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Today on my way home there was a F250 that pulled out behind me. I thought he had his high-beams on. I pulled over and waved him to stop. I asked if he has his high-beams on,,, no,,, did you put in LEDs? Yup. I said it looks like your high-beams are on.
He explained that he couldn't understand why people where flashing him. Well now he knows. He had just replaced the bulbs.
So for those wanting to do that, yeah it bounces all over inside and is Blinding.
So for those wanting to do that, yeah it bounces all over inside and is Blinding.
Can you elaborate? Are you saying that he needed to adjust his angle or that the factory halogen housing is inappropriate for LEDs and you will blind people no-matter-what?
Can you elaborate? Are you saying that he needed to adjust his angle or that the factory halogen housing is inappropriate for LEDs and you will blind people no-matter-what?
Angle is a lot to do with it. They do tend to scatter light as well due to the housing not being correct.. The scattering is why I have not done this swap yet. I think they need to design a headlamp like they have done taillights. Where there is a series of leds like a corn cob. Then another at the end. Simulating a halogen the best they can. Then they might have something. Instead of using one led that put out insane amount of light on each side. Its a poor design IMO.
Can you elaborate? Are you saying that he needed to adjust his angle or that the factory halogen housing is inappropriate for LEDs and you will blind people no-matter-what?
Others have said here that the normal inside housing just doesn't work with the LEDs, and I can tell you they are correct.
This buy was behind me at 3:15 in the afternoon and it looked like he had Crazy Bright Hi beams on FROM LOOKING IN MY REAR VIEW ! And to boot he was about a tractor trailer behind me or more.
At anyrate, if the housing can't be used due to bouncing light, I don't think that the angle will help much. This guy said he had re-angled it but people still flash at him.....
Headlamp reflector/lens assemblies are highly engineered for the precise location and shape of the incandescent filament or LED emitter. Trying to swap one source for the other in a given assembly is going to produce sub-optimal results at best. Can you put a brighter bulb or emitter in and get 'more' light out? Yes. How much of that light is going where you want it and usable without blinding other drivers is another thing completely. Upgrading from the OE halogens to something like the Sylvania Silverstars is the most likely way to provide increased light out while maintaining the beam pattern since they are still incandescent filaments. Putting an LED emitter in an assembly that was designed for incandescent is least likely to produce the best overall results.
Interesting timing on this subject. I have been running the BeamTechs and just wasn't truly satisfied with them. I did like the 'modern' look of the LED light but still wasn't sold on performance. I saw another thread where a member had installed the Sylvania Ultras. I found a new set of four on ebay for ~$55 so figured I'd try them out. Below are my results.
Surprising to me, the Sylvania put out more Lux (Max 763 vs BT's 596 and Average 535 vs BT's 425) and definitely have a more controlled pattern. The LEDs were scattered/spotty.
(My BeamTech's were properly installed with the low beam up and LEDs at 9 and 3 o'clock.)
In the pictures, you'll see I verified my alignment. I had a string line with level and followed the adjustment specs from the OEM Service Manual. I centered myself at the truck's grill to capture the photos.
End results, the Sylvania Ultra's put out more light with better control. The other advantage is the warmer kelvin light of the Ultra's will performed better in fog/rain conditions.
Next project is to tint my aftermarket SAE LED fog cubes to match the color temp of the Ultra's.
BeamTechs
Sylvania Ultras
Low Beam - Sylvania's on left, BeamTech on right (Note the BeamTech's high intensity spot is a little low but if I adjusted up, it would blind on coming drivers.)
High Beam - Sylvania's on left, BeamTech on right
Sylvania's across the yard (Low Beam. No scatter like the BeamTechs had.)
Interesting timing on this subject. I have been running the BeamTechs and just wasn't truly satisfied with them. I did like the 'modern' look of the LED light but still wasn't sold on performance. I saw another thread where a member had installed the Sylvania Ultras. I found a new set of four on ebay for ~$55 so figured I'd try them out. Below are my results.
Surprising to me, the Sylvania put out more Lux (Max 763 vs BT's 596 and Average 535 vs BT's 425) and definitely have a more controlled pattern. The LEDs were scattered/spotty.
....
Thank you very much! My thought process had come full circle from being convinced I wanted LEDs back to halogens. I'm not dropping $1k on all new LED headlights right now and if I'm sticking with factory housings I don't want to use the wrong tool for the job... even though in 2020 it pains me to buy incandescent. The Sylvania Ultras have been in my amazon shopping cart for 2 days while I waffled. There were just too many opinions to sort through. Thanks for the testing, pictures, and data.
Wow that blue light from the beam tech i would not like. My wife's cherokee has factory led headlights. They are more white color and work well. The high beams though are not as good as the lows. After 3 years of ownership on my truck im gonna finally replace the halogens with an upgraded halogen and call it good.
Interesting timing on this subject. I have been running the BeamTechs and just wasn't truly satisfied with them. I did like the 'modern' look of the LED light but still wasn't sold on performance. I saw another thread where a member had installed the Sylvania Ultras. I found a new set of four on ebay for ~$55 so figured I'd try them out. Below are my results.
Surprising to me, the Sylvania put out more Lux (Max 763 vs BT's 596 and Average 535 vs BT's 425) and definitely have a more controlled pattern. The LEDs were scattered/spotty.
(My BeamTech's were properly installed with the low beam up and LEDs at 9 and 3 o'clock.)
In the pictures, you'll see I verified my alignment. I had a string line with level and followed the adjustment specs from the OEM Service Manual. I centered myself at the truck's grill to capture the photos.
End results, the Sylvania Ultra's put out more light with better control. The other advantage is the warmer kelvin light of the Ultra's will performed better in fog/rain conditions....
This is pretty much where I am on this issue. I like the BT color temp, but dislike the scatter, lack of high beam hot spot, and the poor rain performance.
I’m getting ready to try a set of Philips X-treme Vision 9008s (correction: not 9004s).
I aimed my BeamTech Fanless down so they wouldn’t shine in other drivers eyes & I couldn’t be more happier.
My high beams are useless Shining up way too high I’ll admit.
No hate here. I'm a big believer in all of us being able to see out there at night. Heck, when I was a kid I swapped out my car's high beams for aircraft landing lights. They worked great for a couple of years but then eventually the high beam switch in the column melted. That's when I learned how to use relays.
Getting a new 2020 tomorrow. I swapped all of my LED's out and back to OEM for the trade. Considering something other than the Beamtech for the new truck. Has anyone got long term reports on the Hikari? Can they be adjusted well enough to avoid blinding oncoming drivers?
I was kind of intrigued by the Sylvania Ultras posted by h20camper, but the photos posted don't look like a huge improvement. Not that I doubt his word. Just that online photos don't provide enough information. For me that seems to be true regardless of headlight brand.
I once tried Sylvania, Silver Star I believe, and was underwhelmed.
Just ordered some Beamtech fanless for my 2020 7.3. Really wish that there were some 4-5k options out there instead of only 6.5k. I have thoughts about seeing if I could swap the chips out from some with a lower color temp and a higher CRI. Would be pretty tricky since they are all reflowed without exposed leads. Options are here:
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That's when I learned how to use relays.
