Who has tried LED head lights

[Ehall8702]

All I use are isincer 4 sided LEDs in 6000k color and 4 hi mod in all my chevs...had same bulbs in my 97 for about 3 years now zero issues. Can see up a gnats ass from waaay out and pattern is about same as stock, I've been on the oncoming side of trucks I have done this too and not aggressively obnoxious, about same as factory projectors and leds in newer vehicles. Just use a 4 sided bulb, the two sided has a cat's eye thing going on and pattern isn't very good.

 

[Poondart]

I'm about to install the 4-high mod.

I was thinking about changing my head light bulbs when I do this.

I am thinking about swaping to LED bulbs. I'm wondering who has tried this and what they thought of the change. Are they a direct replacement or are alterations to the harness required? Also what bulbs did you use and where did you get them?

Thanks
Craig

I was lucky enough to come across this guy in the attached video a few years ago before buying my led set up. He is a headlight guru and has hundreds of videos where he tests every kind of led, as well as halogens, lasers, hid’s, etc… The video explains everything you need to know about how to select the proper led bulbs for your application.
The key take away when buying leds for older model vehicles is…
1. Match the led chips up as closely as possible with the old halogen bulbs filaments, positioning wise, so they reflect similar in the reflector housing(Explained very nicely in the attached video).
2. Make sure to properly align and aim headlights, as to not blind oncoming traffic.
So many people buy the wrong style of led, usually it’s because of how the led chips are laid out. They need to mimic the old halogen bulbs. Then on top of that folks don’t know how to properly align their new lights. Or just don’t care that they blind others. This gives a bad name to leds, and is why so many people frown upon them. The thing is when set up properly for your application you get great light output without pissing off your fellow night drivers.
I have personally been running a set of rgb XKGLOW leds with a 4 hi mod for a couple years now. I don’t have enough good things to say about them. My nighttime driving experiences are now amazing every time. Even in poor weather conditions. I have 100% confidence driving at night now.
I recommend leds to anyone looking for a headlight upgrade. As long as properly set up.

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[Wilecoyote]

I bought a set of SeaLight brand on amazon for my 98 K1500, 4 LEDs high/low beams. I also replaced the original, foggy lenses w some cheap new ones. Much more light and brightness, I can see further down the road than before and the LEDs light the road and both ditches!. When I first few weeks I drove around at night I thought I must be blinding oncoming traffic w new LEDs but I've never had another oncoming driver flash their high beams like I would if someone had their high beams blinding me.

 

[JAngeli]

I was lucky enough to come across this guy in the attached video a few years ago before buying my led set up. He is a headlight guru and has hundreds of videos where he tests every kind of led, as well as halogens, lasers, hid’s, etc… The video explains everything you need to know about how to select the proper led bulbs for your application.
The key take away when buying leds for older model vehicles is…
1. Match the led chips up as closely as possible with the old halogen bulbs filaments, positioning wise, so they reflect similar in the reflector housing(Explained very nicely in the attached video).
2. Make sure to properly align and aim headlights, as to not blind oncoming traffic.
So many people buy the wrong style of led, usually it’s because of how the led chips are laid out. They need to mimic the old halogen bulbs. Then on top of that folks don’t know how to properly align their new lights. Or just don’t care that they blind others. This gives a bad name to leds, and is why so many people frown upon them. The thing is when set up properly for your application you get great light output without pissing off your fellow night drivers.
I have personally been running a set of rgb XKGLOW leds with a 4 hi mod for a couple years now. I don’t have enough good things to say about them. My nighttime driving experiences are now amazing every time. Even in poor weather conditions. I have 100% confidence driving at night now.
I recommend leds to anyone looking for a headlight upgrade. As long as properly set up.

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nice truck!!!

 

[df2x4]

I was doing my best to stay out of here because the LED fans will surely hate what I have to say...

IMO the only really good LED headlights for these trucks (and the only street-legal ones for sure) are the sealed beam 5"x7" LED replacements for the W/T grilles. TruckLite 27450C for example. These housings/reflectors are designed from the ground up to work properly with a diode instead of a filament and therefore have a proper cut-off and light pattern. All the drop-in 9005/9006 LEDs are just doing their best to imitate a halogen filament, which is pretty much impossible to do with a multi-sided LED board. No matter how you adjust the housings, you're going to have some light going places it wouldn't if you were using halogens. Anyone doing the swap can observe this for themselves, just look at the amount of light reflecting off of street signs and other elevated reflective surfaces after you put the LEDs in compared to the OEM halogens. Anyone who wants to dig deeper into this for themselves, check out this thread. It's a long and convoluted read with a lot of random discussion of other topics but there's a ton of good info on lighting in general.

