Herman and Operation 30MPG

[brunocerous]

What a great thread. I just found it this morning and spent most of it ignoring the kids while I caught up on The Herman Chronicles.

Abscate, have you tried the Lesjöfors HD springs? I put them on the Silver Bullet (‘00 V70 n/a MT) and absolutely love them. When I return the engine bar, we should swap rides to compare, though I do love that iPD blue.

I think I told you this last time but I have Lesjfors HDs on the back of Evita and the IPD Blue HDs on the back of Elizabeth the T5

They are both great.

Thanks for loaning me the engine picker - I told Mom what great guys you are and that she should be proud of you.

She gave me $100 to pull your EV away after that.

[callahanoffroad]

Small update,

realized that I've owned Herman for two years and 60,000 miles now.

I increased the size of the windshield wiper blades from 21" to 22" on the front. Cleans much better with a much better field of view in the rain.

I don't know if i've mentioned this before but I also run slightly larger tires. Stock is 195/60/15, I run 195/65/15. Lifts the body about 1/4 of an inch, but it makes all the difference in clearance. No more chin scrapes during deliveries.

Over the last few months Herman has developed the classic fuel vent hose leak. So far I've been living with it as a fact of life. But i'll eventually get around to repairing it. I'll be using this method as dropping a tank would be difficult in my current garage situation. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=54739

[brunocerous]

I think I told you this last time but I have Lesjfors HDs on the back of Evita and the IPD Blue HDs on the back of Elizabeth the T5

They are both great.

Thanks for loaning me the engine picker - I told Mom what great guys you are and that she should be proud of you.

She gave me $100 to pull your EV away after that.

Any preference for the iPD or Lesjöfors?

Hope the picker serves you well! That thing is a beast.

Aww, thanks! And if you need a spare-parts T4, let me know.

[abscate]

I like the HDs on Elizabeth because she tows boats in summer. The highway ride (99% of use) is stiff but on good roads I like that - if roads were rough it might be too stiff.

Evita the S70 came with Konis and good springs and rides tight too

[callahanoffroad]

Small update.
I had a month off of delivering so Herman sat happily in my garage while I traveled in a rental car.

It's so dark at night with all of the unlit suburban roads locally, I bit the bullet and purchased some super bright LED bulbs for Herman.

I gotta say, these were the single best performance upgrade I've ever done to any vehicle. Price wasn't bad either, $15/pair for both high beams and low beams. I'd love to get some projector housings to put these bad boys in, but they work great in the stock Volvo headlights. The best part? Now I'm a jerk with super bright headlights blinding everyone... Just like everyone else. Hahahaha.

In all seriousness though the high, low headlight combination is so bright I will have no problem seeing those sneaky deer from s few hundred yards away.

Interestingly, I had to wrap the headlight wires in electrical tape as their factory plastic had begun to peel, which I know is not unusual.

Here's the Amazon listing for the bulbs.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07VL7GG ... asin_title

[wizechatmgr]

Beware that changing from one type of lighting technology to another (Halogen to LED) is against FMVSS (Federal law) and could get you one heck of a ticket.

That said, unless you have a local PD with a bug up it's arse and you've really ticked them off, you shouldn't have any issues.

Thanks for the link, I plan on buying a set for my motorcycle. =)

[abscate]

Don’t forget to check those reflectors , too. They can rob you of a lot of light.

[callahanoffroad]

Beware that changing from one type of lighting technology to another (Halogen to LED) is against FMVSS (Federal law) and could get you one heck of a ticket.

That said, unless you have a local PD with a bug up it's arse and you've really ticked them off, you shouldn't have any issues.

Thanks for the link, I plan on buying a set for my motorcycle. =)

I had never heard that before. The bulbs were DOT certified so I figured that was the biggest issue. But I live in a freedomland state so I won't ever need to worry about that. Either way though thanks for the heads-up!

Abscate: I think I'm going to pull the housings and give them a thorough cleaning. It might be a good idea to just replace the housings all together given the condition of the wiring, and the fact that the left right adjustments are broken glass is still good though!

[ecbsykes]

Nothing really funny about blinding oncoming drivers, which in some cases can create a true hazard to safety. I understand that from the driver's perspective it can be argued that having brighter lights increases your safety, which may be true...but at the expense of others. Kind sucks. My 2 cents: do it right or not at all.

New replacements housings are cheap and effective. Projector retrofit is not hard either, though a little pricier. I did an HID projector retrofit and the results are stellar. Great light, and the cutoff beam is below the heads of all oncoming drivers.

[callahanoffroad]

Nothing really funny about blinding oncoming drivers, which in some cases can create a true hazard to safety. I understand that from the driver's perspective it can be argued that having brighter lights increases your safety, which may be true...but at the expense of others. Kind sucks. My 2 cents: do it right or not at all.

New replacements housings are cheap and effective. Projector retrofit is not hard either, though a little pricier. I did an HID projector retrofit and the results are stellar. Great light, and the cutoff beam is below the heads of all oncoming drivers.

That's a great idea. Would you mind sharing your build thread or links to what you used here?

The prebuilt projector housings are around $300 which is way beyond my budget.

I've been running the lights for two nights now, and I have to say it's a massive difference. If I'm blinding drivers I can't tell, but I have my lights properly adjusted to the ground and there is very little if any dazzling effect when it look at the lights. Not anymore than those terrible candles they call halogen bulbs. Where I live I'll never need to think about blinding other drivers though, I did a count last night and out of 100 vehicles I counted 80 had the newest brightest bulbs that were even brighter than mine (and in my eyes), and of those vehicles about 75 of the 100 were trucks, SUVs and cross overs where my bulbs don't even shine above their bumper. Hahaha. I live in a highly rural suburban area where people live in the woods to raise their kids. I believe the proper term is "exoburbs" 90% of the roads I drive on are up over hills and down blind turns covered in dense Forest and full of those tricky deer.

Here's my current synopsis:

Low beams: (9006) are definitely brighter than the old non fancy stock bulbs by about 3x. They do a great job of down road illumination but not so much that you're blinding everyone that passes by like those new Escalade, Mercedes and BMW bulbs. They do an amazing job picking up the reflection of road signs, and the reflective bits in street paint. They also do a very good job of casting left and right so I can see those free-range Bambi's. In the woods they do a great job, and I really like them. The product listing says they are 12,000 lumens, and I don't think the low beams are anything close to that. Maybe 6,000 combined (stock halogens are 1000-2000 each depending on bulb type)

High Beams (9005): these are maybe the brightest thing I've ever seen short of a helicopter search light. They're so bright that wherever they're pointing looks like day light. They work fantastic for back roads and highway driving, allowing you to see nice and far away at 75 mph. That being said though, they're definitely too bright to use in someone's neighborhood. These I believe are 12000 lumens. Seriously when you flip these on it's like one of those "let there be light" moments

How I adjusted the lights: I used the stock Volvo leveler bubble on a flat surface, and brought them to pointing down just a touch from the stock location. This seems to give me the maximum down road, side road, and immediately in front illumination.

Installation: was quite literally plug and play. I'll be honest the coolers on the back are massive. But they do fit inside if the housings with the dust covers on. The manufacturer recommends pulling the retaining ring from inside the light to install, but I did the old twist and turn, and it was fine.

Final verdict: for $15/pair with free two day shipping on Prime you really can't beat this. I would highly recommend these bulbs to anyone who needs superior bulb performance but can't justify $70/pair for Sylvania Silver Star Ultras.

I'll get some pictures tonight to post so you can see them in use.