Armor armored headlight IR lens replacement

[cattlerepairman]

The issue:

You have a cool headlight but it has the dark IR glass lens. You do not really drive with IR goggles on, so the feature is useless. You want a clear light instead.

This is the dual lamp version. See the dark IR lens on the left:


(Picture not mine; thanks, interweb)

The lens is easy enough to remove. Remove outer bezel (screws), remove inner ring (three Phillips screws) and remove lens from rubber gasket.

What do you need to replace the IR lens:

You need a 4 1/2 inch clear glass headlight lens. Yes, there are of course military replacements. Good luck finding them. I searched and heard "You need...what?" a lot.

Turns out, motorcycles use these lenses. I got mine from these guys for about $19 a piece:



Product ID: 4036
SKU: lens 45 XAN-204-LENS



Assembly is the reverse of removal. Easy peasy.



There you go! Dual light, looks stock!

The light bulbs are PAR36 light bulbs, in case you need amber, spot or fog LED bulbs....or aircraft landing lights....

 

[rustystud]

The issue:

You have a cool headlight but it has the dark IR glass lens. You do not really drive with IR goggles on, so the feature is useless. You want a clear light instead.

This is the dual lamp version. See the dark IR lens on the left:

View attachment 770110
(Picture not mine; thanks, interweb)

The lens is easy enough to remove. Remove outer bezel (screws), remove inner ring (three Phillips screws) and remove lens from rubber gasket.

What do you need to replace the IR lens:

You need a 4 1/2 inch clear glass headlight lens. Yes, there are of course military replacements. Good luck finding them. I searched and heard "You need...what?" a lot.

Turns out, motorcycles use these lenses. I got mine from these guys for about $19 a piece:

View attachment 770111

Product ID: 4036
SKU: lens 45 XAN-204-LENS



Assembly is the reverse of removal. Easy peasy.

View attachment 770112

There you go! Dual light, looks stock!

The light bulbs are PAR36 light bulbs, in case you need amber, spot or fog LED bulbs....or aircraft landing lights....

Good job finding those clear lenses ! I have several "armored" lights and the clear lenses where a lot more expensive. Good to know I can get replacements if needed.

 

[Gypsyman]

Kicking this one back to the top. Is there a current clear replacement for the IR lens? It appears that demonscycle.com is down or gone. Looking for clear lenses for the single armored lights as shown below. Lot's of this style available used but with the IR lens.

 

[juanprado]

Typically the sealed beam is the lens as those are weatherproof sealed beams designed to be used exposed.

 

[Gypsyman]

I was afraid of that. I was hoping that the IR lens was installed over the sealed beam lens.

 

[juanprado]

I was afraid of that. I was hoping that the IR lens was installed over the sealed beam lens.

Yes, For the IR, they had the red lens filter. There is a clear lens some of tthe fixtures had but many were just the beam without the lens. Those sealed beams are available in the civy world as spot, flood, wide etc in 12v as they were common to work bodies and agriculture before Led changed the world. Probably some choices still in 24v. Some used slip on lugs, others eye screw terminals but easy to adapt. I used to have some in 12v aircraft landing lights that were quite impressive

 

[Gypsyman]

So, with a sealed beam swap the single IR version that I posted a picture of can be converted to white/clear?

 

[ZiggyO]

They do use a clear lens insert in place of the IR...... trying to use the sealed beam without either the clear or IR lens was not how it was designed and would offer no protection to the sealed beam itself. When aroura cord and cable co used to actively make them, they would also stock the clear and ir lenses as separate line items. When the active contract for them ended about 12 years ago, I bought the rest of their stock of lenses (something like 500 or so). This was about a year or so before thousands of the IR lens equipped housings showed up on govliquidation. Within a year or two after that, I sold all of mine off, one pair at a time.

Z

 

[Gypsyman]

So, to be clear for myself and anyone else that may read this down the road. The single lights use a driving or IR lens over the top of a sealed beam, correct?

 

[G744]

Just in case anyone need this, I have a single NOS 12" riser used to raise one of those dual armor lights over a mounted blade or somesuch.

Paying it forward for postage.

DG

 

[ZiggyO]

So, to be clear for myself and anyone else that may read this down the road. The single lights use a driving or IR lens over the top of a sealed beam, correct?

Yes, the single light housing has either a clear or IR lens over a #4811 sealed beam lamp (if you are looking at the original configuration, the lights used a #4811 sealed beam bulb-- but any par36 type bub will fit). Also, in the original configuration, the ground was through the mounting stud and the two packard connectors on the back were for the driving and high beam respectively as the #4811 was a dual beam lamp.

The double light housings used one each clear and IR lenses and had two #4811 lamps in place-- again, any par36 sized lamp will work.

Z

 

[gimpyrobb]

Just in case anyone need this, I have a single NOS 12" riser used to raise one of those dual armor lights over a mounted blade or somesuch.

Paying it forward for postage.

DG

I'm interested if it's still available!
Pm me what you'd like to make this happen please.

 

[MarkM]

I have six of those single armored lights on my light bar. I replaced the incandescent bulbs with par36 LED bulbs. They each put out 1800lm and run from 10v to 30v. You have to trim the housing slightly to get the leds to fit but it's no big deal.

Mark

 

[Gypsyman]

They do use a clear lens insert in place of the IR...... trying to use the sealed beam without either the clear or IR lens was not how it was designed and would offer no protection to the sealed beam itself. When aroura cord and cable co used to actively make them, they would also stock the clear and ir lenses as separate line items. When the active contract for them ended about 12 years ago, I bought the rest of their stock of lenses (something like 500 or so). This was about a year or so before thousands of the IR lens equipped housings showed up on govliquidation. Within a year or two after that, I sold all of mine off, one pair at a time.

Z

Good info. Thanks ZiggyO.

 

[rustystud]

They do use a clear lens insert in place of the IR...... trying to use the sealed beam without either the clear or IR lens was not how it was designed and would offer no protection to the sealed beam itself. When aroura cord and cable co used to actively make them, they would also stock the clear and ir lenses as separate line items. When the active contract for them ended about 12 years ago, I bought the rest of their stock of lenses (something like 500 or so). This was about a year or so before thousands of the IR lens equipped housings showed up on govliquidation. Within a year or two after that, I sold all of mine off, one pair at a time.

Z

Thankfully I bought over a dozen from you Ziggy !
Now I wished I had bought about 30 more !

 

[G744]

My old M54A1 with it's Desert Storm lighting addition.

Was fun until some jackoff stole my NV goggles...

DG

 

[Gypsyman]

That is one good looking truck. =)

 

[Gypsyman]

Was fun until some jackoff stole my NV goggles...

DG

I ended up going with some cheap PVS-7's. Still amazed at how well the old clunkers do with a high grade tube in them.