2004 Safari Cheetah Headlight Upgrade

[Cajunboy1959]

I searched first and did not find any information 

Can anybody help me with the ptocess of changing out old headlights to new brighter headlights for better visability at night.

I have included pictures of current headlamps.

Im not sure what number to use to find better replacements

[klcdenver]

You have halogens now which deteriorate over time. See link below. Maybe new halogen bulbs will be good enough for you. An exact fit LED is an option but in my experience are hard to adjust and fit from my experiences with them.

https://blog.headlightrevolution.com/how-long-do-halogen-led-and-hid-bulbs-last-bulb-degredation-explained#:~:text=Halogen headlight bulbs only have,end of its usable life.

[Steve Maurer]

Hi, 

I had similar problem with my 2005 Safari Cheetah. Put in conversion kit with HD bulbs. Super easy and makes a big difference.

Check out automotive sealed beam conversion kits. Rvheadlights.com.

 

Steve

[1nolaguy]

Hi, I replaced the OEM halogen headlights in our 2005 Safari Cheetah with new Glass LEDs. It did require cutting a larger opening in the plastic housing that holds the lens in place. It was not a real difficult process. If you do a search in the forums you will find a detailed post I made on the process. Here is a link to the lights I bought from Amazon. One of te thing I liked about these vs other options is it kept the look of the OEMs.

SMD 7 Inch LED Glass Headlight Pair

 

 

[Tom Cherry]

The BEST SOLUTION is a TWO FOLD approach. First, you add a direct feed 12 Chassis stud “12 VDC” relays to the HIGH and to the LOW. This circuit has been detailed in many posts.  That will add, based on voltage drops, at least 15% to ANY light.  The drop is a cumulative effect. You use the HIGH wire to trigger or turn on or close the Direct 12VDC to the HIGH’s and then another relay for the LOW’s.

LED’s work great assuming there is adequate clearance behind the “bulbs” as LED’s have a longer base or sit out further back due to the rear Heat Sink. Some folks add a HIGH/LOW LED light bar rather than fritzing around. Mine would require that as a LED conversion will not fit as the bulbs are almost totally enclosed or protected in the housing. STILL need the relays and you can feed both the existing headlight and rhe LED light bar from the same HIGH or LOW relay you add.  Your dimmer switch will last longer.  Not switching 20A loads now.

AS A TEACHING MOMENT.  I used LED CHEETAH as the two key words in the SEARCH box and then clicked on Everywhere and chose TOPICS.

Then @1nolaguy posts popped up.  One was to ID what he had. The second was a HOW TO.

 

Really good.  The new topic guidelines require a search.  One has to use various words or a combination…sometimes I’ll use three to narrow it down.  LED CHEETAH was my first choice and it gave me all the information.

Thanks in advance for using it in the future….

NOW you know,  I did NOT scan…but if he did NOT do the relay upgrade, that is a MUST….it has actually solved issues and folks have used the brighter Sylvania Halogen bulbs and not had to upgrade to LED.

[1nolaguy]

Tom, Thanks for above as I could not find my own posts on this. NOTE: This unit comes with high and low relays built in so it is plug and play to the OEM harnes plug. Makes it an easy mod. Lighting is tremendously improved in both low and high beam. As an aside, the vendor for this glass lens is great to work with. The original package came as a 2-pack and one of the lens had a hair line crack , only visible when the bulb was held on an angle. I contacted them and after sending a photo showing the issue they sent a replacement without requiring me to ship back the original.

[Tom Cherry]

11 hours ago, 1nolaguy said:

Tom, Thanks for above as I could not find my own posts on this. NOTE: This unit comes with high and low relays built in so it is plug and play to the OEM harnes plug. Makes it an easy mod. Lighting is tremendously improved in both low and high beam. As an aside, the vendor for this glass lens is great to work with. The original package came as a 2-pack and one of the lens had a hair line crack , only visible when the bulb was held on an angle. I contacted them and after sending a photo showing the issue they sent a replacement without requiring me to ship back the original.

Great.  Thanks.  

FWIW….don’t know exactly how the circuit and the controls work.  It the relays need external fused (whatever the instructions say) Hot Chassis Power, that is great. It would be logical that the dimmer switch is just a “signal” for the mode.  If there is NOT a direct fused input, then adding upstream relays with direct power would be the correct method and the contacts and wire runs and such of the Monaco system causes a severe voltage drop to the actual bulb…

If you get a chance…can you take your original post and your photos and recap it in Word?  We will put this as a “How TO” in the files.

PM  @Frank McElroy  He curates the files and will do the PDF conversion.

Thanks.

[1nolaguy]

Sure Tom. Currently traveling post- Hershey show but will do this once we get back home.