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Regardless of bulb type, if your lights are aimed slightly high, the low beam can be fantastic, but the high beam will get washed out because it never hits the road surface correctly. If the low beam bulbs are weak or of lesser quality, if adjusted too high they too will never hit the road surface and appear washed out. Generally, lights have to be aimed much higher before it affects the low beam.
I understand that. My observation was just that the high beam LED pattern is vastly different than the high beam halogen pattern on my truck. My halogen high beam pattern almost looked like the low beam but slightly higher. There was still a concentrated beam at the center. With the high beam on the LEDs, it's almost like there is no concentrated beam at all and it just scatters the light more with a darkish void in the middle. I'll try to take a picture tonight to show what I mean.
Also, anyone know of a way to keep the low beams on while also having the brights on? Seems like with the low amp draw of LED's, this should be possible to do.
The amp draw is probably not the issue, rather the heat generated. It is a lot less heat than a halogen, but the tungsten filament in the halogen is designed to run at a couple thousand degrees, while LEDs life is severely shortened by just a couple hundred.
I understand that. My observation was just that the high beam LED pattern is vastly different than the high beam halogen pattern on my truck. My halogen high beam pattern almost looked like the low beam but slightly higher. There was still a concentrated beam at the center. With the high beam on the LEDs, it's almost like there is no concentrated beam at all and it just scatters the light more with a darkish void in the middle. I'll try to take a picture tonight to show what I mean.
Here is what I am talking about
Dims:
High beams:
I also thought about heat being an issue with running highs/lows at the same time. Didn't know for sure how hot these things get and what they can tolerate.
Bleppek, I only took pics of high beams before I got the clocking right, and back then they were definitely a more diffused light on the garage door. I think I'm parked farther from the door than you, but I'll take a picture of high beams. Snow/rain mix right now. With that said, I feel the high beams do a good job of lighting up the road, and I carried a screwdriver handy to tweak the aiming until I was satisfied the low beams were just high enough without blinding people I was following and people coming at me in the other lane.
My high beams seam worse than my low beams. But my low beams are way better than the factory lights, so I just rely on some Rigid off road lights on an upfitter switch when I need even more light.
It was dark when I drove into work today and I got a chance to try the brights out. They don't seem terrible. I need to get my buddy who has a 6.7 with halogens side-by-side and do a comparison. I still have to believe the not great performance of the high beams is due to the LED configuration on the bulb itself. These bulbs seem to mimic the filament positions of an H4 bulb and not a H13 (even down to using the reflector for the low beams). I'm not sure why they did this. These ones seem to be "more correct" in terms of where the LEDs are located on the bulb itself compared to the filament of an actual H13 bulb:
They are prime eligible so I guess it wouldn't hurt to try them out for the hell of it and do a beam comparison. If they are crap, it is easy enough to return them. They are a no name brand, so I don't know if I could really trust them long term. Plus 6500K is a little to high for what I like.
I ended up buying these today from amazon. Their return policy is so easy, I figure there is nothing to lose. They are clockable just like the Xenon Depot bulbs. If nothing else, at least this will help satisfy my OCD with my F-250s headlights. The engineer in me always thinks the grass may be greener (or brighter). I should have these installed on Thursday and will report back my findings with some side-by-side comparison pics with the Xenon Depot LEDs.
Interesting design. Their spec says 4,000 lumens vs 2,500 from the Xenon H13. That's a good bit more light. The heat sink is a different approach without the use of a fan, which I like. The LEDs overlap in their position, which should generate a different beam pattern. And I doubt you'll notice much difference in the light's color between 5700k and 6500k. Looks like the same number of clocking holes as the Xenon. Time will tell if you need to add a clocking hole or two.
Hopefully their beam is nicely controlled on the top to allow good aiming, which will give you the ability to keep the light out of oncoming traffic's eyes. Good luck!
bleppek, after reading the reviews on these lamps, be careful you don't burn yourself on the heat sinks. One review made a comment about just how hot they get since they don't have a fan. Would appreciate knowing how hot the heat seems since nobody wants a heat related problem caused by a hot chunk of metal.
Got the bulbs today and have them installed now. I can see that they are a little more white than the xenon depot ones. The low beam may not have as sharp a cutoff at the top, but I think that was expected since they light up the entire housing with low beams on. It also looks like the high beams are a little more concentrated in the middle. All these are observations when it is very bright outside. Won't know how well the beam will work once it gets dark out, but I will post some more pictures then. Here are a couple of daytime pics with the new bulbs on the drivers side and the xenon depots on the passenger. They don't really show much, but thought I would post anyways.
Low beams:
Want to let everyone know I'm a little less enthused by the Xenon lamps after driving with them for a while. Reason for posting during my lunch is I had a bad experience this morning on the drive to work. It was 36* and snowing. So the snow was a wet snow, and after only a few minutes of driving in the snow, I started losing my low beam light! I knew right away it was from snow accumulating on the headlight housing, and I was glad to be in a slow line of traffic with people in front and behind me. Their lights helped. Once I parked the truck at work in about 10 minutes, I left it running to go around and confirm what I suspected. Yup, light assy was covered with snow & cool to the touch.
Co-worker suggested I try putting some Rain-x on it. If that doesn't fix the problem, I'll look for another lamp set. Too dangerous a scenario to repeat.
I've also come to feel the amount of light generated in normal conditions is enough, but just barely enough with the high beams. They do light up the road in front, but it's different than a more focused beam of light, which is the same thing bleppek has said.
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