Ya conditions will matter. Honestly I think you need a mix of LED & HID's. I was rocking 7" Kragen HId's until someone thought they needed them more. They were spot & I had Euro's, all 4 stolen. Anyway lesson learned..I now tack weld all the nuts holding on my lights. But the HID's were both models 55w..the Euros were the better pattern..very slightly distance difference & the Euro had much more useable light. Anyway it was shooting and easy 500-600 ft off my bumper. Jeep xj 3" and 31's stock bumper for height refference. It would easily out shine a 30 E series for distance but the Eseries was obviously much brighter from 0-300/400ft or so. I now run a 40" on my roof..my own brand LED, 40" single row. and a 20" and 2 pods on my bumper. Those pods & the 20 are being replaced by a amber or yellow 10" bar (also my own brand) and 2 Hella 4000's converted to HID's.
I personally think you need a mix of both if you use them often! Here in the desert the LED's are king for anything in the 400ft range..after that HID's take the cake. I run both because I like to see everything..I don't NEED the HID's at all..I don't go desert racing to NEED to see 500-700ft in front of me..theres just no need in my personal case! For me its more of a want..my horse is bigger than your horse type deal.
Also with HID's they blu-ish hue..even at 55W and 5000K color they are still blue-ish. Out in the dust of the desert it almost blinds you by reflecting back off the particles in the air. Now I don't have scientific results or reasoning but I've ridden in my rig with just LED's..its not as bad with the reflectiveness but still does it. With a Yellow lens/filter on the LED's its even less..with the AMBER idk what it is, but with the amber lens/filter the reflection is literally none. Idk if its cause the lights similar color to the dust being thrown around or what.
But amber cuts dirt/dust sooo much better..its almost one of the thinks that you need to see to understand!
