LED headlight comparison

[lynnmor 6,765]

I bought 12 watt PAR 36 lights from here.

I was surprised that the stock halogens were much brighter straight ahead, but the LEDs put out a soft, full coverage light.

The photos tell the story.

[bds1984 1,382]

Perhaps the stock headlights are more of a spotlight pattern where the new LEDs are a flood light patter with a wider angle of light dispersion.  I bought a very similar set of LEDs a couple months ago for my 315-8 and experienced the same result before I realized I should have purchased spot lights instead of flood lights.  They'll stay in my 315-8 for now only because they were cheaper than the regular halogens that are on the shelves around me.

[roadapples 6,981]

Be interesting to see one spot and one flood on the same tractor...

[lynnmor 6,765]

56 minutes ago, roadapples said:

Be interesting to see one spot and one flood on the same tractor...

Might be the ticket.  I was hoping that the much higher lumens of the LEDs would compensate for the 160 degree angle.  Seeing to the side is important when twisting and turning while doing snow removal.  While the look of the headlight bezels is nice, they waste some light.  120 degree lamps are available and should be better, and there are some specialty PAR 36 lamps that are crazy high priced that have a spot beam in the center.  Maybe I'll put one halogen back in and give that a try.

[peter lena 8,050]

its the Chinese  manufacturing mentality, it barely works, and is saposed to replace something that lasted for decades. everything made in china is made in small batches , to see how it sells, mainly sold thru Alibaba marketing site, to them there is no standard , very little quality , and the most glaring point is that these people do not use anything they sell, none of it make any sense   (   whats that  ) ?     you will end up finding your answer in some related lighting site,  at some point these times will be the good old days . 2019, pete   

[lynnmor 6,765]

To be fair, the lamps are marketed as landscape lighting and I knew that going in.  They do put out more light but it is blanketed over a larger area.  When you look at the OEM halogen lighting pattern, it too leaves a lot to be desired since most of the light is straight ahead and little to the sides.

 

 

[pfrederi 17,146]

Be like me...do not plow at night  I did it once just to try out some LEDs i put on my principal plow tractor.  Very nice light (but sort of ugly)  haven't used them since....

[Sparky-(Admin) 19,534]

 Greater light output wasn't my goal when I put similar LED's in the 310-8 I gave to my son. His has the weak charging system (3a I think). A reduced electrical load and a longer lifespan (time will tell) was my main goal on his machine.

  The factory bulbs shine out plenty far for what we do on these tractors, not like we are whizzing down a dark highway at midnight doing 70MPH.

[MikMacMike 479]

On 11/20/2019 at 9:33 AM, lynnmor said:

To be fair, the lamps are marketed as landscape lighting and I knew that going in.  They do put out more light but it is blanketed over a larger area.  When you look at the OEM halogen lighting pattern, it too leaves a lot to be desired since most of the light is straight ahead and little to the sides.

 

 

Hmmmm just a thought, if there are 2 buckets and you wanted yes the wider led's but also wanted a more focussed shine and as long as you didnt mind them looking different Id run a led in one bucket and the other in the 2nd bucket. Not sure how it would work but might be worth a try.

[tom2p 2,393]

I'm going with the Subaru rally setup 

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by tom2p

[ZXT 2,394]

I've been dealing with trying to find new, better headlights for my 95 Ram 2500. Couldn't see 30 feet in front of the truck on back roads. I've been doing quite a bit of research on what performs well and what doesn't, and that might still be somewhat relevant here.

 

I've found that LED bulbs are BRIGHT. That said, there is no focus to them; they just flood in a halogen housing. 

 

For car headlights, they are just now starting to come out with aftermarket LEDs that are safe (wont blind oncoming traffic) and legal. The big key with them is that they have a projector lens that focuses the light straight ahead, instead of directing it back and utilizing the reflective headlight housing. Reading through this got me wondering if such a thing existed for 1156 bulbs. I found what is essentially a extremely simplified version of what I used in my truck on eBay. Not sure how well they perform, but they might be something to try since they're fairly cheap. 

