7" Round Replacement Headlights Compared

[Hilldweller]

Hello all,

I never had a Land Rover but certainly do know a bunch of you. And I've done a ton of testing on replacement 7" round headlights, most of which are great upgrades for Land Rovers with round lights.

The long version of the testing is in this thread ---- but, to cut to the chase, the light that I liked best for older LRs is the new Trucklite Phase 7 LED. 1.8 amp power draw, great spread of light.

And Trucklite is sending me a set of them for SOLAROS to auction off at their annual SAE event in north Georgia.
http://www.sae-solaros.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111&Itemid=265

Thanks to SOLAROS for the work that they do in the community and thanks to Trucklite for their generous donation.

 

[Antichrist]

I can't bring myself to read a 26 page thread.
What were the H4 runner ups for those of use who can't afford LED?

And it better not be an HID kit.

 

[Hilldweller]

Not so easy to sum up, Tom.

The brightest will be the new ones from Susquehanna Motorsports (rallylights.com). They're legal 35w HIDs, bi-xenon in a Hella 90mm projector with a custom bezel to fill in the gap.
Pricey but very very bright. Low power consumption during operation but high amperage draw at start-up.

They also have a bi-halogen product with an H9 bulb, 2100 lumen at 65 watts. Very nifty.

Dan Stern's H4 E-code Cibie kit has perhaps the most even spread of light you can get; pick your bulb according to your wiring with this. A bypass harness added and you can run some flame-throwers. But will it match the H9? Probably not.

SMS has E-code Hella H4s that have VERY nice highbeams but you have to either aim the lowbeams too low or highbeams too high... ...they're wonky that way. And their spread of light to the side of the road is substandard. As with the Cibies, use a bypass harness and put in a big bulb for big light.
I preferred Philips Xtreme Power bulbs in this housing with their tight/sharp focus.

JW Speaker makes a very worthy LED product that's better suited for highway use than the Trucklite; the foreground is devoid of pupil-constricting light. They pull more amperage than the Trucklites though and they cost much more.

If I had a D90 and I used it for mostly commuting backroads and trails (like I drive my Power Wagon), I'd pick the Trucklites. If my driving were more mixed and leaned toward 65 mph+ speeds often, I'd go JW Speaker.
And if I was always on the highway or had unlimited funds, I'd find a way to get those 90mm HIDs from SMS.

BTW, IPF has a product that's popular in many crowds but it didn't even make honorable mention. It's not legal to run for one thing, and the light output was atrocious. It scattered the light upward better than forward.
Horrible product.

 

[I Leak Oil]

Would love a pair, can't stomach the price. Hoping they come down.....way down....

 

[khronus79]

Interesting, not long ago I read about the trucklites on a 4x4 magazine, they were impressed by their performance, I wonder how will these look/fit on a RR classic??

 

[Hilldweller]

Would love a pair, can't stomach the price. Hoping they come down.....way down....

There are some decent discounts floating around.
http://www.discountfleetsupply.com/tlc27270c-p.html
I think they have an additional discount with a code or something.

Interesting, not long ago I read about the trucklites on a 4x4 magazine, they were impressed by their performance, I wonder how will these look/fit on a RR classic??

That comes up often in discussions and I only sorta understand it.
Doing what I do for a living, I'm mostly about objective standards, performance, data, results. When I consider the criteria for a product like a headlight I weigh all the plus/minus attributes and aesthetics comes dead last (if at all...).

I put the JW Speaker lights on my JK and never thought I'd get such mixed comments. A very small number of people asked how they worked; most of the comments were about how they looked...

My personal opinion in no particular order:

1) I want to see the road
2) I want to see more than the road
3) I want it to work for a long time and be reliable
4) I'd like low power needs
5) I'd like a decent price
6) It must be legal

So when I think of "how do they look", I'm thinking of how it looks from the driver's seat, not from the parking lot.

I do get the whole classic vehicle thing though. But I've never had a vehicle that I didn't really drive.

Beauty is function; function is beauty.

 

[DividingCreek]

I ran the IPF's on a 110 and agree the lense wasn't right, it was down right scary on late night trail rides. In my current truck I have Hella e code h4's and need a better bulb. I'll look into the Phillips Extreme Power.

 

[Hilldweller]

Not so easy to sum up, Tom.

