Brighter XLT Headlight Bulb Replacement?

[Wes Siler]

Looks like very useable light to me. Low beam Auxitos LED. Never need high beams at all. Never been flashed. I can safely see at night, especially the pedestrians and bicycles that run around here in Fl at night. We have about 700 pedestrian crash deaths per year here. I’m opting for safety over aesthetics.

Do you feel like you're putting pedestrian lives at risk by blinding ever single oncoming driver with all that scattered light?

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[Superspirit]

Do you feel like you're putting pedestrian lives at risk by blinding ever single oncoming driver with all that scattered light?

You just love fear mongering don't you?

 

[OFC Ranger]

Yeah, I hear you. I can't take a picture in daylight that's worth a damn, let alone at night. Got a buddy coming up to visit later this week who's a pro, and might have him do some photos of my current setup, and the little Lightforce Strikers we just put on his Santa Cruz.

Hood glare is never a non issue, it just becomes less of an issue if you get some really good distance out of your lights. When I'm driving for 6, 8 hours or more overnight with my lights running (very remote areas), I can relax a lot more with nothing shining back in my face.

Those Chineseum knockoffs look pretty good though!

Yes to date these are some of the most impressive Chicom's I've toyed with, though a bit higher on the price scale at $160 a pair.

Still about 1/3 price of KC GP6 pair.

Time will tell how they hold up.

 

[maxbottomtime]

The "I never get flashed crowd" is just looking for validation for their shitty, selfish decisions. I tried 4-5 drop-ins before settling on replacement housings. All sorts of bulbs, oriented in all sorts of direction put scatter above the cutoff.

For those with the LED, take a look at highway signs (20' above the road) at night. See how much extra light there is? In traffic, turn your lights off for a split second, and see them dim instantly. Every other car on the road is not illuminating those. it's you.

 

[OFC Ranger]

The "I never get flashed crowd" is just looking for validation for their shitty, selfish decisions. I tried 4-5 drop-ins before settling on replacement housings. All sorts of bulbs, oriented in all sorts of direction put scatter above the cutoff.

For those with the LED, take a look at highway signs (20' above the road) at night. See how much extra light there is? In traffic, turn your lights off for a split second, and see them dim instantly. Every other car on the road is not illuminating those. it's you.

Playing devil's advocate can someone actually explain this thought process to me? If an LED bulb with a stalk it has a single LED on each side is positioned at the 3:00 and 9:00 position how or why does this have a more adverse effect than a halogen bulb which produces light and a 360° pattern.

I do have led lights in my halogen housing but I bought base adjustable ones to make sure they were at the proper position. Without doubting efficiency because they're in the wrong type of housing I can say however that everything from stop signs too tall interstate signs do not show more light than when I had my halogen bulbs in.

I also made it a point to adjust my headlights and just to air on the side of caution mine are aimed a few inches lower than the will established formula.

Forgive any typos or odd sentences I am using talk to text.

 

[maxbottomtime]

Playing devil's advocate can someone actually explain this thought process to me? If an LED bulb with a stalk it has a single LED on each side is positioned at the 3:00 and 9:00 position how or why does this have a more adverse effect than a halogen bulb which produces light and a 360° pattern.

I do have led lights in my halogen housing but I bought base adjustable ones to make sure they were at the proper position. Without doubting efficiency because they're in the wrong type of housing I can say however that everything from stop signs too tall interstate signs do not show more light than when I had my halogen bulbs in.

I also made it a point to adjust my headlights and just to air on the side of caution mine are aimed a few inches lower than the will established formula.

Forgive any typos or odd sentences I am using talk to text.

Your halogen bulb does not emit from the 3/9 position, but equally across 360 degrees. You are overdriving the hell out of portion of your reflectors with the LED.

Maybe you have magical reflectors, but the 4-5 sets I tried all put significant, unsafe light well above the cutoff, regardless of orientation. Without a side by side I'd suggest your memory is off. Again, if you are in moderate traffic and turning your lights off reduces light on those signs (meaning all the other cars are not illuminating that high).... should be a pretty obvious sign unless you are desperate to reach another conclusion.

 

[Wes Siler]

Playing devil's advocate can someone actually explain this thought process to me? If an LED bulb with a stalk it has a single LED on each side is positioned at the 3:00 and 9:00 position how or why does this have a more adverse effect than a halogen bulb which produces light and a 360° pattern.