 

 

 

I wound up building "retrofit" lights for my truck. I used a set of projectors that use HID bulbs, and they are very focused and provide excellent light pattern. Without the projectors, they would flood and blind everyone. A fairly complex setup but worth it. The housings are factory but they are essentially unused - I could've painted the reflecting black if I had wanted to but I left it alone. 

Edited December 14, 2019 by ZXT

[pfrederi 17,146]

Looking at the projector lens I would think you would have to figure out how to move the sockets from the bottom of the headlight bucket (where they are now) to the back of the bucket so it would shine out ahead of you not at the top of the bucket.

[ZXT 2,394]

26 minutes ago, pfrederi said:

Looking at the projector lens I would think you would have to figure out how to move the sockets from the bottom of the headlight bucket (where they are now) to the back of the bucket so it would shine out ahead of you not at the top of the bucket.

You're absolutely correct. It's been quite a while since I've had my lens off and I completely forgot how they went in!

[Andy N. 1,908]

I have these LED headlights installed in my 416-A. Here is a side by side comparison with my stock halogen 520-H.

[Tractorhead 8,609]

The Watts Value of LED tells nothing about the brightness or the Disperse of light.

It just tells you, what energy will be used for them to Work.

I tried a 15 Watts LED (cheap chinese) that had an impressive brightness and a 15 Watts Hella in Compare.

The hella was a disappointment in brightness.

 

The Watts can also be used for the Powerconsumpt, but that‘s worthless to compare brightness.

The Lm Values or Lux or Candela Values are a Values to compare brightness but also without info about focussing.

 

We used in the for Offroaders the Brands  Lazer 18“ or PIAA‘s 18“.

both for hight beam applications both has the same Power consumpt.

 

while the Lazers had a more Warm white light and Wideband i preferr them,

the PIAA has neutral white and a more focussed light.

for my Eye‘s the Lazers are the better to make distanced things visible, but some of our customer preferr the PIAA,

so i think that‘s a individual setup everybody must find for himself.

 

Good thing is allways a pictured compare, as guideline to take your own decision.

[formariz 11,849]

@ZXT

Not to derail this thread but still within topic, since automotive lighting is a big thing here left over from Rallying days many moons ago. One would have to have driven something with rally  dedicated lighting to really appreciate how ridiculous lighting in cars , specially in this country are still today even with all technological advances. Sure one cannot be blinding oncoming traffic with a full array of lights, but when driving in back roads and in unlit areas good lighting is essential.

It it all about light dispersion , localization, intensity and last but not least color. Most lighting available today takes none of that into account, merely advertising LED technology with in my opinion means absolutely nothing. For the purpose of our tractors and their tiny charging systems power consumption is really the advantage LED s have.  Very important also is that any light which is not round is a compromise and will never be as efficient as a round light.

There is incredible LED accessory lighting from companies such as CIBIE and HELLA  but they are incredibly expensive and not appropriate for most of us.

More to your point and problem I use CIBIE accessory  lighting in my van. Van's actual headlights are also replaced with  unsealed beams using 150 watt halogen bulbs. All accessory lighting goes on with high beams and are aimed for full effect specially on back roads. I can basically detect a penny on the road at over 100 feet. There are many different types of lighting depending on driving habits, speed ,etc, such as pencil beams and cornering lights.

The actual headlights on your vehicle may be difficult to improve since I believe they are proprietary to that model, high performance versions perhaps not available. You could however introduce accessory lighting such as I did.

Mine are all halogens and CIBIE's. They are all specially wired such as not to put undue strain on wiring and charging system.I have quite a collection from days past like Super Oscars, Oscars, and Oscar Plus such as the ones on van now made for areas without too much space for the housing.

They are all over 25 years old, but I guarantee that there is no stock vehicle out there with modern lighting such as HID's or LEDs  that come even close to it.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2019 by formariz

[ZXT 2,394]

9 hours ago, formariz said:

@ZXT

Not to derail this thread but still within topic, since automotive lighting is a big thing here left over from Rallying days many moons ago. One would have to have driven something with rally  dedicated lighting to really appreciate how ridiculous lighting in cars , specially in this country are still today even with all technological advances. Sure one cannot be blinding oncoming traffic with a full array of lights, but when driving in back roads and in unlit areas good lighting is essential.

