(OPINION!) LED Replacement Headlamp Bulbs

[MEXICOWANDERER]

No instruments...merely stare and compare.

• Where I drive there are no goose-stepping over-regulatory restrictions about bulb replacements
• I have as of this morning ordered and replaced 13 sets of 90xx series incandescent bulbs
• Six different manufacturers
• All LED bulb headlamp bulbs use internal mechanical fans to aid cooling - a potential failure or weak point - the headlamp housing is the focusing agent so errant stray light beams are non existent
• Some vehicles have 2 bulbs each housing so a bulb is used for high beam
• In the focus area the light intensity is immeasurably greater as compared to factory incandescent bulbs. Impossible to state in a coherent fashion but I imagine lit areas to illuminate 500% better
• Every person who has driven vehicles with factory HID lamps are emphatic - white light is far superior to bluish HID lighting
• In the hundreds of oncoming vehicles that have passed by, not one has flashed their headlamps when I am on low beam
• With standard incandescent lamps on high beam close to 90% of oncoming cars flashed me down
• IF and I mean this is a BIG IF, the manufacturer used a sealed ball bearing fan inside the LED lamp, the lamp should operate for many thousands of hours
• Think of the longevity of a laptop's fan
• This may provoke arguments
• Go ahead and argue while I do not run off the edge of an unstriped road shoulder

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Jeez, this quibbling reminds me of an ex-president who had the gall to spew "It depends on the meaning of the word 'is'"

Common sense is common sense. "Afraid to flash bright lights approaching?" I have not only the 2 LED headlamps but a 300 watt LED light bar. At around 300' if a car obviously has stupidly dazzling headlights I will zot a split-second of hi-beams, if they still don't dim, I do not re-flash. Danger of blinding them and a head-on.

But I toot "Shave And A Haircut" on the horn as they pass. Very offensive in Mexico. Can be translated to "Up Your's With A Steel Bristle Wire Brush".

That's the nice thing about LEDs. Instant flash. Milliseconds. When I am forced to do it I have NEVER been "horned" as they pass.

I am beginning to wonder with these descriptions, just how many drivers would be able to pass an alcohol and drug test up there?

"Oh man, what was I going to say? Oh yeah, like you know I got this terminal case of the munchie.............KRASH!"

[SCVJeff]

Gdetrailer wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:
I also have installed what works, its not bothering oncoming drivers, so personally I also could care less about opinions of others here that have no clue how MY system performs. I ain't changing it.

:h

Not sure HOW you "determined" your lights don't "bother" others..

There is no REAL way to properly focus a LED in a reflector made for a incadescent filament, just not possible to eliminate the scatter since most of the light coming from that LED is OUTSIDE the focal point of said reflector. Oh, folks have tried with very limited success and there is others who don't give a hoot about anyone else and call it good.

Your post pretty much sums up just how SELFISH and UNCARING towards OTHERS now days folks have gotten. Puts you in the same category as folks texting and driving.. A real sad state of affairs.

I HOPE that YOU never find yourself blinded by another selfish and uncaring motorist using LEDs coming towards you.. All the while a fast moving deer decides to insert it's body into YOUR path..

Sometimes I think this forum needs renamed to the "SELFISH RVrs net"..

Bla Bla
You know ZERO about my installation, and even less about the difference between a parabola used for RF vs. simple focused headlight. Do a little homework before you show up as the resident authority. Thanks for taking this thread south

[westend]

pconroy328 wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:

Effort should be made to correct idiots who drive around with mis aligned headlights.

I suspect ours are misaligned - too high. Probably fine when the chassis left Ford. But in between Morryde and Jayco, and 22,000 pounds, they're too high.

I spent 15 mins crawling in, under and around.
I'll be dogged if I can find a way to adjust them.
Everything is blocked.

The adjustment screws mentioned in the manual - aren't where they're supposed to be.

So - this idiot tried...

What year Ford?.
And, thanks for posting, it reminds me that I need to lower and aim my driver's side headlight. I know it's a tad bit high. I'll do it when I have the 600lbs of tools and boxes out of the truck bed but I may be in for another adjustment when towing the Starcraft.

[pconroy328]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:

Effort should be made to correct idiots who drive around with mis aligned headlights.

