LED Headlight Conversion

[aerochris]

Have any of you converted the headlights and top parking lights to LED? My lights have a lot of draw on the battery and I would like to convert to LED. Please let me know if you have any links or part numbers. Thanks!

[theastronaut]

The only good options for LED are JW Speaker and Trucklite. The cheaper ebay/amazon/lmc lights have a horrible beam pattern; you won't be able to see well and they'll blind oncoming traffic.

https://www.amazon.com/J-W-Speakers-...+speaker+evo+2

https://www.amazon.com/Truck-Lite-27...=trucklite+led


If you don't want to spend that much on lights, Cibie H4's with a relay harness are the best H4 headlight available. The relay harness with take the load off the factory wiring and switch, and the headlights dont' see any voltage drop so they're brighter.

https://www.amazon.com/Cibie-082440-...words=cibie+h4

[Robert Haas]

I have the fan cooled LED's headlights with halo's From Dapper Lighting. https://www.dapperlighting.com/

They are very, very bright and put out a pure white light. Spendy, but very nice.

[Robert Haas]

Some more

This is the day time running light mode where just the Halo's are on.


The outside halo turns amber and flashes with the turn signals or flasher circuit.

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

The only good options for LED are JW Speaker and Trucklite. The cheaper ebay/amazon/lmc lights have a horrible beam pattern; you won't be able to see well and they'll blind oncoming traffic.

This is just not close to the truth, sorry.

Dapper 575's have a tightly controlled beam pattern and are completely "aim-able"

My vision is now out to over 1,000 feet.


here is the install posts I did.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...hlight=LED%27s

[aerochris]

Thank you for the great replies. The Trucklite 27 and Dapper 575's look really nice.

I was thinking about getting a pair of these
https://www.amazon.com/Incandescent-...6DYRSCB36N9D1F
Just to keep cost down a little. Any thoughts on those? Or am I in for a big expense to convert to LED?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Robert Haas

This is just not close to the truth, sorry.

Dapper 575's have a tightly controlled beam pattern and are completely "aim-able"

My vision is now out to over 1,000 feet.


here is the install posts I did.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...hlight=LED%27s

I had a set of Dapper 7" V2 HID's in my Miata, ended up going back to Cibie H4's because they perform soooo much better. Dapper uses small H1 halogen projectors with re-based HID bulbs, so the optics aren't designed for the HID bulb. The beam pattern was only 90* wide, not at all adequate. They also include instructions on how to bend the three prongs on the base if the bulbs to center the hot spot with the middle of the cut off... the end user should not have to adjust the bulb's placement inside the reflector! Very poor quality control. The cut-off was clean and sharp, but there's way more to a "tightly controlled beam pattern" than having a good cutoff. The fact that they offer a halogen, HID, and LED bulb with the same projector shows that they don't really care about the beam pattern...

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by aerochris

Thank you for the great replies. The Trucklite 27 and Dapper 575's look really nice.

I was thinking about getting a pair of these
https://www.amazon.com/Incandescent-...6DYRSCB36N9D1F
Just to keep cost down a little. Any thoughts on those? Or am I in for a big expense to convert to LED?

Those aren't even headlights, they're flood pattern work lights for a tractor. The Par36 size is smaller than a 5.75" headlights so they won't fit in your headlight buckets. The two links I first posted are the best legitimate DOT LED headlights that perform safely at night. 99% of everything else sold as "LED headlights" are going to be inferior to a good pair of sealed beams and a relay harness.

[theastronaut]

Here's a shot of the beam pattern of the Dapper V2's. Very narrow, and way too much foreground illumination.

[aerochris]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

The only good options for LED are JW Speaker and Trucklite. The cheaper ebay/amazon/lmc lights have a horrible beam pattern; you won't be able to see well and they'll blind oncoming traffic.

https://www.amazon.com/J-W-Speakers-...+speaker+evo+2

https://www.amazon.com/Truck-Lite-27...=trucklite+led


If you don't want to spend that much on lights, Cibie H4's with a relay harness are the best H4 headlight available. The relay harness with take the load off the factory wiring and switch, and the headlights dont' see any voltage drop so they're brighter.

https://www.amazon.com/Cibie-082440-...words=cibie+h4

Do you have a link to the wiring harness for the Cibie H4's?

