Hella 500FF vs LED light bars

I haven’t seen much comparison on this and even Google search comes up with a lot of nothing.

I have been looking at putting a pair of Hella 500FF drivinglights on the front of my 4Runner; but I wanted to research and see if LED wasa better choice. While I don’t have the money to spend money on the Ridged and Baja Design LEDs, I was looking at the cheaper imported versions (hopefully from Hanma or Totron). I every time I look I seeing something else come out with an even brighter LED, I now see 10w Cree single row light bars.

I have updated the stock bulbs in my 4Runner: low beams are Philips Xtreme Power and in the high beams I have Philips HIR1s. I do a lot of rural highway driving late at night and I want to see better and brighter.

If I go the 500 route, I am not going to mod them to fit HID. I need to turn the lights off for oncoming traffic, thus 'flashing' HIDs isn’t good. Maryland allows you to run bright lights as long at you dim them.

So which LED light bar is comparable to the Hella 500FF lights?

 

I like mine.

 

Go with the led light bar.

The Hellas aren't that great.

Ur other option is a decent set of halogen lights like light force..... U gotta pay to play tho.

I had the genesis model, they would throw extremely far and u could feel the heat easily from 5ft away and beyond.

 

Which LED bar is comparable to the 500s?

 

None.

Nothing will keep up with the HID 55w 500s thats an LED bar interms of distance. LED technology just isn't there yet.

i have 4 HID 55w hellas and fucking love them. They are killer bright. And..WAY cheaper then any LED bar that would be close to competing with them.

LED bars IMO are only good for ATM for fill and flood lights. for a driving spot light, nothing beats a large reflector lamp with HIDs. Period.

i also drive with mine on the hwy and have no problems turning them on and off.

i aslo have LF240s that are halogens that are very nice driving lights too. VERY far reaching lights.

i pretty much have everything..halogens, HIDs and LEDs.





if anything. If your gonna get 4 hellas, convert two to HID and leave two halogen. The HIDs are epic.

 

I'm not going HID, I have to turn off the lights for on coming traffic.

It's either incandescent or LED for my truck.

 

Fair enough.

a 20'' or 30'' bar will be fine then.

or id get some 8'' halogens like the lf240s or Hella 4000s.

 

Ur pics never get old!

 

Should get some new ones..have a much better camera now..maybe i will. Could end up getting some more

 

Same reason I got the light forces..... U can also buy filters for spot, flood, combo, blue, yellow, blackout IR, and on some models u can adjust the beam pattern like a maglight.

Led light bars I always thought couldn't throw far, but genuine Cree LEDs make me wonder how far they have come.... I have Cree reverse lights and they throw quite far..... Not NEARY as far as my light forces, but not too bad.

A halogen housing with a large and well designed reflector bowl can reach out very very far....

I may look into a newer led light bar just because the prices keep dropping and I'd like to have aux lighting without getting massive housings which cover the airflow to my intercooler.

 

Make sure to pm me a link to where u post the pics man... Those far away shots are insane.
I always wanted to see the other end of my genesis...... All I know is they reflected back signs faaaaaar down the road. Will at sierra expeditions and I talked about the throw of such small housings and how great the output is.

 

Yea my LF240s hit signs at least a mile or more same with the HIDs. its awesome.

 

Here are some race ready lights.......
http://www.bajadesigns.com/ProductDetail?ItemNumber=480003

 

more of a fill/fog light. no distance.

 

They have different options for lights.
http://www.bajadesigns.com/products/Truck-Buggy-Lights/led-lights-led-light-bar/squadron-led-lights

 

This is where I got my Totron light bar..and it is insanely bright..I am very happy with it. They have LED lights in just about every size, shape, and wattage that you can imagine.

If you want small lights similar to the Hella's, I would recommend getting something that totals around at least 4000 lumens. I would also recommend getting SPOT or combo. The floods I have seen are very weak and barely throw.

http://stores.ebay.com/eg-motor/10W...7903919&_sid=1159834909&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

I have a 30" Double row Cree Spot only rated at 18,000 lumens:

35w HID headlights only



18,000 Lumen LED light bar

 

500FF Halgen has very weak output but they can throw better than an LED if you get spots. Just wont have width. LED light bar is not street legal anywhere so I don't understand the issue with having to dim them for oncoming traffic... that will be very occasional offroad.

 

That last pic file name is probably "trump_card.jpeg"