LED Headlights
- Thread starter Hilldweller
- Start date
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Momrocks
Adventurer
With the prevalence of catalytic converter theft and other parts harvesting, I might be too scared to ever park my LED headlights unattended. It's an ugly job crawling under a rig to sawzall off the cat, popping out a set of LED headlights sounds like less effort and a lot more return for a criminal. Scales just tipped in favor of a stealthy HID conversion in my book.
Hilldweller
SE Expedition Society
jkeever has generously offered to demo his lights for me. :wings:
winkosmosis
Explorer
Whether people steal them would depend on how much like sealed beams they look, and also if thieves even know what an LED headlight is. Also though, aren't the only new vehicles that sport sealed beams the fleet work trucks? If you can't put them in a riced out Honda Civic, I don't think they'd be a big target.
Momrocks
Adventurer
I can't recall any Civics sporting Warn winches mounted to their faux carbon fiber bumpers either but that doesn't keep me from tack welding my mount bolts. I contend that criminals can show surprising resourcefulness (maybe just dumb luck) and are not limited to the boy racer crowd.
Point well taken about appearance. The ultimate LED headlight would first, be affordable and second, share the same appearance as a sealed beam light.
LED Headlamps Tempature
Well it looks like snow may present an issue for these. I measured the temp on these last night after a 15 minute drive and they are as follows (they no noticable warmth to the physical touch either. The ambient temperature was around 60 degrees.
Headlights- 61.5
Hood and fenders (surrounding headlamps)- 66.0
Front Bumper- 59.0
Well it looks like snow may present an issue for these. I measured the temp on these last night after a 15 minute drive and they are as follows (they no noticable warmth to the physical touch either. The ambient temperature was around 60 degrees.
Headlights- 61.5
Hood and fenders (surrounding headlamps)- 66.0
Front Bumper- 59.0
Just install steam cleaners in stead of the headlight washers :bike_rider:
No seriously, that is a problem, I ran in to something similar when I thought about installing double glazing (that is what it is called right?) as the wind screen in our volvo TGB13. I dropped the idea because of that.
No seriously, that is a problem, I ran in to something similar when I thought about installing double glazing (that is what it is called right?) as the wind screen in our volvo TGB13. I dropped the idea because of that.
Hilldweller
SE Expedition Society
jkeever was nice enough to come out and demo the LED lights for me.
We parked his 2005 TJ to the left of my 2008 JK on a dark road. I placed a pair of identical stuffed dogs on the road, one directly in front of each Jeep, just out of range of my headlights.
The LED lights have the "wow" and "cool" factor; the color temperature is quite high but their operating temperature is very low.
The beam spread was very difficult for jkeever to adjust and has very pronounced cut-offs.
JK with Phillips Visionplus +50 headlights on lowbeam:
TJ with Truck-lite LED on lowbeam:
Visionplus highbeam:
Truck-lite LED highbeam:
And last, my JK with just the HIDx 4" 35w driving lights on. Color temperature is 6000K:
I could see the Truck-lite LEDs being attractive for a driver that wants the newest technology and doesn't commute on twisty dark 2-lane roads. Their throw is excellent but the spread is marginal; I also don't believe the color temperature would favor fog.
A big thanks to jkeever for the demo.
We parked his 2005 TJ to the left of my 2008 JK on a dark road. I placed a pair of identical stuffed dogs on the road, one directly in front of each Jeep, just out of range of my headlights.
The LED lights have the "wow" and "cool" factor; the color temperature is quite high but their operating temperature is very low.
The beam spread was very difficult for jkeever to adjust and has very pronounced cut-offs.
JK with Phillips Visionplus +50 headlights on lowbeam:
TJ with Truck-lite LED on lowbeam:
Visionplus highbeam:
Truck-lite LED highbeam:
And last, my JK with just the HIDx 4" 35w driving lights on. Color temperature is 6000K:
I could see the Truck-lite LEDs being attractive for a driver that wants the newest technology and doesn't commute on twisty dark 2-lane roads. Their throw is excellent but the spread is marginal; I also don't believe the color temperature would favor fog.
A big thanks to jkeever for the demo.
Root Moose
Expedition Leader
How does the Mercedes S class deal with double glazing? Do they send air between the panes of glass?
Curious.
That's the w140, I drive the W126. But you are right, I have to check in to that, maybe it's just the side windows, who doesn't get iced-over like the front can do? I'll look in to it!
Cheers!
TJ Willy
Adventurer
I spoke with Buddy K at ARB yesterday about their up and coming headlamp swap kit (IPF). Turns out there is some goings on behind Mopar's stock headlamp management. He said their research led them to discovering that the JK computer sends less that 12 volts to the lamps. And the power pulses - albeit - really fast requiring a special relay. Their kit will include the necessary wiring application and a the hardware to accomodate the extra grill depth.
He stated that initial tests caused the JK to throw a code complaining about a "short" in the headlamps causing the creation of the wire harness/adapter kit and bulb.
Gone are the days of just swapping housings and dropping in some nice H4s.
Not sure if any of this matters (no electrical engineer here) with other swaps but I would interested to know if anyone has had issues with other headlamp kits.
He stated that initial tests caused the JK to throw a code complaining about a "short" in the headlamps causing the creation of the wire harness/adapter kit and bulb.
Gone are the days of just swapping housings and dropping in some nice H4s.
Not sure if any of this matters (no electrical engineer here) with other swaps but I would interested to know if anyone has had issues with other headlamp kits.
Hilldweller
SE Expedition Society
The other kits use relays and separate harnesses too.