3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

You can always swap the GEs to the fogs if you like the H9s better!

 

By the way, probably you have read this a lot here on this thread, but here it goes again:
what a nice write up sir!

 

@crashnburn80 I went back in the thread and maybe I missed it, but did you ever test the Japan Phillips Led bulb?

 

Not yet! Currently suffering from death by holidays. I need to get on it though and have a day where the weather cooperates for outdoor distance testing.

 

got ya. sorry about the death. Stay positive have a good day. take a day or two off from here.

 

I think you misunderstood him, he likely meant his holiday responsibilities have overwhelmed him to the point his testing routine has suffered. I know the feeling well.

 

LOL, no actual death. Just holiday madness.

 

We call them moose lights for a reason up here:

love these Hella 700FF’s!

 

@crashnburn80 sorry to bother you brother, I recently bought the ge +130 and found out it is the same thing of a regular h9 swap.. I will install these on my fogs.

what about installing a h11 true 70watt bulb? I do not want to go led or hid.

i found these:

https://www.europaparts.com/bulb-2110335-flosser.html

Is it safe tu run these with stock wiring? Will these be better than h9 swap?

thanks in Advance!

 

Nice. How do you like those? I've been thinking about getting those or the 500's lately trying to get a little more distance than the high beam. Just haven't been sure how good they'd perform with only a 55w bulb. I've also been thinking about the KC Apollo or Daylighter's. Really just any less expensive, halogen light. Have you compared any others to the Hellas?

 

An H9 is listed as 65w, but the legal specs allow +/-15%, or up-to 74.75w, the Philips H9s were the highest power units I tested nearly pegged to the legal limit at over 74w.

So while the 70w H11s may seem higher in power, they are not. The H9s are at 74w and change. That and the H9s have all the performance efficiencies built in, whereas the 70w H11s will likely use a thicker coil which will not focus as well, meaning reduced hot spot intensity and distance projection over the H9. All that and the blue coating on those will also further harm output.

Keep in mind while peak intensity values may look very similar with the GEs and H9s, the H9s put out more overall light, so you’ll get more light in the outer edges of the pattern than just in the focused hot spots.

 

There is no need to spend top dollar on LED driving lights, there are good halogen options at much more affordable prices. You can run 100w bulbs in the 500s, or upgrade the 55w bulbs to the max efficiency with Osram Nightbreaker +150 H3s to enhance focus and distance projection.

With halogens, larger deeper reflectors are more performant than smaller shallower ones with all other things being equal. The KC Daylighters have massively deep reflectors, the lights are very large though. Check out KCs performance specs comparing the Apollo’s to the Daylighters, they do a good job at documenting performance with detailed measured specs. The Daylighters blow away the Apollo’s and the Hellas (with a 55w bulb). I haven’t tested those lights personally so I don’t have first hand experience with those lights.

 

My limited testing showed the Hella 700FF’s with 100w bulbs to be roughly 2x as bright than the stock high beams at the hot spot of each at 20’, which is the furthest back I can get in my garage at work. It’s not really a fair comparison as the Hellas are more of a spot beam and the stock highs are a more spread (driving?) pattern so the light of the Hellas is much more concentrated. On a 2 lane Highway, the Hellas easily cover both lanes out to a 1/4 mile or so, but only spread to about 2.5 lanes.

I have mine aimed so that they start to overlap slightly at about 100 yards, giving me great amounts of light down the road and illuminating the 50ft or so of clearings on either side of the highway. It’s actually hard to tell the stock high beams are even on, but they are because I wired the Hellas to only turn on with the high beams via a relay, no switch.

I spent only $60 on a N-Fab light bar thanks to an Amazon warehouse deal, $60 for the Hella 700FF pair, $10 for a pair of Hella 100w bulbs, and $20 for a MICTuning 12ga wiring harness. I couldn’t be happier with it, especially for the money. Doing it again, I would build my own harness and relay for the lights but that’s it.

I might consider the day lighters in the future, but I don’t think they’ll fit on the bar without touching the grill, unless the mount more on the rear of the housing and hand forward.

 

Also, I’d like to note that the $200 KC daylighters 100w halogens outperform the $500 KC Gravity Pro6’s, by 600 lux and 200 meters in distance, spot vs spot and spread vs driving patterns. The $170 6” Apollo Pro’s (which should be similar to my Hellas?) are slightly behind, by 100-150 lux and 50-100 meters. The big difference of course is the power draw (8.3 amps per light vs 1.63 amps) and longevity as high wattage halogens aren’t known for long life, but how often do you use your high beams anyway?

 

The Hellas are a driving pattern (aux high beam). This is somewhat like a focused spot with more light to the sides, providing excellent distance illumination without being over isolated like a spot pattern. Here is the KC Pro6 SAE J581 driving light pattern.



Here is the OEM 3rd Hen high beam pattern (halogen left). The area above where the low beam cut off would be is illuminated with higher intensity for extended distance projection where it matters, but also plenty of uplight for overhead illumination but much less focused.



So as you can see while they are both ‘high beam’ patterns, they are also quiet different. The OEM pattern is more of a multipurpose high beam, extending distance projection and intensity while also providing more uplight. The dedicated driving light is far more focused, without wasting light in a flood of uplight, for maximum distance projection.

 

Yep, impressive for sure! The other big difference between the Daylighters and Pro6 is size, the Daylighters are significantly deeper. Hella doesn’t publish much for specs, but they do have a distance plot on the Driving 500s.

http://www.myhellalights.com/index....ogen-lamps/500-series/hella-500-driving-lamp/

 

Hard to find at this price if anyone here is interested in a copy... Automotive Lighting and Human Vision

https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/184072949757

 

That is a killer price! I still need to finish reading mine!

 

They have it for the 700’s too:

http://www.myhellalights.com/index.php/products/auxiliary-lamps/halogen-lamps/700ff-series/

100m more light for the same money is why I went with the 700’s.

 

I must have missed that! Yes, larger reflectors have better performance, though the 700ffs also benifit from the use free form optics vs the less efficient fluted glass secondary optics of the 500s.

Gotta love having real data for product comparisons.