I suspect ours are misaligned - too high. Probably fine when the chassis left Ford. But in between Morryde and Jayco, and 22,000 pounds, they're too high.

I spent 15 mins crawling in, under and around.
I'll be dogged if I can find a way to adjust them.
Everything is blocked.

The adjustment screws mentioned in the manual - aren't where they're supposed to be.

So - this idiot tried...

[wnjj]

landyacht318 wrote:
d these days, a lack of people flashing their high beams at offending glare does not mean they are not dazzled, but perhaps fearful that the other driver has another 1500 lumens available on their highbeams to completely blind them and send them carreening off into a ditch. I know I think twice when I am dazzled byu oncoming glare and want to return the favor, for fear that it is their low Beams, not their highs.

I'll keep driving knowing I will have to often hold up a hand to shield my eyes from offending glare coming from oncoming vehicles, and let off the gas, while looking at the white lines on the side of the road. I am perhaps a little to comtemptuous of the masses who simply believe that no matter what, a LED bulb in a Halogen reflector is an improvement, when in most cases the exact opposite is true.

Excellent point about the flashing. There are so many too-bright vehicles on the road today that I don't bother anymore. I just drive with my left hand up until they pass.

Headlights have been an arms race where nobody wins. I'm all for better technology super bright high beams, but low beams should go back to being dim, yellowish sealed beams of yesteryear. Let your pupils do their job in low light when there are oncoming "victims."

I've seen people dim their brights where the change was so little they needn't bother.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

It's called a DIMMER SWITCH

Oncoming drivers do not like your lights?

WACKO! You get flashed down. One test subject is not a viable sample. But 500+ oncoming drivers cannot ALL be wrong can they?

This all boils down to (UN?) common sense. Install the bulbs. Can you see better? Great! Start driving. Do you get flashed down on low beam? Not so great.

My eyesight does not like yellow or blue. I believe I myself and me has the ability of knowing when I can see better.

It's takes a genuine dim-bulb that encounters poorer lighting then does not switch back, rapidly. This is not a camshaft change. About as much involved as cleaning the windows.

Getting blinked down? How does a person spell s-t-u-p-i-d if a driver ignores irritated oncoming drivers? On the way to or from The Cocktail Lounge?

The PRIME DIRECTIVE for a government agency is to make it seem indispensable to a higher echelon that determines its fate. The make of toad I am driving should have been banned before achieving production. The tail and turn signals are far too dim. Other cars have rear lights so bright, they work well for drivers a half mile to their rear? This is intelligent government oversight?

Allow me an example of DOT schizophrenia. A section of US 395 near Lee Vining, CA. was the recipient of a trial grade of overlay. It REE TARDS to a temperature of 23F. For fifteen years there were no accidents on this stretch. CalTrans did the overlay and within a year two people died and there were a dozen accidents. Why? Because drivers evaluated the slipperiness of road surface and compensated speed and attention accordingly. This project was a direct order from the US Department of Transportation.

Agreed too many people cannot count past ten without unzipping their pants but DOT officials are paid a hundred grand a year out of taxpayer money. So when I hear "DOT Tested And Approved" I remember the idiocy I encountered.

School systems should be FORCED to encourage students to THINK AND ANALYZE and enable peer pressure to augment the end result. We are nurturing a society of idiots who prefer not to think - but rather lean on government to micromanage every facet of their decisions.

REMEMBER!

Miami, law states it is illegal to shoot ducks from a moving streetcar!

[GoPackGo]

I don't think this is about people being selfish as much as it is about the very frustrating search for ANY lighting solution that is a possible upgrade to the awful headlights we have in our trucks now. And that Includes my 2013 F350, which I like very much overall.

[Gdetrailer]

SCVJeff wrote:
I also have installed what works, its not bothering oncoming drivers, so personally I also could care less about opinions of others here that have no clue how MY system performs. I ain't changing it.

:h

Not sure HOW you "determined" your lights don't "bother" others..

There is no REAL way to properly focus a LED in a reflector made for a incadescent filament, just not possible to eliminate the scatter since most of the light coming from that LED is OUTSIDE the focal point of said reflector. Oh, folks have tried with very limited success and there is others who don't give a hoot about anyone else and call it good.

Your post pretty much sums up just how SELFISH and UNCARING towards OTHERS now days folks have gotten. Puts you in the same category as folks texting and driving.. A real sad state of affairs.

