LED Headlights

[hex0rz]

I'm bound and determined to go LED. I can get the LED bulbs but many people highly recommended projector headlight housings. This is where I'm falling short. I don't know much about them and whether or not I can get a housing that will allow me to accommodate for them. My truck currently uses a 9004 bulb so that would be the plug I would want to shoot for. I guess it really would not matter? Looks like the harness for the bulbs don't have much of any kind of specific plug for them. I think the bigger issue is the bulb style mounting in the housing.

 

Another thing that gets me is that it appears the projector housings use a separate bulb for low and high. I can get dual projector housings as that would be the whole reason in getting a projector housing in the first place! Why would I want to handicap myself with an old style bulb on low beam and then have a projector lens on high? I want bright light ALL the time! Obviously, I just don't want it in oncoming traffics faces.

 

Does anyone have experience in this area? I'm not interested in retrofits or DIY, per se.. I just want the bulbs, the housing, wire the dang things up and have some real headlights for a change! The headlights I have now practically need buffed every year and even spending top dollar on the best bulbs I can get off the shelf just don't cut it for me anymore. Living on this rural county road has helped me net some pretty close calls in just the couple years I have lived out here. Getting that light down the road will certainly help me see them sooner if they are out there!

 

BTW, I also placed an order for a 52" LED light bar and 'am going to use that in my country road driving arsenal! Heck, I've even been blinded out by the local sheriffs using their light bars. Time to smarten up!

[Me78569]

I know you don't want to hear this, but.....Unless you are going to retrofit OEM led housings don't bother with LED headlights.  Plug and play led bulbs are simply a waste of money.

 

  They don't put out advertised lumens and they don't throw light well.  They tend to scatter light.  

 

If you want good lights then you need to retrofit projectors and xenon's aka hids.

 

 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Me78569

[Cronus577]

45 minutes ago, Me78569 said:

I know you don't want to hear this, but.....Unless you are going to retrofit OEM led housings don't bother with LED headlights.  Plug and play led bulbs are simply a waste of money.

 

  They don't put out advertised lumens and they don't throw light well.  They tend to scatter light.  

 

If you want good lights then you need to retrofit projectors and xenon's aka hids.

 

 

I second everything about this. I thought LED's would be a good idea, while they do provide better illumination over stock, I cannot focus the light at all, It scatters everywhere and high beams are completely unusable. Instead of projecting a beam, it projects rings of light. And if you end up getting ones with a fan cooler and heat fins like I did, getting them to sit flush in the housing will require some very slight modification. All in all not even worth the time and money. Just do it right the first time and get a retrofit kit and use the guide Mopar1973Man posted Here. The direct link to the kit that he used is here. I plan on making the switch after my deployment. Or if you want a full kit ready to go with housings you can contact this guy and see how much he charges for a full P&P kit. I heard its around the $400+ neighborhood. 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Cronus577

[Mopar1973Man]

I hate to admit it but sport headights so far Are just OK. My aircraft landing lights are far better than my headlights. I've still got to wire in the relays for the second bulbs. Even sport headlights scatter the light but it is better than the stock signal bulbs.

[jlbayes]

Just an fyi. My pnp leds DO NOT melt snow or ice. You are not going to get any sort of decent performance from a drop in bulb in a reflector housing. I built these myself over the last month (was just a tinker project).

 

Edited March 20, 2017 by jlbayes

[hex0rz]

Why retrofit?

 

http://www.specdtuning.com/94013.html

[Me78569]

This is why.

 

 

 

I have been less than impressed with what I have seen from aftermarket housings like that.    your money is much better spend on good lights.

 

 

Add to it that those lights still use a halogen H7 bulb, so lumen output will be low compared to Xenons

 

Edited March 20, 2017 by Me78569

[hex0rz]

Wait, what's wrong with that beam? The cutoff?

 

I would use the led bulbs in the projector housing that's built to accept the h7 bulbs...

[Me78569]

Again LED is really not that great when it comes to headlights.   they don't throw light worth a darn and they put out significantly less light than they are advertised to.  

 

Don't believe the " 8000 lumen" claims you see.  as of yet I have yet to see a plug and play LED that can come anywhere close to Xenons

[jlbayes]

I have pnp leds in reflector housings. Any other light source immediately drowns them out. Any of those specd projectors are cheap crap. I should have my lights installed this weekend and I'll get a picture of the before with leds. For reference the hids I have in my fogs are just as "bright" and cast just as far as the pnp leds. Pretty sad really.

[Sycostang67]

I tried a set of LED bulbs and never even got to install them.  They wouldn't work at all when I plugged them in to the harness, moved the pins around and could only get high beams to work.  I called tech support and was told that due to the stupid way our trucks are wired, the LED's wouldn't work.  They sent me some 5k HID's with a relay kit in exchange.  They work a lot better than the silverstar ZXE bulbs I was using.  I adjusted my headlights down a bit as well as I see people say they are too bright in a stock housing.  I got in my friends car and drove at my truck and they aren't near as bright as these new car HIDs, plus it's been two weeks now and nobody has flashed me either. 

[Me78569]

put some projectors in there and you will see why controlled HIDs are awesome.

[jlbayes]

9 hours ago, Me78569 said:

put some projectors in there and you will see why controlled HIDs are awesome.

 

Hopefully dis weekend. 

[hex0rz]

My light bar will be in this week. Might be able to get it in this weekend. It won't solve through problem of on road use, but for now it should work on back roads and off road use.

 

I'll have to get permission before buying the HID kit...

[Royal Squire]

How do you choose a LED light bar?  Any suggestions 

[jlbayes]

14 hours ago, Royal Squire said:

How do you choose a LED light bar?  Any suggestions 

 

Start with space requirements.

[Royal Squire]

My wife wants to put a curved 52 incher on the topper rack on F150. Like so many other things you can spend as much as you want, anywhere  from $80 to $1200. I can assure you we're not spending $1200. I'd appreciate some guidance from someone with experience. Maybe what to avoid. Thank you in advance 

[sooxies]

23 minutes ago, Royal Squire said:

My wife wants to put a curved 52 incher on the topper rack on F150. Like so many other things you can spend as much as you want, anywhere  from $80 to $1200. I can assure you we're not spending $1200. I'd appreciate some guidance from someone with experience. Maybe what to avoid. Thank you in advance 

I bought my Rigid Industries 50" E-Series for $1200 brand new.  You get what you pay for but It's completely understandable that it's not in the budget for some.  American made, great customer service, and build quality is second to none.  Ended up selling it after two years of enjoyment for $1300. 

 

Rigid Industries 50 E-Series on the roof

Rigid Industries Dually D2 on the a pillars

JW Speaker 8700 headlights

JW Speaker 6145 foglights (not installed when I took the photo)

 

I kept everything except the 50".  I will own another Jeep someday...such a fun vehicle.    

Edited March 23, 2017 by sooxies

[Royal Squire]

Appreciate the response. I'm more interested in how low can I go and still have something that will last more than a year 

[sooxies]

4 minutes ago, Royal Squire said:

Appreciate the response. I'm more interested in how low can I go and still have something that will last more than a year 

For sure....and it's easy to read reviews on amazon and so forth.  But you need to find someone who has used the product for a while.  I can do some searching on wranglerforum.  I believe that would be a good place to search.  Curved 52's may not be common on a Wrangler but at least finding a brand that has a good reputation would be helpful....obviously.