb seats on the BOBIs I picked up yesterday, as they're en route to me.

Edited to correct the smarmy auto-thingummy that lives inside my laptop keyboard, and sometimes fails to quote earlier posts.

 

[-Virgil-]

I did wipe that surface clean with alcohol + a skim coat of NOS Genuine Mopar stringy wheel bearing grease

Yipes! Go back with a new rag and more alcohol and get rid of every trace of that grease. You don't want grease or oil of any kind anywhere near the bulb, where it will fume when it's hot and fog up the inner glass of your BOBI lamps.

 

[Ofelas]

Done a few minutes back Virgil.
Thanks much!

edit - don't ever let Stern know about my grease snafu, he'll
torture me to no end about my epic Mopar fail.

 

[Ofelas]

Also - Stern has the entire range of Koito conversion lamps available this past while.

I hear good things about the Koitos.

 

[doug s.]

hi!

newbie here! well, not to the planet, but to this forum, heh! i found it doing a search wanting to - you guessed it - update my old pos h6504 (6503 actually) headlight on my '95 buell s2.

so, i'm a bit confused - the e-code headlights are supposed to be so much better than the dot-spec headlights. but not for the hellas? all years? are some of the e-code hellas not inflicted with this "set it for hi-beams and the low-beams suck and vice versa"? how do the e-code cibies compare w/the dot hellas? (i know, earlier in this thread, virgil said they're comparable.) now, classic garage sells the new cibie knock-offs, both e-code and dot (i'm assuming cibie made a dot housing), as well as the e-code and dot hellas.
https://сlаѕѕiсgаrаgе.com/nѕеаrch.h...4&ѕеаrchsubmit=Sеаrch&vwсаtаlоg=сlаѕѕiсgаrаgе
(i spoke w/the owner today, and the website is a bit confusing; there's no difference in the "custom spares" housing other than the e-code label; otherwise they're exactly the same. and the one w/the yellow tint is just the pic, it's not really like that. and the e-code hella has a pic of the 4x6, but it's a 7x6. (the owner opened up his website when i was asking him questions regarding some of this; i don't think he was aware, it may get updates sometime. also, i contacted hella yesterday, because that h6054 vision plus website they have up shows the dimensions for the 4x6, not the 5x7. i know they're gonna fix that!)

so the guy at classic garage thinks the e-code hellas are definitely the best, followed by the e-code cibie knockoffs, then the hella dot's and the cibie knock-off dot's. i'm wondering what folks here think. and also wondering about older e-code hellas; there's a few f/s, like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/154396290886

thanks all,

doug s.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

now, classic garage sells the new cibie knock-offs, both e-code and dot (i'm assuming cibie made a dot housing), as well as the e-code and dot hellas.

so the guy at classic garage thinks the e-code hellas are definitely the best, followed by the e-code cibie knockoffs, then the hella dot's and the cibie knock-off dot's.

Anyone saying a "knockoff" is worth using at all is not in a position to recommend automotive lighting.
Anyone selling lights as "DOT approved" is not in a position to recommend automotive lighting.

 

[doug s.]

hi alaric,

sorry, but your "answer" doesn't make any sense.

- ipal lights are "knock-offs", and many people think they're very nice.
- many people don't want e-code lighting, and are willing to have what may be an inferior lighting pattern to have sae lighting.
- one of the moderators - virgil - now says the sae hellas are equivalent to the nos cibie e-codes. are you saying virgil is not in a position to recommend automotive lighting?
- this particular vendor sells sae lighting and states that he thinks e-code lighting is better. what's wrong w/that? and this is a well respected vendor.

thanks for not addressing any of the questions i asked.

doug s.

Anyone saying a "knockoff" is worth using at all is not in a position to recommend automotive lighting.
Anyone selling lights as "DOT approved" is not in a position to recommend automotive lighting.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

hi alaric,

sorry, but your "answer" doesn't make any sense.

- ipal lights are "knock-offs", and many people think they're very nice.
- many people don't want e-code lighting, and are willing to have what may be an inferior lighting pattern to have sae lighting.
- one of the moderators - virgil - now says the sae hellas are equivalent to the nos cibie e-codes. are you saying virgil is not in a position to recommend automotive lighting?
- this particular vendor sells sae lighting and states that he thinks e-code lighting is better. what's wrong w/that? and this is a well respected vendor.

thanks for not addressing any of the questions i asked.

Those "many people" may not be genuine automotive lighting experts. They may think they're very nice, but that doesn't mean they work safely, providing adequate seeing for the driver without excessive glare for other drivers.