I HOPE that YOU never find yourself blinded by another selfish and uncaring motorist using LEDs coming towards you.. All the while a fast moving deer decides to insert it's body into YOUR path..

Sometimes I think this forum needs renamed to the "SELFISH RVrs net"..

[ctilsie242]

What made me realize the recent laws being passed were stupid, were gas cans made in this decade which require at several multiple motions to get them to open... and they wind up dumping half the fuel on the ground. To boot, because there is no vent, the can glugs when pouri9ng. Does that serve to protect the environment? The gasoline winding up in the air or on the ground is far more than what would wind up vented.

Then, there is the DEF/DPF diesel requirements. All this did was turn something that was iron-clad reliable into something with far more delicate parts that can fail, and fail in a way that can leave you stranded.

This isn't stating that pollution controls are useless, but there is a point where they do more harm than good, either by forcing car companies to engineer something slapdash to comply with hastily passed laws, passing both the price and cost to their buyers, or just like the US steel industry, forcing it to shut down entirely and having it only come from overseas.

As for LED lighting, whatever works. I like it over standard halogen bulbs because it uses less power, although on my current vehicle with headlights, I'm sticking with what is OEM or similar because I've had no complaints so far.

[Dirtpig]

50% of my driving is at night. My experience with LED headlight bulbs put into my existing reflector housings designed for halogen bulbs was not a positive one. I found that at first i was immediately impressed by the brightness of the light, like WOW look how bright those puppies are on my garage door. But then once out on the highway i was unimpressed. The area around the front of my truck was exceptionally bright but they did not project light very far, and high beam seemed to not do a whole lot, maybe a bit brighter but still no actual projection of light down road. I attributed this to the way the stock reflector housings were designed and not so much the fault of the good quality LED lights i bought. I switched out for sylvania silverstar ultra halogens and although first 30feet in front of truck are not as bright as the LEDs i can see much further down road. I think if your driving is slower speed or city type driving maybe go with LED. If highway, go for good quality halogens unless your vehicle was designed to use LED from factory.

Side note, HID lighting is amazing, our Audi Q5 has them and best headlights of any vehicle i have driven.

[NinerBikes]

SCVJeff wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
---snip---
I therefore must DESIGN my lifestyle to avoid artificial situations that can put me six feet under. The most pressing was inadequate lighting. it has been resolved.

Thank You for the most profound statement of this thread. I also have installed what works, its not bothering oncoming drivers, so personally I also could care less about opinions of others here that have no clue how MY system performs. I ain't changing it.

I had a government for the past 8 years that told me guns were bad for me, my health, and well being. History for centuries has proven them wrong. An armed society is a polite society. I consider the option of being armed part of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness.

Everyone needs to understand that no one but you is responsible for your own well being and safety. Even when it comes to lighting for transportation. Just don't be a d*ck about it and be considerate of your fellow drivers. That D.O.T. determined that a "sealed beam" was required, then defined it to not include a self sealing rubber booty on the back of a replaceable headlamp, when rubber seals have been good enough for doors on VW Beetles to cause them to float in lakes, is a sign of the stupidity of our government, and that they should never be trusted.

[SCVJeff]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
---snip---
I therefore must DESIGN my lifestyle to avoid artificial situations that can put me six feet under. The most pressing was inadequate lighting. it has been resolved.

Thank You for the most profound statement of this thread. I also have installed what works, its not bothering oncoming drivers, so personally I also could care less about opinions of others here that have no clue how MY system performs. I ain't changing it.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

"Humans are horrible judges of how well thay can actually see, and this is provable time and again by those with actual equipment to do so"

I tried confirming this with the opposition and all I got in response was "Moooooo"

The difference driving between the USA and Mexico is staggering. Especially at night. If the highway has striping you can bet your butt the paint does not contain reflective glass beads. Barbed wire fence? Look hard and you might find a photo of a barbed wire fence in some magazine.

The ultimate adjudication down here is THE GRIM REAPER. Tens of thousands of highway shrines called capillas (kah-PEE-yahs) attest to the fact.

But driving home 77 miles on a deserted road with little color difference between "pavement" and shoulder had me running off the shoulder four-five-six times I lost count. The headlights had been aimed in the USA and it wasn't cheap.

