Date:         Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:36:05 -0500
Reply-To:     Phil Walker <phil.walker@BROOKS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Phil Walker <phil.walker@BROOKS.COM>
Subject:      E-code initial impressions and some questions (long)

Funny Thing...I wrote this email up on Friday and sent it to the list...It
never made it. It got caught in the list hiccup.

I just wanted to let everyone know my impression of the E-codes I just
installed. I installed one at a time so I could compare the difference to
the old lenses. I also did a "hack" just for the purposes of the this
comparison. To understand the difference between the old and new I used the
existing wiring without adding devoted lines, new relays, etc. In fact I
had some crappy Chinese H-4 sockets that I mod'd the leads so they would
just plug into the existing 9004 sockets. I know this is BAD, but I wanted
to try and make a quick comparison. I'm not that happy with these sockets
for full time use (see the question at the end).

I installed the right E-code and the left light I left stock. I aimed the
lens using the setting of the stockers as a starting point. Pointing the
lights at my garage immediately showed the difference in the light
patterns. As we are all painfully aware, the stocker kind of has a pencil
point of intense light (pointing down on the road). The E-codes have a well
balanced wave of light. On my garage I could see how the E-code pattern
definitively cutoff at a specific vertical position. Basically the light
formed a horizontal line on my garage that eventually bent up and to the
right as the light approximately approached the edge of the van. My
assumption is that this is to better light up the side of the road without
blinding passing cars. This would be a lousy setup for Britain and
Australia (maybe the lights are swapped over there?).

The other thing that should be noted is that the light from the E-codes
look DIMMER than the stockers both on my garage and when looking directly
at them. I guess with all of the talk of the E-codes and the H-4's made me
think I was going to get light from the Sun (further voltage fixes will
increase the light output of course). This might really be an optical
illusion though, because the pattern of the light is obviously better. I
went to a very dark area and stood in front of each light to see the stock
pattern and the ecode. With the vertical cut-off of the e-code the lens
could actually be pointed up a bit higher and still not blinding passers.
The light is very even...nice.

A note, the inside of my stock lens was fairly dirty. A bit of brake
cleaner cleaned it up. This might help with the light output, but as has
been said many times before more light doesn't solve the problem. It's like
putting a higher wattage bulb in the kitchen to help with your reading in
the living room.

A couple of questions:

1) Where is the best place to hook into the parking lights to give me some
illumination creeping around a campsite? I'm assuming I ca just hook into
the wiring going into the corners, but I wanted to see if anyone came up
with anything more clever.

2) Has anyone found a source for quality H-4 sockets that have nice wire
connections? The ones I have are okay, but I'd certainly be up for possibly
a German sourced set.

Overall this upgrade looks like it is going to be a big success. I hate the
stock light output and I'm always scared of deer, kids and such. More
appropriate light is always a thumbs up for me.

-Phil
89 Westy
SLC, UT