Patriot headlight replacement

[Jeff Johnson]

Hello,
Wondering if anyone has replaced the entire headlight assembly on their 96 or later 90's Patriots? Looking for better beam pattern and distance.  I replaced the original bulbs with expensive ones, with only slightly better results. The current ones are off Ford's mid to late 80's F150 pickups.
Open to suggestions for whatever anyone has done.
BTW I do have some LED cree auxiliary driving lights i'm putting in place of the old dual range lights as well.

Thank you in advance for any replies,
Jeff
 

[Keith Moffett]

Jeff
You tube has a video produced by a couple of our members on your fix.  Search for Beaver Headlight or close to that.  I did our 98 Pat in about 30 minutes and cos about $20.  Huge difference.  The issue is low voltage to the headlights and this is a one time fix.
All the best

[Carl Boger]

Keith did you replace the assemblies or do the wiring switch adding relays to bypass the current going through the light switch?  I have been considering adding the relays and then evaluating the lights.  either way I will be following this thread.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Jeff,
The headlight fix video and step-step document are available on Coach Assist on the Private Members Only board. It is based on the magnum chassis units, but the idea and procedure is applicable to other chassis. As Keith noted, check for low headlight voltage at the headlight first to see if you need the mod.
Steve

[Fred Brooks]

  Guys, Steves advice is the way to go if you are a member, If you check the voltage at the headlight and it is 10.5 volts or lower, you need to perform the relay update. You'll be smiling when your done! Fred

[Bill Sprague]

The video of Roy Mueller is public on YouTube.  It is in two parts because of the then imposed YouTube length limit.  "Brighter Headlights for Your Beaver Part 1" is about 7 years old and had more than 10,000 views!

[Jeff Johnson]

Thanks everyone for the response here,

It was my understanding "the fix" was for newer Beavers not ones of my age, 1996. Maybe I  misinterpreted which year and models it affected.
But my issue is also the beam pattern it's just not very good, but maybe it will change if the bulb is getting the proper voltage. Makes sense.

I'll get the Fluke vom out and check my voltages in a week or so.
Thank you again,
Jeff
 

[LaMonte Monnell]

It was a great fix for our 2001 Contessa. You can actually see the road at night now, which is a good thing.

[Keith Moffett]

Keith did you replace the assemblies or do the wiring switch adding relays to bypass the current going through the light switch?  I have been considering adding the relays and then evaluating the lights.  either way I will be following this thread.

Carl;
the lenses on ours were very bad and I tried the different cleaners without avail.  Before I could replace them Bill Sprague helped put out this video on the rewiring.  I did this and tried once more to clean instead of replace.  The higher voltage did the trick on the bulbs and 'White Diamond' cleaned the lenses so well I never replaced them .

White Diamond 'metal polish'.  The instructions on back say it cleans headlights too and it sure does!
Available at most auto parts stores and Amazon.

[Keith George]

Jeff
Our 2000 patriot has the Lincoln head lamps could not even tell they were on at night! I polished the lenses back to perfect I set up a board and aligned the headlamps then I tested the voltage at the lamp 10.25 (motor off) same at the low beam terminal in the electric bay! The wireing looks to be 12ga I checked resistance and voltage with the wires disconnected at the terminal (#4 low #5 high on our coach) with no obvious issues but when connected as built at the terminal I get a 2 volt drop? Rather than trying to figure out why I added two relays to the headlamps low and high circuits. I am sure this is what's being discussed it's an easy and cheap fix and now have 12.6v at the headlights although I haven't been on the road yet the lights are visibly brighter as they should be with 20% more power! Thanks to all of you that had already figured this out as I was also looking at replacement of the headlamps.