I installed the LED replacement bulbs. The next trip home made me laugh - the edge of the pavement screamed out visually. Instead of crawling at 25 mph, I passed oncoming cars safely at 50 mph. After, say five hundred oncoming cars did not blink me down on low beam, WHEREAS EVERY ONCOMING CAR blinked me down when I had conventional bulbs and forgot to dim, I can safely assume the LEDs are suitably accurate in projection.

Effort should be made to correct idiots who drive around with mis aligned headlights. Or install aftermarket lamps and drive around with them illuminated and who fail to extinguish them when challenged.

It's like one of my circuits that gets criticized by an "E=MC2" theorist. Ten thousand formulas and not a one of them worth frog snot.

I do see ads on eBay for more expensive very high wattage LED lamps. Idiots will fall all over themselves trying to find the consummate energy hog. The type of person who T-Boned me in the USA. I see 1,600 watt CREE light bars. If I jammed three handfull's of "Stupid" pills down my throat I could mount one on the roof and another on the grille. What the heck, it'd only be a 230 amp draw.

The mediator is called "common sense". But I guess these days that term could be confused with "Cannabis Sense". Early on, I learned "You Can't Cure Stupid". Like California spending millions of dollars to eliminate the effects of barbecue lighter fluid. Or a comprehensive study to determine the feasibility of diapers on cows and cattle to reduce emissions of methane cowfarts.

If a person is too lazy to check installed lighting performance and parameters, they should not be driving. Too many people still drive drunk or at high speed on wet roads with bald tires.

So lathering up a froth over DOT stipulations for headlamp lighting just cannot work it's way up the ladder on my personal "G" "A" "S" column of importance.

In theory, adherents of conformity would insist a barrage of 700 nanometer photons (red light) would be infallible in stopping a 5-ton utility truck from running a red light.

Oooooooooo Mex is going to the casa. Mex, is preparing a pair of aluminum strips to go in the toad rear window. Ooooooooo each strip gets a brace of 10mm 160,000 mcd 700 nanometer LEDs. Shining into LED dispersion sheet strips. Oooooooo I bet the knucklehead on their cell phone behind me will see THAT despite their best intention of overlooking my brake lights and 3rd brake light.

It takes effort to counter dulled-sense stupidity. Alcohol, drugs, electronic connectivity demand, and don't give a ---- attitudes has changed the world.

I therefore must DESIGN my lifestyle to avoid artificial situations that can put me six feet under. The most pressing was inadequate lighting. it has been resolved.

[landyacht318]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:


If not having the ability to analyze beam pattern, light scatter, and degree of improvement of illumination proves to be too much...

If we listen to the experts, who do study actual objective data and have proper light measuring tools placed at key points in front of a vehicle, Subjective impressions of how well one can see, and actual test data of what is visible where it should be visible, are at near opposite ends on the chart.

Take for example those who drive around with their 'fog' lights always on. The extra foreground lighting gives one a sense of warm and fuzzy security, but if one were on a quiet street, and Illuminated a dark manhole cover with only their low beam headlamps, then backed away from that manhole cover until it was just barely visible, and then turn on the 'fog' lights, the extra foreground illumination causes the pupils to shrink, let in less light, and the manhole cover then disappears.

Try it, and you will find that no, you cannot believe your eyes or your brain's ability to judge just how well your eyes seeing or NOt seeing, objects illuminated before you.

And turn off your 'fog' lights if going over 25MPH. They do not help you see to avoid objects in front of you, they hinder that ability despite the perception otherwise. Also most every OEM 'fog' light provided on vehicles conform to no acknowledged proper fog light beam pattern which is supposed to be flat and wide with A sharp cutoff and minimal upwards stray lighting. Very very Few fog lights actually have this pattern, and those that do are in the 100+ dollar per light range.

Humans are horrible judges of how well thay can actually see, and this is provable time and again by those with actual equipment to do so. These 'those' are also highly critical of OEM lighting, and the current standards allowed and the lighting not allowed, legally. Very few OEMS get approvals from those informed on this subject, and the reviews on COnsumer reports or the governments own testing standards also leaves huge volumes to be desired.

A human might be able to tell if the lighting source is grossly inadequate, like excessive glare, street signs lit up so brightly that they blind the driver, but they are not able to tell if any aftermarket 'upgrade' is really an improvement to their ability to see, and avoid objects at the far end of their low beam's reach.

