Gentlemen, has anyone changed over to LED's and like the lights you bought.

the reason I ask this is I bought a pair of lights a year or so ago because they were on sale and I thought I would experiment with them on my CJ-7. Well I finally got around to installing them and I don't like them. I have to find my paperwork to see what brand they were, the box was unmarked.

I had a bitch of a time adjusting them, they have a really weird light pattern, and they are very bright but don't seem to have any range. I ended up adjusting them on a unlit dirt road by just driving and stopping to adjust a few times. They're acceptable on the CJ, I never drive it fast, I have no top or doors and it's my summer daily driver so I keep it to the back roads, no highway, but they wont cut it when I finish my 66 f250.

Does anyone have a light they really like that they can share?

Eric

 

On the advice of another member, I bought a headlight harness from Tom’s Bronco Parts that has integral relays and fuses, (plus a diode that you can use/not use to run both high and low beams simultaneously if you desire). It was quite cheap, uses big wire and good components. You then have, in effect, separate dedicated circuits for each of the high and low beams, plus you are not running full amperage through your headlight switch and back to the headlights, which causes a voltage drop. This is due, in part, to the small gage factory wire , and several old corroded connectors between the HL switch and bulbs. This alternative system does use your stock wiring, but only to trigger the relays, and reduces current and heat through the HL switch.

I also bought a set of Hella E-code headlights. The improvement is unbelievable, the lights are nearly as good as my newer vehicle, with bright white, and not yellow light. I had heard mixed reviews for the LED systems used at the time I did my system, and elected to not take a chance, as they were a bit spendy. I’m sure they are much improved now, but I like to just be able to find the replacement lamps easily, especially if traveling. I think the Hellas use common H4’s(?), available in different wattages. I can attest that their housings will accept somewhat higher than stock wattage lamps without damage. Also, I like low-tech alternatives, and the system was cheap and easy. To me, LED’s were touch and go as to quality, expensive, not worth it on a daily driver. I am 61, but already doing much less night time driving, so not necessary for me.

 

I've gone thru a few different types on my Harley. The first ones were fairly inexpensive. They used a LED bulb that screwed into a regular 7" round headlight (not a sealed beam).
Although better than a sealed beam, it was not what I was looking for, which was a wide flat BRIGHT beam. But they looked right on the bike. Everyone was recommending the JW Speaker lights.....at 250 bucks a pop!

I bought one called Sun-Pie. Asian made, priced right (about as good as it gets) at about $75 and super bright. But it looks modern (see picture). I wouldn't like that on a vintage truck. So on my '65 I will probably go with the type I had at first on the Harley. Maybe in pairs the beam will be better

 

I've been running these for a little over a year now. I looked around for a while for a light that was subtle looking and not obviously a LED unit. Plugged right in, no issues and decreased the load on the old 55amp alternator.

 

I have the JW Speaker headlights. As said above, the aesthetic is not the greatest for an older vehicle but they work great. They look more or less like the Sun-Pie above (other way around, actually). At the time, about 3 years ago, I felt they were the best functional option on the market. These particular lights have a 28w low beam and 42w high beam.

These pics show the differences vs sealed beam. In each, left is sealed beam, right is LED, top is low beam bottom is high beam.

 

Most 7" leds on the market are garbage in terms of having usable beam patterns and controlling glare. Most are for impressing the other members of your Jeep club...

JW Speaker and Trucklite are the two top brands that make legitimate led headlights that conform to DOT standards. The DOT doesn't "approve" headlights btw, they only make the mandates and it's up to the manufacture to conform to them. Anyone can stick a "DOT approved" label on any part and get away with it. Ebay/Amazon lights are pretty much all guaranteed to have nearly zero R&D into making them light the road effectively without creating glare... they're made for sales numbers and profit. There are a few exceptions, especially now that led headlight technology isn't as new as it used to be.

I have the 4x6" version of these in one of my cars and they're pretty decent for the price. Definitely an upgrade over sealed beams and they don't blind oncoming traffic, they have a pretty good low beam cut off to control glare effectively. I'm not a fan of the color temperature, I wish it was around 4k instead. The 7" version has the same internals so I'd assume that they perform the same.

 

I tried those on a '69 C10 and had I kept it I would've swapped them out for a better pair of lights. The hot spot location within the beam pattern was really off, so if they were adjusted so that the cut-off line was below the eyes of oncoming traffic the hotspot would be almost directly in front of the truck, not throwing any useful light farther out. Switching to high beams didn't really improve that situation, again too much foreground lighting and no distance visibility. Raising the aim would've helped that but then they'd blind oncoming traffic. The color temperature was off too, everything had a silver-grey tint that reduced contrast between colors. In winter with dead grass (brown) and dead leaves (brown) and tree trunks (brown) and deer (brown)... that's a really bad thing. Deer are super common in my area and having lights that made similar colors lack contrast made it really hard to spot deer in time to avoid them.

 

When I get out there today I'll take a picture of mine, they came in the box with a bulb in a housing and had a pair of new LED bulbs to swap in. I think they were halogens. I like the look of the housing and lenses better than most LED configurations on the old stuff, maybe I'll swap the Halogen bulbs into it and see how I like those.

I took it out again last night and finally have it adjusted where no-one flashed at me, and they are bright, but I have them aimed so low they have no range. And offroad they're just a joke unless you're hunting for snakes.

PS. Ibuzzard, I bought these from Toms Bronco and they did come with the nice relay harness, I've been making a similar harness to that for years on all my old stuff. This is my first attempt at LED's I've been using Halogens since they came out. When I was young I had serious night blindness, didn't get fixed until I had cataracts and they replaced the lens in both eyes when I was about 50. When they first came out you could only buy them in pairs and they were expensive, so I bought a pair with my father and we put them on our bikes, never went back.