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I had a set of Dapper 7" V2 HID's in my Miata, ended up going back to Cibie H4's because they perform soooo much better. Dapper uses small H1 halogen projectors with re-based HID bulbs, so the optics aren't designed for the HID bulb. The beam pattern was only 90* wide, not at all adequate. They also include instructions on how to bend the three prongs on the base if the bulbs to center the hot spot with the middle of the cut off... the end user should not have to adjust the bulb's placement inside the reflector! Very poor quality control. The cut-off was clean and sharp, but there's way more to a "tightly controlled beam pattern" than having a good cutoff. The fact that they offer a halogen, HID, and LED bulb with the same projector shows that they don't really care about the beam pattern...

Here we go again.

Geesh.

The guy asked about LED's not HID's

You keep posting about your one bad experience with a HID project you had on your little Import.

You have no experience at all with modern focuse beam LED head lights so kindly shut the heck up.

You trashed my original thread about a positive experience I had with a company that has some of the absolute finest customer support and deserve to be considered by any of us.

If anyone wants advice on sealed beam upgrades, you are the guy.

[Chevy Fleetside]

https://www.octanelighting.com/produ...g5-led-6k-7x63 These are just bulbs to put in your H4 headlight housing. I have no idea how good they are or if they will even fit in the trucks headlight bucket. They seem pretty long.

[chevy_mike]

Keep things civil guys. Opinions are like.... well you get the idea. Keep things on topic. Asking about LED lights is not asking about HID's. Please don't intermingle these different lights in your replies folks.

As for LED recommendations, though this was for my Jeep Cherokee (square lights), I bought a cheaper set of LED's off Amazon that had gotten a lot of good reviews. Had them in one night and sent them back. Pattern was horrible. Yes they were "bright and white" but not much better then stock pattern. Spent the $$$ for a set of J.W. Speaker 8700 Evo 2 (you want the Evo 2 as they are brighter then the original ones). OMG! These were better then my factory LED lights in our '16 RAV4, which has been the best lighting of any of the 55 vehicles I have owned. It wasn't cheap but I love to drive at night and it kept me from needing any other extra lighting (fogs, driving, etc.)

My .02 worth.

[The Rocknrod]

Don't be hatin.
Besides is Then vice Than.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Robert Haas

Here we go again.

Geesh.

The guy asked about LED's not HID's

You keep posting about your one bad experience with a HID project you had on your little Import.

You have no experience at all with modern focuse beam LED head lights so kindly shut the heck up.

You trashed my original thread about a positive experience I had with a company that has some of the absolute finest customer support and deserve to be considered by any of us.

If anyone wants advice on sealed beam upgrades, you are the guy.

Dapper uses the same halogen projector for their halogen, HID, or LED bulbs. They don't use an appropriate projector designed for each bulb type. That wrecks the beam pattern with HID or LED bulbs. Another problem is that they use small, under-performing halogen projectors due to the size constraints of the headlight buckets on older cars. Add bulbs that aren't ideal for the optics of a halogen projector and their light output is less than ideal. Those aren't opinions, they are facts. I never said I had a bad experience with them, they were great to work with and I have no bad feelings towards them. They've even emailed me asking if I knew of a solution to overcome the problem of fitting a better performing light that still fits inside the headlight bucket of most older cars/trucks; they know that's an issue with their V2's.

So when you recommend dapper's LED headlights you're really recommending a set of halogen projectors with LED bulbs.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by chevy_mike

Keep things civil guys. Opinions are like.... well you get the idea. Keep things on topic. Asking about LED lights is not asking about HID's. Please don't intermingle these different lights in your replies folks.

