DD SL2 Pro LED headlight bulbs

I just put mine in last month and they are a GAME CHANGER! Best bulbs I've had in any car so far.

That's why DD continues to be my favorite company!

 

Congrats, you found a great way to waste $200. Almost as good as buying chewing tobacco or vapes.

 

How is this a waste if they work VERY well? I like these better than my old POS Alpharex lights.

 

They work VERY well to light up things right in front of your truck and leave things further away in the dark.
Post # 3 in THIS very thread.

This is Crash's mega thread where he tested and MEASURED output of every imaginable light source for a 3rd Gen Taco:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

 

I see his post, but I'm gauging my results off of the SL2, like the OP. I notice a HUGE improvement over OEM, so that's all I'm going off of. Are they the best lights, probably not, but there is a massive difference, so to say they are a waste is a bit of a stretch. Overpriced yes, but definitely a lot better.

 

Compared to the older SL1’s, the SL2 pros are a huge improvement. Also, down road lighting is not a problem. I was skeptical too, knowing that the older version was very unimpressive. When I read the DD marketing for the new SL2 pros, stating that they are designed to work in a halogen projector, I said, ok, probably marketing BS, but I had to do something about the poor performance of the SL1’s I had. I was quite surprised that they actually exceeded my expectations.

Finally someone who has actually tried them chimed in.

 

I’ll answer why I did. I’m vain and think that from outside the truck, LEDs look cooler. That’s the honest answer.

 

Have you noticed a lot of oncoming cars flashing their headlights at you?

 

Not one.

 

Because they can't see the stalk thru the glare.
At 70 yrs old I don't see that well at night and if I had a rocket launcher on board there would be a lot less non OEM LEDs out there.

 

the projectors still give a strong cutoff. It’s not like the cars with reflectors.

 

I was in front of some dude on the freeway the other day who must have had after market lights straight out of hell. The lights were misaligned and/or the brights with a refresh rate of no more than 30 Hzeeeees, it was like a techno rave party (strobe affect) in my rear and side view mirrors ….and this was in broad day light. If there was ever a time I wanted to get rear ended…

 

OEM projectors are designed to have reduced light above the cut off so you can see things beyond the low beam horizon without blinding other drivers, this is called uplight and all OEM lights have it. This is yet another area where PnP LEDs perform worse. Since the direction in the projector shield for uplight is directly in front of the bulb, it requires bouncing light off the back of the projector bowl directly behind bulb (at 6 o’clock) to reflect it forward out the uplight slot in the cut off shield. PnP LEDs do not omit omnidirectional light like halogens, they emit bi-directional light at 3 and 9 o’clock, very noticeably lacking the worst at 6 o’clock. Because of this, almost no light is reflected off the back of the projector bowl (at 6 o’clock) and therefore uplight is nearly eliminated. This means less “glare” than stock but it also means much less visibility beyond the low beam cut off, very much going against all OEM lighting designs for improved visibility and safety. Instead the OEM projector performs similar to a poor cheap Chinese aftermarket projector that doesn’t supply any uplight at all.

In short PnP LEDs do not cause increased glare in projectors, they significantly reduce it at great detriment to the OEM optics design and driver visibility. All the more reason to use the correct bulb type for the housing.

 

Thanks for that tutorial ... not being sarcastic. I did not know the designed-perfomance and how that funky tiny rectangle was created with my H9s.

 

Im glad I have OEM LED.

 

The rectangular uplight box was there with your stock bulbs too. With a halogen bulb upgrade the output intensity is increased in all areas of the pattern including the uplight, making the uplight box more noticeable.

Definitely superior to any PnP upgrade on the halogen assemblies, including even the best performance bulb halogens.

 

Not one

 

The SL2 Pro is a fantastic LED unit. They are head and shoulders above anything else out there, especially the "Amazon specials" that some guys use.
Diode Dynamics puts solid engineering behind their products. I've toured their facility and it's impressive.