Wednesday, Aug 17, 2011 at 13:32
Hi all,
I set up a Hella H4 upgrade in my '86 HJ60 somewhere around '92 or '93, with my own 6mm (automotive) wiring (no commercial wiring looms readily available when I did
mine) and some BIG H4 globes which absolutely transformed things for travel after dark. Not that we ever did much of that - it was more of a comfort thing.
A 'roo's head put paid to the LHS headlight and I had difficulty sourcing a new Hella, so looked at a generic brand, which was made in India, that was fairly readily available through the automotive chains back then, but the reflectors really weren't satisfactory for my needs.
Eventually got hold of a single Cibie H4 conversion, so I ran a mismatched set for about 6 years. I didn't notice a huge difference in performance between Hella and Cibie, but what there was favoured the Cibie. From memory (I sold the vehicle back in 2007), Hella had a flatter glass and an extra hole in the reflector for an in-headlight
parking globe, with a rubber/plastic grommet to keep water out if you weren't using that arrangement, while Cibie had a rounder glass with some raised lines in it, perhaps for lateral light dispersion and an undisturbed reflector.
The orienting/locating sytems were the main structural difference - Hella used a quite solid, welded-on, thick square "wire", while Cibie used relatively flimsy strips of sheet metal, on edge. That said, both travelled several hundred thousand kilometres without any mechanical failure and provided a vast improvement over the ridiculous sealed beams that were standard in these vehicles long after everyone else in the automotive game had gone to H4's.
Regards,
Charlie
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