3rd Gen Aftermarket LED Headlamps - Recommendations, Rants, Experience, Etc.

Did you try H9s as well, or just the original H11? And did you verify distance the light reaches, or just stand 3 ft in front?

If you take the time to read the complete first post of that thread, you will the extensive testing of different types, side by side, using light intensity meters, etc. Not just "looks better at 5 ft!".

 

Tell me more?

 

Stick to oem, if originally are led then upgrade your LED to match the average color on f the ground you drive on. If halogen then improve the bulbs. Cheers!

 

Please explain how you have come to know this?

 

Quoted from the link posted earlier. There's far more info in there from someone who knows way more than I do and can explain it far better. But I can pull from my experience playing with various lighting set ups that drop in leds are a decrease in actual light performance. "Brighter" doesn't mean better

LED
LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) offer significant advantages in durability, longevity and power consumption over halogen and HID, and can have higher output than halogen bulbs. Many new vehicles are now being produced with LED headlamps. LEDs typically have the ultra white or slight blue color temperature output in the 5000-6500k range without reduced output experienced by other light sources illuminating to high color temperatures. However, in a headlight you have two parts to the system, the light source and the headlight assembly designed for the halogen light source. The components must work effectively together to produce good output.

If you compare all the light source bulbs, the halogens, LEDs and HIDs in the picture at the beginning of the thread, there is one source that easily stands out as very different than the others. The LED. Automotive manufactures will utilize specialized light assemblies precision designed from the beginning for a LED to get excellent projection performance with their LED light source. Since the H11 housing is not an LED light assembly and is designed to collect and projection an omni-directional halogen light source from the center of the assembly, the LED must try to conform to mimic a halogen. While LEDs are excellent performing light sources with many advantages, the one thing they do not do well is mimic an omni-directional halogen headlight bulb. LEDs are a directional light source and the halogen assembly is designed for a uniform omni-directional light source. You can point an LED, but you cannot point a light bulb.

Directionallized light causes a non-uniform light pattern, giving unintended dark and hot spots in the pattern. While many bidirectional LEDs now put their chips in the correct X and Y position to attempt mimicking a filament, they are far wider than a halogen filament making the light source offset from center. As minuet changes in shrinking a halogen filament have significant positive performance effects, considerably growing the light source and offsetting it from center has the opposite effect. Focus and hot spot is greatly reduced or lost all together. This loss of focus causes significant glare and scatter in other assemblies, but due to the projectors internal light shield, glare is controlled. Focus and hot spot is now lost meaning the result is loss of distance projection or what people often refer to as lack of throw. Distance projection is the primary purpose of the headlight. This loss of ability to project distance shifts the light pattern toward the vehicle and causes a large output increase immediately in front of the vehicle. This makes for great looking photos and even initial impression in the vehicle, before realizing the distance projection has been lost. To further compound the problem, high immediate foreground light causes pupils to constrict and limit the ability to see distance in the dark. This is a fundamental geometry and physics problem with using an LED in a halogen assembly. Some may suggest that LEDs need to be adjusted up to fix the distance projection, but that in no way addresses the focus projection issue, instead just adds dangerous glare to oncoming drivers. LEDs and halogens could not be more fundamentally different. Even though the LED light source is brighter, the combination of non-uniform light pattern with loss of focus and distance projection running in an incompatible housing results in poor lighting performance. But this is not the fault of the LED, it is the result of using an LED in headlight assembly designed for a halogen light source.

 

Not really so simple. The original H11 halogen bulbs that came in your truck (mine too) are what are known as long life halogen, which do have a reduced lumen output as a trade off for lasting a long time, hence the name. There are high performance H11 bulbs available that are both effective and legal and work remarkably well, and will outperform the LED H11's you put in your headlights. There is also a popular upgrade of using the same H9 halogen that are in your high beams. The H9's are functionally identical to the H11's but are 65 watts rather than the standard 55 watt of the H11, along with a much higher luminosity than the LL H11's that are stock.