It it all about light dispersion , localization, intensity and last but not least color. Most lighting available today takes none of that into account, merely advertising LED technology with in my opinion means absolutely nothing. For the purpose of our tractors and their tiny charging systems power consumption is really the advantage LED s have.  Very important also is that any light which is not round is a compromise and will never be as efficient as a round light.

There is incredible LED accessory lighting from companies such as CIBIE and HELLA  but they are incredibly expensive and not appropriate for most of us.

More to your point and problem I use CIBIE accessory  lighting in my van. Van's actual headlights are also replaced with  unsealed beams using 150 watt halogen bulbs. All accessory lighting goes on with high beams and are aimed for full effect specially on back roads. I can basically detect a penny on the road at over 100 feet. There are many different types of lighting depending on driving habits, speed ,etc, such as pencil beams and cornering lights.

The actual headlights on your vehicle may be difficult to improve since I believe they are proprietary to that model, high performance versions perhaps not available. You could however introduce accessory lighting such as I did.

Mine are all halogens and CIBIE's. They are all specially wired such as not to put undue strain on wiring and charging system.I have quite a collection from days past like Super Oscars, Oscars, and Oscar Plus such as the ones on van now made for areas without too much space for the housing.

They are all over 25 years old, but I guarantee that there is no stock vehicle out there with modern lighting such as HID's or LEDs  that come even close to it.

I bet that lights up the road extremely well! I'd be afraid of using something like that around here and getting pulled over and written a citation. 

 

Here's a picture of the light output of HID projectors in my truck. Pictures do not do it justice; I can see more than what the picture captured. I didn't go with the brightest option; I didn't want to be too bright. I'm very satisfied with the final results. 

Edited December 16, 2019 by ZXT

[MikMacMike 479]

On 12/14/2019 at 10:28 AM, ZXT said:

I've been dealing with trying to find new, better headlights for my 95 Ram 2500. Couldn't see 30 feet in front of the truck on back roads. I've been doing quite a bit of research on what performs well and what doesn't, and that might still be somewhat relevant here.

 

I've found that LED bulbs are BRIGHT. That said, there is no focus to them; they just flood in a halogen housing. 

 

For car headlights, they are just now starting to come out with aftermarket LEDs that are safe (wont blind oncoming traffic) and legal. The big key with them is that they have a projector lens that focuses the light straight ahead, instead of directing it back and utilizing the reflective headlight housing. Reading through this got me wondering if such a thing existed for 1156 bulbs. I found what is essentially a extremely simplified version of what I used in my truck on eBay. Not sure how well they perform, but they might be something to try since they're fairly cheap. 

 

 

 

I wound up building "retrofit" lights for my truck. I used a set of projectors that use HID bulbs, and they are very focused and provide excellent light pattern. Without the projectors, they would flood and blind everyone. A fairly complex setup but worth it. The housings are factory but they are essentially unused - I could've painted the reflecting black if I had wanted to but I left it alone. 

Show us some pics of the retro......I was also going to say, my 2000 chevy tracker I found lighting to be crap, highs and lows...I baught brighter bulbs and it did a little but not enough, I took the lenses out and buffed the crap out of them.......whoooaaaa, 2 to 3 fold difference.

[ZXT 2,394]

3 minutes ago, MikMacMike said:

Show us some pics of the retro......I was also going to say, my 2000 chevy tracker I found lighting to be crap, highs and lows...I baught brighter bulbs and it did a little but not enough, I took the lenses out and buffed the crap out of them.......whoooaaaa, 2 to 3 fold difference.

The light output or the headlights themselves? My post above your comment shows the light output. The pictures don't do it justice.

[MikMacMike 479]

12 minutes ago, ZXT said:

The light output or the headlights themselves? My post above your comment shows the light output. The pictures don't do it justice.

Oh I thought you altered the head light buckets too, I wanted to see the alterations. Ive seen some online and they looked so sharp.

[ZXT 2,394]

8 hours ago, MikMacMike said:

Oh I thought you altered the head light buckets too, I wanted to see the alterations. Ive seen some online and they looked so sharp.

Nope, didn't have to alter the buckets any other than having to grind down a small boss where the halogen bulb shield was mounted.