Anyone ever upgrade to LED reverse lights?

I’ve been looking at back up light options since the OEM ones aren’t all that bright. I toyed with the idea of some rigids or a light bar, but then an ad for “Diesel LEDs” popped up (https://dieselleds.com/products/921-super-b-led-revere-light-kit-2100-lumens). Anyone have any experience with these?

 

I use Meso's total tail stage 1 which has VLEDS LED switchback reverse lights, they work great. It's easy to just replace your OEM halogen reverse lights with Meso's total tail stage 1. Another option if you want just LED reverse lights is VLEDs V6 extreme reverse light LEDs. The V6 VLEDs are plenty bright and a solid product.
Those Diesel LEDs look like your standard made in China junk.

 

These are just plug in replacements for the OEM ones. No real need for external pods, IMO.

I got them from Amazon, but superbrightLEDs has basically the same ones.

 

Those are cheap generic brand LEDs, you can find the same ones on ebay or others for way less. Obviously the output is greatly exaggerated and not to be believed.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AUXITO-T15...LM-White-for-Toyota-Honda-CSP-EA/303313419262

Light output is initially high but will rapidly decrease. More reputable sellers will also warn you that the product isn't intended to stay on for long and risks overheating and early product failure, so might be great for a parking lot, but not if you need to reverse down long portions of a trail.

You might consider this instead. One member ran both the lights you linked above and this HIR upgrade, and said the HIR upgrade was significantly better.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gy6-35-hir-921-reverse-light-upgrade-vs-high-power-leds.474996/

 

Also:

Any "ad that pops up" is generally about as trustworthy as those ads that tell you there are girls nearby who want to meet you.

In other words: just. don't.

 

I got Phillips LEDs thinking they’d be brighter but they’re not much better than stock. Really looking for a better solution that isn’t $55 like the dieselleds

 

The Philips LEDs were tested here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-921-led-reverse-light-bulb-study.490137/

I’d recommend checking out the HIR upgrade I linked earlier. If really wanting LED you might consider Diode Dynamics XPR LEDs, they are $90 though and their stable output is lower than the HIRs.

 

Thanks, but I have an 1156 bulb truck so I think my options are more limited than 921 trucks

 

That is a much more difficult challenge.

 

I second the HIR mod, i had some cheap LEDs and i could not see a thing when reversing at night. I can see everything with the HIR bulbs now

 

Did you do the wiring upgrade he mentioned as well?

 

No wiring upgrade needed for the HIR mod.

I had considered doing one to get even more output (for fun) but I later used a voltage booster with an AGM battery to get the same affect of further boosting halogen output and was far easier.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-northstar-agm-battery-voltage-booster-upgrade.604478/

 

These work well

 

The gy6.65 halogens ended up being less bright than the LEDS I had in there.

I switched back to the LEDS I had before

 

In your shoes I’d give these a shot.

JDM ASTAR Extremely Bright Max 50W High Power 1156 7506 LED Light Bulbs for Back Up Reverse Lights, Xenon White

https://www.amazon.com/JDM-ASTAR-Ex...0c2e1bd9cff&pd_rd_wg=DJHZV&pd_rd_i=B00MC6799K
Mainly due to the lack of plastic. All aluminum with steel cups.

 

Are you sure you ran HIRs and not the gy6.35 halogens that look the same? Which LEDs are you running, because I’m not aware of any plug and play units without massive external heat sinks that have higher stable output than the HIRs.

There is the very common misunderstanding when people judge output by looking at the lights facing the truck rather than what look at what they illuminate facing away from the truck. Even cheap poor performing LEDs will hurt you eyes looking at the truck because human eyes are sensitive to high color temp/short wavelength light (which LEDs produce), and not low color temp long wavelength light (which halogens produce). Aka, looking at a given light source humans will rate LEDs as brighter because it hurts their eyes more, even though the halogens are actually higher in output.

 

My mistake, the gy6.65 halogens are not a bright as the LEDS I have looking at the light output on the wall not looking at the light bulbs.

I don’t remember the maker on the LEDS I bought them two years ago

 

I use the Auxito ones in my second gen but being 921 they can accommodate a larger base for heat sinking. I would weigh whether trying to rival 921 output is worth it using lamps with much smaller bases. If you find some that are really bright down the road you might find your sockets have been cooked. This won’t be a problem if you only use them briefly while in reverse but that’s different from lights designed to be left on for longer like pods etc. Fwiw differences in lumen output are easier to measure than see so I personally choose based on what looks like well thought out construction rather than posted absolute numbers.

 

Hmm, unsure what to tell you here. It is exceptionally that those LEDs would outperform the HIRs. LEDs (especially those from 2 years ago) need massive external heat sinks that sit outside of the tail light assembly to run high enough power to compete with the HIRs or in the very latest highest tech expensive LEDs they briefly exceed the output with very high power draw but then quickly drop off as heat becomes an issue and output drops to levels lower than the HIRs. The LEDs you posted are definitely not either of the above exceptions.

Id speculate one of the following:
A) A very short range door test was misleading due to color temperature.
B) The wrong gy6.35 bulb was used, either non-IR bulb or a lower wattage bulb.
C) Something is wrong with your trucks reverse wiring such as corroded connectors that cause reduced voltage to the reverse lights, which will substantially hurt halogen performance but not LED performance.

This thread might be interesting for context, and this is using the lower performing 30w Philips HIR for comparison, not the newer higher output 35w Osram HIR.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-921-led-reverse-light-bulb-study.490137/