The LED's you put in ARE brighter, but they're not brighter where you need them to be because the size and shape of the LED elements are not even close to the original tungsten filament of the halogens. What generally happens is that you *think* they're brighter because they over light the foreground, effectively tricking your brain into thinking these bulbs are brighter. In reality, you cannot see nearly as far with these LED H11's and you're neither safe nor legal with them. In addition, as has been noted several times in this thread, your LED replacements will cause excess glare to oncoming drivers, further diminishing your (and their) safety.

But you seem to know more than those of us who have been studying this stuff for years - since the mid 1970's for me. Back then there was little to no information about improving nighttime vision and we had to experiment a lot, but today we have sites like this, and I strongly urge you to read every page of Crashburn's seemingly endless thread on this subject. There are other great internet sources from real experts, among the best is Daniel Stern's site. Stern is someone who helped write the regulations here and in Canada but is also accessible and answers his emails.

As others have said, the only real, effective and legal way to drastically improve your lighting is to pony up and buy the OEM 2020 LED assemblies, which are the best lights I have ever used. Better in almost every way, and once I had them installed and properly aligned, the sting of the price disappeared and I've never thought about the money again, only how much safer I am driving at night.

 

bright for you, blinding everyone else on the road. nice! You should check that Amazon listing, willing to bet $$ they say for "offroad use only" as they are not DOT approved.

 

No they don't.

But I find it funny that you "think" you know what I bought, and since what you "think" I bought it isn't what you would buy, it is clearly wrong.

Entertaining.

 

Post the link?

I know you won't because there are no drop in LEDs approved for on road use by the DOT lol

 

You sure like to bitch about how others do things, enjoy!

 

I didn't realize explaining that your choice of non-road approved lights blinds other drivers was bitching...still waiting for that link bud! i'm sure you "know" how to find it.

 

In all honesty, while they're definitely not brighter or better, they likely aren't blinding anyone. The projector has a cutoff and as long as the lights are aimed properly, the cutoff will be where it always was. Everyone who buys $10 LED bulbs is always going to think they're "super bright" and you'll never change that so I wouldn't waste any more time.

The information is plentiful but the education needs to be voluntary.

 

LEDs and Halogens have different beam patterns, this means that the light is dispersed differently through the projector housing. The factory 2018 projector headlights are designed for halogen bulbs with their near 360* light output, *not* LED bulbs as they have a different light output pattern (in addition to different lumens) equating to a wildly different candela reading.

 

It's not bitching.... it's a topic thst has been beaten to death on here and has a clear answer that is backed up with legitimate testing. This was an attempt to offer the better solution to someone that appears to not know why their choice wasn't ideal and hopefully to save someone else from making the same poor decision. Just because you choose to do somthing one doesn't mean you be blindly recommending a product just to others when there is a far better way. Sorry not everyone here is ready to pat you on the back and say good job and your right all the time.

 

I'm aware. And in a reflector, that's a huge issue. In a projector, less so as It's focused by the optic and there's a forced cutoff. It's the uplighting into eye level that causes an issue. The bulbs aren't really bright enough to do anything else. Regardless, it's the second half of my point that is the key element to all of this.

 

Didn't mean to nit pick. Just frustrated that this is still an issue in 2024 lol $20 bright LED bulbs from Amazon run rampid and people try to poo poo you for teaching them they are wrong in more ways than one by using them in the wrong housing.

 

You went from being so confidently unaware and wrong to making personal attacks...i feel bad for your wife!

edit - you're the bozo that bought a tacoma to commute that complains about MPG and poor shifting. Absolute lost cause here LOL

 

Just because someone does something different than you do doesn't make them wrong. You should try being helpful instead of condescending, it goes a lot further toward open communication.

 

My first reply was helpful and you are refusing to provide the requested info (Amazon listing) so I can show you the bulbs you chose were incorrect. I can't tell if you're a child or just an immature old man throwing a tantrum every time you post tbh