I do have led lights in my halogen housing but I bought base adjustable ones to make sure they were at the proper position. Without doubting efficiency because they're in the wrong type of housing I can say however that everything from stop signs too tall interstate signs do not show more light than when I had my halogen bulbs in.

I also made it a point to adjust my headlights and just to air on the side of caution mine are aimed a few inches lower than the will established formula.

Forgive any typos or odd sentences I am using talk to text.

There's just a whole sphere (get it??) Of shit going on in a housing beyond what marketing lies written by con artists account for.

On top of that, our human optical systems just aren't great at understanding what we're looking at, until it hurts us.

If a $5 LED bulb could provide additional effective illumination in that housing, do you not think automakers would spend the .25 cents it'd cost them to buy it?

 

[OFC Ranger]

There's just a whole sphere (get it??) Of shit going on in a housing beyond what marketing lies written by con artists account for.

On top of that, our human optical systems just aren't great at understanding what we're looking at, until it hurts us.

If a $5 LED bulb could provide additional effective illumination in that housing, do you not think automakers would spend the .25 cents it'd cost them to buy it?

I'm not doubting anything you're saying I'm just wondering if there are over exaggerations on both sides of the aisle.

I've walked out in a field to the left and right of my truck at ranges from a few feet away out to a hundred yards and I am not seeing any adverse effects.

The caveat being the LEDs position so it fans the light left and right and not up and down like a improperly position LED.

Kind of a funny side note on my old lady's Acura she was going on a road trip and I noticed her car uses projector housings but the factory installed halogen bulbs. I installed an extra set of LEDs I had on hand because it matched our bulb size.

So it makes you wonder in regards to your question why they don't install LEDs and reflector housing why do they install halogen bulbs in projector housings?

 

[OFC Ranger]

Your halogen bulb does not emit from the 3/9 position, but equally across 360 degrees. You are overdriving the hell out of portion of your reflectors with the LED.

Maybe you have magical reflectors, but the 4-5 sets I tried all put significant, unsafe light well above the cutoff, regardless of orientation. Without a side by side I'd suggest your memory is off. Again, if you are in moderate traffic and turning your lights off reduces light on those signs (meaning all the other cars are not illuminating that high).... should be a pretty obvious sign unless you are desperate to reach another conclusion.

Careful with that last sentence if you stick around here long enough you'll see I'm the guy who's not desperate for anything but the guy who will search for the truth whether it's the whole truth a portion of the truth etc etc on both sides of an argument.

With that said I will see if I can get some time on my next set of days off but more than likely it'll have to wait till next week and I will go out and photograph or video record as best I can my headlights at range and 25 ft at a wall. I will also record road travel for the sign argument.

If I am wrong I am wrong however if I'm not 100% wrong that means the other side of the argument is not 100% right either.

I've stated before at some of these factory LEDs on cars but mostly trucks seem equally annoying to me as the opposing traffic on the road. LEDs especially suck ass when the other driver is coming up a hill to similar elevation that I am traveling on but there's nothing to be done for that then be temporarily blinded.

 

[yamahaSHO]

The "I never get flashed crowd" is just looking for validation for their shitty, selfish decisions. I tried 4-5 drop-ins before settling on replacement housings. All sorts of bulbs, oriented in all sorts of direction put scatter above the cutoff.

For those with the LED, take a look at highway signs (20' above the road) at night. See how much extra light there is? In traffic, turn your lights off for a split second, and see them dim instantly. Every other car on the road is not illuminating those. it's you.

Those highway signs are designed to reflect back to the source. You SHOULD be seeing them light up. You know... So you can see them.

 

[Wes Siler]

I've stated before at some of these factory LEDs on cars but mostly trucks seem equally annoying to me as the opposing traffic on the road. LEDs especially suck ass when the other driver is coming up a hill to similar elevation that I am traveling on but there's nothing to be done for that then be temporarily blinded.

Judging by the number of otherwise intelligent friends who I've had to explain that headlights can (and need to be) adjusted), approximately 99.9% of drivers have misadjusted headlights.

 

[TheAssuager]

Looks like very useable light to me. Low beam Auxitos LED. Never need high beams at all. Never been flashed. I can safely see at night, especially the pedestrians and bicycles that run around here in Fl at night. We have about 700 pedestrian crash deaths per year here. I’m opting for safety over aesthetics.

Would you be able to share which bulbs specifically you purchased? Or share the amazon link? Auxito doesn't make it easy figuring out exactly what you need. Thanks!