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/spyder-headlamps-my-take-on-em-and-lighting-in-general.36647/

Long story short, the drop in 9005/9006 LEDs can be an improvement over the stock halogen composite setup for a lot of people, but mainly because they're able to run at full brightness with the wimpy stock wiring. A good set of halogen bulbs like Philips ExtremeVision and and upgraded wiring harness with relays like @5vortec7 offers for sale will put the drop in LEDs to shame, and keep all the light on the road where it's supposed to be.

For those who think I'm just beating up on the LEDs without trying them, I actually have AuxBeam S1s in both of my '97s right now as I wanted to see the results for myself. They're not horrible, but they definitely put some light in places I'd prefer they didn't. At some point I'm probably going back to halogens.

All that said if you absolutely have to try some drop in LEDs, I'd go with the AuxBeam S1s or the comparable BeamTech option. Reasons being IMO the two-sided boards work better in these housings (despite what Ehall8702 said, I've seen one of these trucks using a four-sided model and they seemed to put light all over the place in comparison to the two-sided) and they have no cooling fan to fail, just a heatsink.

 

[Slime]

I'm running the 4 HI mod with LED low beams. I can't remember thee brand, but they are manufactured in the USA. Pricey, but I'm happy with them. I have a set of cheap ones, but swapped to these. After I had them a while, I got a letter saying they had rated them wrong and these were brighter than they were supposedly to be, legally. They said I could swap them out but I opted to keep these.

 

[Slime]

Diode Dynamics are the ones I'm running in my 1996 2500.

 

[Kustombuilt1911]

Just installed a set (low & highs) Sealight LEDs in my '99 Tahoe with the 4 high mod already done. All I can say is wish I would've done it before. They went right in with no trouble & fit tight. No trouble with clearance between the core support & the heat sinks. Night & day difference!

 

[Ehall8702]

I was doing my best to stay out of here because the LED fans will surely hate what I have to say...

IMO the only really good LED headlights for these trucks (and the only street-legal ones for sure) are the sealed beam 5"x7" LED replacements for the W/T grilles. TruckLite 27450C for example. These housings/reflectors are designed from the ground up to work properly with a diode instead of a filament and therefore have a proper cut-off and light pattern. All the drop-in 9005/9006 LEDs are just doing their best to imitate a halogen filament, which is pretty much impossible to do with a multi-sided LED board. No matter how you adjust the housings, you're going to have some light going places it wouldn't if you were using halogens. Anyone doing the swap can observe this for themselves, just look at the amount of light reflecting off of street signs and other elevated reflective surfaces after you put the LEDs in compared to the OEM halogens. Anyone who wants to dig deeper into this for themselves, check out this thread. It's a long and convoluted read with a lot of random discussion of other topics but there's a ton of good info on lighting in general.

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/spyder-headlamps-my-take-on-em-and-lighting-in-general.36647/

Long story short, the drop in 9005/9006 LEDs can be an improvement over the stock halogen composite setup for a lot of people, but mainly because they're able to run at full brightness with the wimpy stock wiring. A good set of halogen bulbs like Philips ExtremeVision and and upgraded wiring harness with relays like @5vortec7 offers for sale will put the drop in LEDs to shame, and keep all the light on the road where it's supposed to be.

For those who think I'm just beating up on the LEDs without trying them, I actually have AuxBeam S1s in both of my '97s right now as I wanted to see the results for myself. They're not horrible, but they definitely put some light in places I'd prefer they didn't. At some point I'm probably going back to halogens.

All that said if you absolutely have to try some drop in LEDs, I'd go with the AuxBeam S1s or the comparable BeamTech option. Reasons being IMO the two-sided boards work better in these housings (despite what Ehall8702 said, I've seen one of these trucks using a four-sided model and they seemed to put light all over the place in comparison to the two-sided) and they have no cooling fan to fail, just a heatsink.

I've used all kinds of type LEDs and 2 side and 3 side also, I'm out in the boonies and it's DARK out here! 3 sided wasn't bad , to my eye the 4 side seems to have the best pattern, but that's why they make so many styles and types of stuff ,bc different things look better to different ppl rite? My biggest gripe is I've used $70 a set LEDs and the $8 a pop isincers and for the life of me cannot see a difference. It's a bit more hassle to replace bulbs in our trucks than some so u def wanna pick bulbs u don't have to replace often, I've tried a bunch of off brand ones and most don't make a month, as I'd assume chap chinesium built crap, the isincers have done me well but must be mid level chinesium junk lol.

 

[df2x4]

My biggest gripe is I've used $70 a set LEDs and the $8 a pop isincers and for the life of me cannot see a difference.

That's one thing I'll definitely agree with you on. 90% of the drop in LEDs for 9005/9006 halogen housings are the same cheap Chinese products with a different brand name printed on them. For example, the Auxbeam and Beamtech S1s I mentioned earlier. They're identical, or at least they were when I was comparing them. On top of that, you can find them unbranded on Chinese reseller sites like FastTech for around half the price.