LED Headlights questions

[Dannieb1973]

I have an aftermarket headlight assembly in my 97 Ranger. I'm currently using halogen bulbs but considering converting over to LEDs. Which LEDs would be the best ones to go to? I see 360 degree radius and all sorts of different kinds, any and all help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Dirtman]

The simple answer is none of them. From my experience most LED bulbs simply don't project right from a ranger headlight housing. They may be brighter but the light just comes out in random weird unusable patterns. Maybe tech has gotten better and someone else can chime in with a solution but like I said, I haven't found or seen one.

 

[sgtsandman]

In my experience and from the reports of others, when it comes to headlights, stick with the bulbs the housing was designed for. That goes for LEDs and HID. For proper function, it's either go all the way and buy a complete housing designed for the light source or stick with what you have and use what it was designed for. Marker lights, turn signals, and reverse lights are a different story but headlight conversions never work as advertised.

 

[4x4junkie]

Agreed, avoid LEDs. Not only will they likely not reflect a proper beam in a housing not designed for LEDs (HIDs too for that matter), LEDs nearly always have a bluish glare, which sucks when it comes to lighting things up in the distance.

My suggestion would be to add a set of halogen auxiliary driving lights. Using a relay, they can be wired so that they turn on automatically with the hi-beams (a set of aux fog lights similarly can be wired to operate with the lo-beams too).

 

[55trucker]

If you've absolutely got your heart set on LED's HB5/9007 are what you're looking for.
Try to find a set of 4300k bulbs, stay away from the usual 6000/6500k bulbs. 4300 is a natural white, they are not irritating to oncoming traffic, they are out there.
As well, look for 3 sided filaments, not the 2 sided, 3 sided will have 2 dedicated low chips & 1 high chip mounted into the filament board. Their placement is important & they are staggered, when on low beam the 2 low chips will throw the light to the upper half of the reflector keeping the beam down on the road in front of the vehicle, when high is selected all 3 chips will engage.

forget about displayed lumens ratings they are not accurate, one typical low beam led is in the area of 3500 lumens, a comparable halogen low beam is approx 1100.

*If you're absolutely decided on LED's*


here's a sample.......

2x HB5 9007 CREE LED 2115W 317250LM Headlight Conversion Bulbs Daylight 4300K | eBay

Compatible With: 9007 / HB5 High / Low Beam. LED type: CREE COB LEDs. 2 x High Power LED Headlights Bulbs. Number of Bulbs: 2. LED lights than traditional halogen energy, more power. Be careful to avoid crushing or cutting the bulbs.

www.ebay.com

 

[delaware74b]

I recommend the following:

New OEM headlamp housings (if you can get them). Aftermarket housings often don't have the proper reflector and lens focus. The headlight cleaning kits work once then you're back cleaning them every 6 months. The clouding you see is the protective coating being destroyed from UV in sunlight over time.

Proper alignment is important so you can see plus not blind oncoming traffic. Proper alignment is done with an optical alignment machine, not on a wall 25 ft away. The wall-alignment method is really done to get you close until done by the optical alignment machine.

If you find still needing more light output, then use performance halogen lamps such as the Philips XtremeVision 9007(9007XV) or the GE Nighthawk Platinum (9007NHP). Expect a shorter bulb life with these lamps. I don't recommend Sylvania Silverstars(in any variant of that brand). I have not had them last more than a year. My Philips 9007XV's are 4 years old and are on Ford's old full-voltage autolamps module with low beams on DRL's. I would also recommend getting a high-amperage relay harness for the headlights to combat voltage drop to the sockets.

Technically, it's illegal to use lamps in housings other than those originally designed. This means use halogen lamps in only halogen housings. The lamp housing is designed to have the filament in a specific location. LED and HID replacement lamps do not fully duplicate the filament position and length, causing the scatter effect. The driver using them might think they really work and light up the road but in the process they're really blinding all oncoming traffic with scattered light.

 

[8thTon]

I would also recommend getting a high-amperage relay harness for the headlights to combat voltage drop to the sockets

This! It's doesn't take much in the way of voltage drop to greatly reduce light output.