 

[OFC Ranger]

Judging by the number of otherwise intelligent friends who I've had to explain that headlights can (and need to be) adjusted), approximately 99.9% of drivers have misadjusted headlights.

I wouldn't argue that haha

 

[bloosh]

Playing devil's advocate can someone actually explain this thought process to me? If an LED bulb with a stalk it has a single LED on each side is positioned at the 3:00 and 9:00 position how or why does this have a more adverse effect than a halogen bulb which produces light and a 360° pattern.

I do have led lights in my halogen housing but I bought base adjustable ones to make sure they were at the proper position. Without doubting efficiency because they're in the wrong type of housing I can say however that everything from stop signs too tall interstate signs do not show more light than when I had my halogen bulbs in.

I also made it a point to adjust my headlights and just to air on the side of caution mine are aimed a few inches lower than the will established formula.

Forgive any typos or odd sentences I am using talk to text.

I'll take a stab at this since I'm not seeing any mention of the physics (at least my understanding) on LEDs in reflector housing.

If you consider what a halogen reflector housing is designed to do, it is focusing light off a very thin light source (the filament) that is 360 directional. If you make that light source bigger/thicker, the focus is reduced (think kind of like using a magnifying glass to burn something).

LEDs are not as thin as a filament so this means that putting one in a halogen reflector causes more light scatter. This actually makes it look brighter to the driver, but you're actually putting less light further down the road where you need it, and this also is sending more glare to your surroundings (makes your night vision worse and bothering other drivers).

The 360 degree part actually doesn't make as much of a difference as diode width. Lack of 360 just affects the uniformity of the light in the beam. That's why they LED ones need to be positioned.

All that being said, you can achieve acceptable performance if you can get as thin of a LED diode as possible. I imagine this information is probably not readily available though. So it would be hard to specifically shop for a thin one. It also won't compare to upgrading to the brighter shorter light halogen bulb mentioned by someone since it's also using a filament.

I know a lot of people here are allergic to tacomaworld, but one guy (crashnburn I think?) on there did an incredible amount of testing of all sorts of lights at multiple distances with uplight and everything. If I remember correctly only one LED drop in bulb he tested did well enough he would recommend it at all.

In short LED drop ins aren't always bad, but they often are. Some could probably actually be dangerous. I imagine that if people here are not having to much trouble with getting flashed they might have just gotten lucky and got one with a fairly thin diode.

 

[maxbottomtime]

Careful with that last sentence if you stick around here long enough you'll see I'm the guy who's not desperate for anything but the guy who will search for the truth whether it's the whole truth a portion of the truth etc etc on both sides of an argument.

Oh gee, how long is long enough for your approval?

With that said I will see if I can get some time on my next set of days off but more than likely it'll have to wait till next week and I will go out and photograph or video record as best I can my headlights at range and 25 ft at a wall. I will also record road travel for the sign argument.

If I am wrong I am wrong however if I'm not 100% wrong that means the other side of the argument is not 100% right either.

I've stated before at some of these factory LEDs on cars but mostly trucks seem equally annoying to me as the opposing traffic on the road. LEDs especially suck ass when the other driver is coming up a hill to similar elevation that I am traveling on but there's nothing to be done for that then be temporarily blinded.

When using a camera to try and "compare" light understand that your camera will be compensating for the average exposure of the scene (unless manually setting the exposure). As a result, the difference in scatter above a cutoff will be completely blown out by the main beam pattern below the cutoff. This is in part mostly due to the poor dynamic range of cameras vs the human eye (and when you have intense light angled downward, even 1/10 of that going into oncoming traffic is enough to daze/disorient).

Let's take a look at the argument.

On one side, we have forum users who want to get LEDs without spending money, and put chinese, no-name drop-ins for $20 (the alternative being replacement housings ranging from $500-2000). On the other side of your "argument" you have industry experts. Which brings up another point - none of those drop-in LEDs are DOT certified.

Surely if the output profile of the drop-ins is equivalent to halogen it would be worth it to get certified (given the thousands of reviews). Where are the DOT approved drop-ins (and i'm not counting the no-name companies that just stamp "DOT approved")? Why haven't the big names in headlights gone through this little step and reaped massive profit? Swapping to the auxitos is illegal, so surely having the only legal option would pay off.

My biggest issue is you have people with no credentials arguing against the experts (and i don't proclaim to be one, but headlight experts have authored dozens of articles articulating this point better than I could), and Jim logs onto the forum and sees 40 pages of posts raving about how great those auxitos are.

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