As for LED recommendations, though this was for my Jeep Cherokee (square lights), I bought a cheaper set of LED's off Amazon that had gotten a lot of good reviews. Had them in one night and sent them back. Pattern was horrible. Yes they were "bright and white" but not much better then stock pattern. Spent the $$$ for a set of J.W. Speaker 8700 Evo 2 (you want the Evo 2 as they are brighter then the original ones). OMG! These were better then my factory LED lights in our '16 RAV4, which has been the best lighting of any of the 55 vehicles I have owned. It wasn't cheap but I love to drive at night and it kept me from needing any other extra lighting (fogs, driving, etc.)

My .02 worth.

I posted my experience with Dapper because Robert brought them up, and they use LED and HID bulbs in halogen projectors which diminishes their performance. They're not true LED lights like your JW Speakers and don't perform nearly as well. They're also illegal, you're not supposed to use LED or HID bulbs in a light originally designed to used halogen bulbs.

[dapperlighting]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Dapper uses the same halogen projector for their halogen, HID, or LED bulbs. They don't use an appropriate projector designed for each bulb type. That wrecks the beam pattern with HID or LED bulbs. Another problem is that they use small, under-performing halogen projectors due to the size constraints of the headlight buckets on older cars. Add bulbs that aren't ideal for the optics of a halogen projector and their light output is less than ideal. Those aren't opinions, they are facts. I never said I had a bad experience with them, they were great to work with and I have no bad feelings towards them. They've even emailed me asking if I knew of a solution to overcome the problem of fitting a better performing light that still fits inside the headlight bucket of most older cars/trucks; they know that's an issue with their V2's.

So when you recommend dapper's LED headlights you're really recommending a set of halogen projectors with LED bulbs.

Hi John,

I know you've been quite vocal about how upset you were with our products on various forums online. I again apologize that you had a bad experience. We quickly refunded your money and did everything we could to make you happy.

The kit that Robert is referring to does not use an H1 projector so I'm not sure where you are getting your information from. The 575s and Sevens have three different types of projectors that we use (Halogen, HID, LED).

Again I'm sorry you had a bad experience. We really do try our best to produce a product that satisfies everyones individual/specific needs. We also greatly welcome feedback as a small company. If you do have constructive criticism and suggestions to make our products better, please do reach out and we'd love to hear your input.

It will always be a balance between performance/fitment/looks. We really do try and give customers a good balance of the three. Our new Sevens and 575s have eliminated the need to cut buckets, making install much easier.

Do we claim these are the brightest lights out there? Nope.
Do we claim these are the best looking lights? Nope.
But you will get the best customer service, a reliable product, and good performing and looking set of lights that suits you and your cars needs.

I think this is something that Robert and many of our customers can attest to.

As mentioned before, our door is always open.

Thanks!
Dapper Lighting

[Robert Haas]

Well there it is.

I do not expect John to reverse his position nor to offer an apology for misrepresenting a product he was wrong about.(something a grown up would do) I will be stunned.

He flat trashed the thread I created after installing the 575's from Dapper and it really pissed me off.

Nothing I can do about it now, well there is one thing.

I will be installing the exact same set up in the truck we are building out in the shop and will promote Dapper to anyone that bothers to read about it in our build thread.

I am not an employee or paid a thing for my support, I paid full price for the last set and will pay full price for the next. That is how I stand behind any product I use on our builds.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by dapperlighting

Hi John,

I know you've been quite vocal about how upset you were with our products on various forums online. I again apologize that you had a bad experience. We quickly refunded your money and did everything we could to make you happy.

The kit that Robert is referring to does not use an H1 projector so I'm not sure where you are getting your information from. The 575s and Sevens have three different types of projectors that we use (Halogen, HID, LED).

Again I'm sorry you had a bad experience. We really do try our best to produce a product that satisfies everyones individual/specific needs. We also greatly welcome feedback as a small company. If you do have constructive criticism and suggestions to make our products better, please do reach out and we'd love to hear your input.

It will always be a balance between performance/fitment/looks. We really do try and give customers a good balance of the three. Our new Sevens and 575s have eliminated the need to cut buckets, making install much easier.