Excessive glare to oncoming drivers and the ability of a driver behind the lights to see as well as they need to see will always be at odds. The happy medium is a compromise of one or the other, and always will be' at least in the immediate future.

The danger of ultra self important Dimwitted brotruck driver X dropping any given LED or HID bulb into their halogen reflectors and perceiving an improvement, when the opposite occurs, is real, and I think we all wish to not be blinded by Dimwit X who thinks Blue light, and a lot of it, everywhere, is cool.

Most would be impressed at the improvement of their stock headlamps getting 13.X volts, AND aimed properly, through Clear, unclouded plastic lenses, and using a precision Halogen bulb whose filament location within that bulb is highly precise.

The absolute junk available regarding halogen bulbs available is astounding. The 80/100 watt hellas are known not only to not draw that much wattage, but also have huge, poorly placed filaments within the bulb which then causes the reflector to not be able to focus the light properly. The Hella Name would seem to preclude this horrible lack of imprecision and quality control, but it does NOT.

Long Life bulbs use bigger thicker filaments and one can see without magnification, on the store shelves, through the plastic packaging, that the filaments are not properly centered within the bulbs.

My neighbors just had to get some H11's, and because Amazon did not offer free prime shipping on the Phillips extreme +100's I recommended, the wife went out to Napa and bought some Wagner H11's for significantly more than the Amazon price on what can be considered the best of among the very best halogen bulbs available.

Comparing the 2 wagner bulbs side by side, the filaments were not in the same exact place on either bulb purchased. She was less than enthused at the result and after a week of driving, ordered the Phillips Extreme +100's that appeared to be mirror images of each other when compared side by side.

I replaced one and the difference on the white garage wall a few feet away was rather profound, and she claims the difference when driving is also much improved.

But that could also be the undeniable placebo effect which no human is immune to, but there is no doubt a properly placed and tighter filament within the bulb will better use the reflector.

Whether that reflector was designed Well, or acceptable, or horribly when it left the factory is of course not controllable, but it is not improved by putting on someone else's eyeglasses and envisioning rainbows and unicorns either.

It is near impossible for the human not to believe their eyes, or pat themselves on the back when they do/purchase something that is supposed to be an improvement. Talking in general here, not refuting Mex's observations on his LEDs in his reflectors.

And as far as the reader reviews on any particular drop in LED aftermarket bulb, most of these people are hardly informed about anything on this topic. Many are judging the light 'color' and no matter what, whiter light is perceived to be brighter than a yellowish halogen, and so they go right to 5 stars when their actual ability to see the deer standing in the middle of the road was reduced by 75 feet. I bet 99% of the reviews are by those with Zero actual knowledge, and those with some, well that LED bulbs performance acceptable or not, to them, is only valid on their specific headlamp in their vehicle and that specific model year.

And these days, a lack of people flashing their high beams at offending glare does not mean they are not dazzled, but perhaps fearful that the other driver has another 1500 lumens available on their highbeams to completely blind them and send them carreening off into a ditch. I know I think twice when I am dazzled byu oncoming glare and want to return the favor, for fear that it is their low Beams, not their highs.

I'll keep driving knowing I will have to often hold up a hand to shield my eyes from offending glare coming from oncoming vehicles, and let off the gas, while looking at the white lines on the side of the road. I am perhaps a little to comtemptuous of the masses who simply believe that no matter what, a LED bulb in a Halogen reflector is an improvement, when in most cases the exact opposite is true.

And While it will NEVER be enforced, at least until they decide it is a cash cow revenue generator, Dropping a LED bulb into a halogen housing is illegal, and if the worst happens, and the Insurance company's lawyers find out about the illegal lighting, well prepare your prostate for 5 fingered exam.

This includes Amber and red external turn signal/brake lighting too. And some of the LEDS placed in these are truly horrible, and worse on newer vehicles that use Dimpled reflectors instead of crenellated lenses.

LEDs are awesome technology, and improving still, but the light has to be designed around the reflector/projector so as to not cause excessive glare or simply poor light focus.

Since LEDS are quickly getting even brighter, they are becoming even more dangerous when applied to vehicular lighting not designed around such a light source in the first place.