I've tried HD's up graded headlight bulb on my '09 FXDC. Short life span (4 months). Tried PIAA's best still don't have the candlepower I want and it too had a short life span of several months. On my 2nd PIAA since I bought a 2-pack.

Now here's my question.
What's the highest wattage bulb I can install with or without modification to the wire harness?

I may end up spending the BIG bucks on the HD LED headlight if I can't find joy.

Thanks in advance.

 

Be carefull you don't burn up your wireing harness.
Buy the LED headlight from Kuryakn

 

Sylvania Silver Star, nice bright light and a lot more coverage. I believe the FXDC is the H3 bulb (but you may want to verify that, I'm getting old).

 

FXDC uses the H-4 bulb in a 5 3/4" headlight.

Silver stars are short lived as well as the PIAAs.

 

Yup, you're right about the H4, my error. I bought the initial one in 2008 and it lasted approx a year and a half and now I'm on the second one.

 

Are your piaa's the anti vibe off road version?

 

No they're not. Hearing others that have tried them in a Dyna it looks like it doesn't make much of a difference except in price.

Longevity is nice but I still don't have the candlepower I want. I can run them on high beam during the day but to give you an idea of what am talking about. If I run them at night on high beam no on coming vehicle has ever flashed me to turn them down.

If I ride down the same road at night on my Gold Wing with just the low beams on I get flashed by some vehicles. The Wing has H-3 55w bulbs for low beam. Same wattage as the FXDC.

I've cut off the defuser in the headlight housing for a slight improvement.

Many of the HDs I ride with have more powerful headlights so they are easier to be seen. Most of them have touring models with larger headlights. There's one 10 yr old Dyna Low Rider with a brighter stock headlight that rides with me.

I'll have to check with my local indy and see what he says about upgrading the wattage before I decide dropping another $400 for a LED HD Headlight.