There is no such thing as "DOT approved" lighting in North America. The USDOT and its counterparts in Mexico and Canada do not operate on a type-approval basis; manufacturers self-certify their products to be "DOT compliant". Any manufacturer or vendor referring to their products as being "DOT approved" are misinformed or just plain lying, again, because there is no approval by the respective regulatory bodies.

-Virgil- is not saying (and would never say) those SAE Hella lights are "DOT approved".

As far as whether E-code or USDOT lighting is better, there are good and bad examples of both, and there are many compromises to be made in the interest of providing low-beam seeing distance vs. minimizing glare for oncoming drivers. Neither lighting system is categorically better.

 

[-Virgil-]

hi! newbie here!

Welcome to the board.

so, i'm a bit confused - the e-code headlights are supposed to be so much better than the dot-spec headlights

That is a common misunderstanding/myth/point of "wisdom" without basis in reality. In fact, there is no categorical superiority to the US ("SAE", "DOT") or the UN ("European", "ECE", "E-code") low beam specification. Both specifications allow for the production of headlamps giving very high performance. Both specifications also allow for the production of headlamps giving very low performance. There are sometimes reasons to pick a lamp solely on the basis of its compliance, but there is no direct linkage between a headlamp being UN/ECE-compliant and it being good/better/superior/preferable over a headlamp that is SAE/DOT-compliant...nor the other way around.

The Hella ECE lamp in this size hasn't changed. It was never a good one, and still isn't. Its build quality has slipped over the years (along with that of the rest of its stablemates, by which I mean the rest of the Hella H4/H1 lamps in sealed beam sizes) as these products have become less popular with decreasing demand. The Hella SAE lamp in this size is better than the ECE unit, but the Koito ECE unit now available is significantly better than the Hella SAE lamp.

The knockoff/imitation lamps are complete junk, not worth a plug nickel. Here again, hand-me-down "wisdom" is all over the place, and it's wrong. It is definitely not the case that anything holding an H4 bulb is automatically a good headlamp, or an upgrade over a sealed beam. Furthermore, beware, Classic Garage is not a "well respected vendor" except in his own mind. He has a long and ugly reputation for...I guess the polite way to say it is telling fairytales and posting less than factual descriptions of the products they sell. The guy's a classic textbook huckster; he will literally say anything to get you to send him money. Aside from his website full of fibs, I have watched him, in person, tell baldfaced lies directly to people's faces in between telling them how honest he is, all without cracking a sweat.

Imitation Cibies are not the only lamps in the knockoff category, either. Autopal and Neolite don't make any headlamps in this or any other size, just rubbish shaped like headlamps...complete with fraudulent approvals. Some of them are direct knockoffs of certain Hella designs. There's a long list of other garbage in this category, too. Delta, Eagle Eyes, Anzo, on and on. The IPF 820 sold by ARB is in this territory, too.

ipal lights are "knock-offs", and many people think they're very nice.

By "ipal" I assume you mean Autopal/Neolite. It's undoubtedly true many people claim these are very nice. It's also undoubtedly true they're wrong, and their opinion doesn't count on the matter, because here's the thing: headlamp performance -- real performance, objectively measured in terms of how much of what we need to see, we can see -- is often far out of alignment with subjective impressions of how well it feels like we can see. The vast majority of people talking about headlight performance, don't actually know what they're talking about, and are talking out their backside whether they mean to or not. This includes the fella at Classic Garage.

Years ago there was a (real) Cibie SAE H4 motorcycle headlamp in this size. Seldom seen any more these days, and nobody is "reproducing" (or knocking it off).

Honestly, though, in your position (only one headlamp, limited electrical power) I wouldn't be looking at H4s as a first preference. You'd have a much better final outcome by installing this Truck-Lite LED headlamp. It will put a whole lot more light on the road than a halogen lamp, has an SAE beam pattern arguably better suited to motorcycle usage than a sharp-cutoff ECE beam pattern, is completely resistant to motorcycle vibrations/won't burn out, and takes less power to run than a halogen or sealed-beam lamp.

 

[doug s.]

virgil!

finally! an answer! thanks so much!

i looked at the led headlamps, but not so sure i want a plastic lens. but if i were to go that route, you think the trucklite would be better than the morimoto sealed5 or the jw speaker 8900?

and, you think that, if i want a glass lens, i should get the koito xr12? even for motorcycle use, its overall performance would be better than the hella sae?

thanks again! :twothumbs

doug s.