"The H13 is quite possibly the stupidest design for a bulb ever foisted on the public. The terminals are so small that they overheat, even at stock wattages, and melt the plastic housing of the connectors."
The H13 is what my new Jeep has in it for its headlight bulb. I think Chiseler chose the H13 because the bulb has a seal around it, thereby keeping water out of the headlight proper. Sealing water out of headlights that use H4 bulbs is somewhat difficult due to the design of the H4 bulb, usually there is some cumbersome rubber shielding involved to attempt to seal around the socket to keep water out, and it's rarely 100% effective. So given that one requirement was that the Jeep Wrangler be able to fjord water that was up to the battery terminals (which in turn are higher than the headlight bulbs), this must have seemed something reasonable to the Jeep engineers. Too bad that the bulb itself sucks, for the reason mentioned above. And Chiseler deciding to make this a reflector-centric design rather than a lens-centric design didn't help, it looks cool but the light pattern sucks donkey dicks (I was outside trying to adjust these things to get a good light pattern for the past hour or so and it just cannot be done).
So it goes. The good thing is that a Jeep. What that means is that someone's already come up with a kit to put decent H4-based headlights in the thing :).
-- Badtux the Wrenchin' Penguin
I have a feeling these bulbs are expensive as well. Like so many things here we're after the looks and not functionality.
ReplyDeleteWell, it ain't gonna be an issue for long. I have an H4 relay harness that I took off my old Jeep because one of the relays went bad and it really wasn't necessary on the old Jeep, I'm gonna refurb it with new relays (I figure if one goes, the others ain't far behind) and get an H13-to-H4 adapter for the trigger connection, then transfer my H4 headlights from the old Jeep to this new Jeep. I want some *light* on the road, not this... cosmetic... bullshit!
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Wrenchin' Penguin
I'm gaining the impression that 'buying a Jeep' is like getting a loosely-packaged collection of spare parts, many of which you can use to build a fine vehicle with, assuming you also go out and buy many more spare parts.
ReplyDeleteThat is the best way to state it that I've ever heard, Nangleator :). There's a saying in the 4x4 world, "you don't buy a Jeep, you build it." Yah, pretty much the case, if all you want is a Jeep to drive to the mall to put the top down to impress the chicks with you can just buy one and drive it off the show-room, but that's not the fun part of Jeep ownership :).
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Jeeper Penguin
Yeah, going to the mall and impressing chicks isn't what I look for in a car. LOL.
ReplyDeleteMan, the more I read of these type of your posts, the more I get the impression that you're a Jeep version of my Dodge pickup husband. You both have the attitude of "oh, the manufacturer didn't do X right, I'll fix it." For what it's worth, Husband's fixes have come out right, and our 11-year-old Dodge pickup (with less than 50,000 miles on it -- we use it for hauling and vacationing -- is an amazing vehicle. I wish you as much luck with your Jeep improvements.
ReplyDeletePatriotism is all well and fine but when you're under the Jeep at 4 am hoping you can get it assembled in time to get to work you might consider that a Toyota would have still been running.
ReplyDeleteAmerican workers build fine cars. As long as Japanese car companies design them. It's deliberate.
Actually, Pangolin, I've never been stranded by a Jeep. They're high maintenance vehicles due to the antiquated design but they're reliable as bricks if properly maintained. The core issue being if properly maintained. You can neglect a Toyota for years and it will just run. You neglect a Jeep for six months and it'll break, because it needs regular squirts of grease into various critical locations, it needs regular oil changes, it needs the coolant changed at the specified intervals, it needs the brake fluid occasionally changed to remove water in the system, or it'll chew itself up.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Jeeping Penguin
What? Jeeps are actually reliable? My brother lives in a neighborhood where every other house, including his, has a Jeep-shaped-sculpture sitting in the side yard. Generally accompanied by things that suspiciously look like Jeep bits.
ReplyDeleteHis daily drive is his Toyota.
It must be a California thing.
The Jeep-shaped sculpture is typically a project vehicle being "built" to be a better offroader. Project vehicles are notorious for spending more time under tarps than on the road :). My Jeeps don't spend time getting new suspensions, driveshafts, new fenders welded in, wheelbase stretched, etc., because they're not project vehicles -- they're my daily transportation. And btw, if you put ginormous tires on a Jeep and then drive it through mud pits in the woods, it *will* break (usually an axle half-shaft will let go, but occasionally the transfer case will frag), but then so will anything else.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Non-project Penguin
"...And btw, if you put ginormous tires on a Jeep and then drive it through mud pits in the woods, it *will* break (usually an axle half-shaft will let go, but occasionally the transfer case will frag), but then so will anything else._BadTux
ReplyDeleteDamn you Physics!! (look at sky and shake fist futilely)
Actually. My brother's, and his neighbors Jeeps look to be rockcrawlers. Jeep-shaped-sculpture just makes a fun mental image. Like the Chico guy who tows his Jeep rockcrawler behind his Hummer H2; honest. Says a lot about the utility of the Hummer.