The brightest will be the new ones from Susquehanna Motorsports (rallylights.com). They're legal 35w HIDs, bi-xenon in a Hella 90mm projector with a custom bezel to fill in the gap.
Pricey but very very bright. Low power consumption during operation but high amperage draw at start-up...

Boy howdy...

Big thanks to my friends Mike and Annette Holbrook at Wolfbrook for lending us a very dark and quiet field on their property to test these lights!
Wolfbrook is where we trained Jessi; Mike & Annette taught us how to speak dog and take her from rescue-dog to Wundermutt.

I still have to compile data on this but the lights are sweet.

And speaking of sweet, have you ever seen a D90 with lights that were exceptional? I mean that really really worked?
And hardly used any amperage?

Well, looky at this. Mike's D90 with Trucklite Phase 7 headlights and JW Speaker's TS3000R (flamethrower) driving lights.

 

[will]

I almost pulled the trigger on the Truck-Lites but since I am moving to the Northeast, I need to make sure my lights are warm enough to melt snow. I have recently heard from other JK owners' experiences with the phase 7s in snow where they had to get out and wipe them off during a snowstorm due to snow building up in the front of the lights.

 

[R-Overland]

What about Trucklite's 7" LED's they are extremely bright and are perfect for offroading, since they are not as fragile as HID

 

[d110pickup]

I do love my Trucklite LED's! When I bought the truck in the photo it had some big-******** IPF driving lights on the brush guard. After I installed the Trucklites & tested them I discovered that the hi-beams on the Trucklites gave better, brighter more usable light than the IPF's. You couldn't tell any difference when the IPF's were turned on.
Wanna buy some big-******** IPF driving lights . . . . cheap?

And wait until you see the JW Speaker drivers on, they are incredible!

Mike

 

[rockwood]

Appreciate your sharing the link. 25 Pages is alot to read. Pictures are well done. But as others say, living in snow country, heat is needed. My build/rebuild is still in progress. When ready I'm going with the Hella's and the brightest Halogen bulb around. http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=739

 

[Snagger]

I can't bring myself to read a 26 page thread.
What were the H4 runner ups for those of use who can't afford LED?

And it better not be an HID kit.

The first thing to do is use the brighter, bluer H4s. We have a car accessories chain called Halfords who stock their own brand bulbs, and their range of H4s include a bulb that supposedly produces 230% what a standard H4 produces. I have these in my 109 and they are very good. It'll be interesting to see how long they last - they are about twice the price of a standard bulb and I've only had them a year, but so far, so good. You also need to have decent reflectors and lenses. Mine are cheap Quadoptic conversion units to replace sealed beam lights, about £25 a pair, but there are clear lensed units with complex reflectors that I've heard excellent things about - you lose much less light in the plain glass fronts than my type with the complex lenses. They tend to be marketed here as "crystal" head lights. The final thing is to make sure that the bulbs are powered by relays with decent gauge wiring, not through the original loom and switch gear, as these carry too much resistance and can also suffer switch burn-out.

 

[AndrewClarke]

I'd seen your huge thread on jeepforum.com a week or two ago as I've been researching lights. Thanks for all the work! I picked up JW Speaker LED 70mm stop/tail, corner marker, turn signal, rear fog and reverse lights and so far have installed the stop/brake lights and one corner marker to compare with stock. Considering both of my stock stop/turn lights failed within 1.5 years of replacing them, I'd say the JW Speaker ones are a huge improvement...

Now that I have all these sweet LEDs, I've been thinking of my poor neglected headlights. Considering the rather nice deal I got on these JW Speakers, I might find my price too good to pass up. Otherwise, I'll take a close look at the Trucklite Phase 7s. They certainly seem to be getting a lot of praise.

 

[HighPlainsPhotographer]

I'm running a set of Cibie's E-specs with Narva 130/100w bulbs from Daniel Stern Lighting. Killer lights, the high beams are crazy bright and have excellent cut off. The low breams are bright but with the great e-code lens with good cut off nobody flashes me so I'm getting away with the 100w low beam without any issues. Obviously they need to be properly aimed. These lights are white, none of the weird blue stuff that seems to be so popular now. I replaced a set of Hella E-spec's with the Cibie's, the cut off is better on the Cibie's, IMO they are worth the extra money. I would suggest looking at http://www.danielsternlighting.com/home.html for lighting tech and lights.

Disclaimer, these lights are not installed on my Rover, they are on my daily driver, a Miata.