Do we claim these are the brightest lights out there? Nope.
Do we claim these are the best looking lights? Nope.
But you will get the best customer service, a reliable product, and good performing and looking set of lights that suits you and your cars needs.

I think this is something that Robert and many of our customers can attest to.

As mentioned before, our door is always open.

Thanks!
Dapper Lighting

Yes, I was rather dissapointed in the performance of the V2's I tried. The beam pattern was very narrow and the distance visibility on high beam wasn't as good as the 30-40 year old Cibie H4's they replaced. I expected them to be an upgrade over a 40+ year old halogen design, but I recieved lights with a halogen projector with HID bulbs adapted to fit. Had I known they weren't proper HID projectors I wouldn't have ordered them to begin with. I have shared my experience with them when they come up on forums, and usually recommend Cibie's instead since they offer better performance and fit most people's budget. The goal is being able to see the best, so I recommend what I know works best. If the V2's had performed well I'd be their biggest fan and would be recommending them instead of Cibie or JW Speaker/Trucklite. Customer service was good, y'all even took care of return shipping of the defective headlights; not something all companies would do. I have criticized the performance of the V2's; I really do feel like they should have performed better than they did. I never intended to come across that I was against Dapper as a company or that I had any issues with your customer service, and I appologize if it ever came across that way. I'm probably overly passionate about headlight performance since I do a ton of driving at night and have spent a lot of time, effort, and money to improve the lighting of my cars. I've had over 30 round/rectangle headlights , plus various fog and driving lights in my cars over the past 8-10 years to see what works and what I like best for my own cars and cars we build for other people.

I was wrong about the 575's, I posted what I did based on the V2's I had that used HID bulbs in a H1 projector, and your website showing the same LED, HID, and halogen bulb options on the 575's page that are shown on the V2's page. The website doesn't state that they use separate styles of projectors on the 575's for each bulb type; it just shows the same bulb options for the 575's and V2's. I (wrongly) assumed that they used the same projector for different bulb types like the V2's I had. That's great that each bulb type has a proper projector for it now, and I'm glad to see that you're adding to and improving your product line.

[Robert Haas]

That reads like a person that is too proud to say sorry without wrapping it up in 2 paragraphs of justification.

Way to own it.

[Rickysnickers]

To the O.P., I have the Trucklites on mine and I really like them.

[BR3W CITY]

Since we're having the conversation; JW Speaker lights for Humvee and Oshkosh trucks.

[aerochris]

Seems like it is going to be an expensive upgrade. These have decent reviews: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...QAOP89XC&psc=1

But I would rather have lights with clear glass color since I have a chrome grill and not a painted grill.

[Cooper197]

I have a set of truck lite LED's on my old MR2, and a set of Morimoto Sealed7's on my truck. I've used a number of Morimoto products in the past and have always been pleased with the quality and longevity of them.

I actually don't care for the truck lites. They are bright, and will be staying on my MR2, but they have a horrible hotspot in the middle which really annoys me. Beyond that, they are fantastic, bright, wide and far.
The Moritmoto's are LED projectors and are much more evenly lit. They shine wider, further and are very comparable to the output of my 2015 Mercedes. I bought the 1.0 series a few months ago when they were on sale for $150/set, looks like now they just carry the 2.0 for $600/set. IMO, worth the extra over the truck lites, but they have a look that doesn't suite all classics as well.

All that being said, if you aren't concerned about getting much better light output than stock, you'd be fine with nearly any 7" LED light. I'd wager that even the cheap sets on Amazon will shine as well as the stock lights on these trucks and draw less power. If you want a better output and the low amp draw of LED's, be prepared to pay up.

[aerochris]

Thanks everyone for the info. I am happy enough with the light output of the factory lights. The problem is when the lights are on, the cooling fan is on, and the A/C is on, there is a big drain on the system. The lights seemed like the easiest thing to modify to ease the load. I'm hoping to find some LED's that won't break the bank.