LED headlights

[someotherguy]

"Back in my day" (in old timer voice) you'd fail Texas state inspection for poorly-aimed headlights. They had a little machine they'd set in front of the car and check 'em. I worked at a mechanic shop and took the "shop car" ('67 Plymouth Belvedere, 318, 3 on the tree) for inspection and the dude failed me over the headlights. Bezel was stuck because the screws had seized in place so we couldn't get to the adjuster screws, which were broken anyway. Had to go back to the shop and beat the screws out with a hand impact.

It was a Bear headlight tester, similar to this one, but maybe not quite *that* old.. I mean this was in the late 80's, lol

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Richard

 

[AK49BWL]

I have SBL LED headlights in both low and high beams... And I'll never go back to halogen. But I also have 88-style headlights with the conversion light housings.

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They throw light just fine for my liking.

 

[b454rat]

I did the low/hi light mod on one of my old trucks. I had Autozone bulbs in it, Sylvania I think, they had a slight blue tint to em, they looked nice and had good pattern, till I got some smoked halo lenses for it. Then the pattern was all over. But IIRC, when doing both hi/low, a resister needs to go between the low/hi or the hi's will stay on. I can't remember exactly. This is when using 2 relay's to power the lights. I can't remember where I got em from, think someone over on 67-72 Chevy site.

also I don't think LED headlights are illegal, cars came factory with them. I had HID's in a Cobalt, if had hi's on and switched to lows, there was a delay cause they needed to warm up, freaked yah out sometimes lol

 

[Supercharged111]

I did the low/hi light mod on one of my old trucks. I had Autozone bulbs in it, Sylvania I think, they had a slight blue tint to em, they looked nice and had good pattern, till I got some smoked halo lenses for it. Then the pattern was all over. But IIRC, when doing both hi/low, a resister needs to go between the low/hi or the hi's will stay on. I can't remember exactly. This is when using 2 relay's to power the lights. I can't remember where I got em from, think someone over on 67-72 Chevy site.

Diode, not resistor. And I only use the diode to carry the current that controls the relay coil so as to not burn it up.

 

[df2x4]

also I don't think LED headlights are illegal, cars came factory with them.

Factory LED headlight setups are not illegal. Drop-in LED replacements for halogen bulbs are. The difference being that the factory LED setups are designed from the ground up to work with the LEDs and throw light properly. The only street legal LED headlights I'm aware of for these trucks are the 5"X7" sealed beam replacements for the W/T grilles. Same reason, the reflectors on those are designed specifically for LEDs. Like these...

https://www.amazon.com/Truck-Lite-27450C-Headlamp/dp/B007ED7HNY

And even then you have to be careful and buy the expensive ones from a reputable company like TruckLite or GE. There are lots of Chinese knock-offs that are less than half the price which can look and function identically but are not technically street legal in the US.

All that said, I seriously doubt any law enforcement officer would ever hassle you over an aftermarket LED headlight setup unless you were doing something pretty egregious, like running non-legal colors or a really bad beam pattern.

 

[Yukon98]

The bigest problem i find is the stock lenses cant pencil down the usefull light it just bounces off the back reflector and goes everywhere blinding everyone. On my other vehicle I purchased a Amazon set of projector lenses for cheap and it now throws light properly like new cars do. Im now looking into converting my Yukons lower signal lenses to headlight lenses and back drilling a small hole for the amber 194 signal bulb. Maybe even the wiring/relay upgrade then I can have 8 lows and 8 high beams. Just doing the math on the amps the led's will draw so I dont drag the system down. I do have the x-government one with dual batteries but still stock alty.

 

[AK49BWL]

LEDs are cheap on the electrical system - in fact, there's virtually no need to upgrade the factory wiring aside from the 4+hi mods. With all four of my bulbs active, current draw is only 6 amps. Compare that to 20 amps for 4 halogen bulbs....yeah

 

[b454rat]

lol, not too savvy on electric components. Knew it was something just couldn't remember. I'm not too worried bout legality stuff, the law goes after the friggin' garbage haulers that have light bars wired in as their headlights, blinding everyone. Awesome when your in a plow truck and have 6 mirrors blasting the light in ur eyes. For hi beams wouldn't mind something brite, they can be turned off simply going to low beam. But would like an improvement for lowbeams.

 

[df2x4]

Having run both factory halogen bulbs and LEDs in the composite housings of these trucks, I'd have to say halogen is definitely better. Less light in places it's not supposed to be, and farther throw distance than LED. The only downside is you need to upgrade your wiring to get the most out of halogens. @5vortec7 makes really nice looking plug and play relay harnesses that will gain you over a full volt at the sockets and a ton of brightness with no other modifications. If you're looking for the best and brightest possible output I'd get one of those and some good 9005/9006 bulbs. (Stay away from anything with blue tint like Sylvania Silverstars) If you want a little extra boost for the high beams, you can swap them to 9011s by just trimming one of the tabs on the bulb.

 

[Ehall8702]

I ordered bunch of LEDs for the interior from superbrigheds.com, noticed they have LED headlight bulbs. Anybody ever use em? How do they work?

I run only isincer led headlight bulbs, in 6000k color so no unwanted attention. I can see FAR and CLEAR. Have the 4 hi mod also , hardly ever use my 54" light bar bc of how bright the LEDs are. Have had a set in both the Yukon and the z71 for over 4 years now and one bulb finally went out. At $15 a set u can't really gripe about that. Imho hid are junk, too long to warm up, and if the get turned off ( regular low to hi beam switch without 4hi mod) u r driving in the dark for about 5 seconds till they warm up and are bright enuff to be useful. Just my opinion tho. Also I only use the 4 sided led tho, two sided has a weird pattern