LED Headlights....I did not listen

This is not your typical "What are the best headlights to buy" threads. This is to post about my experience. I like many others, bought the OPT7 Fluxbeam headlights. Where I do love the look of them, I have always been disappointed with the throw of the beam, The spread is nice and the projectors definitely help, however the distance has always been an issue.

Well today happened. We are in a "Blizzard Warning" which isn't a huge deal around here, sure things close, but I have 4-wheel drive and am not new to driving in these conditions. What was different this time, is it's my first heavy wet snow with this pickup.

The issue is, the LED's do not get hot so they do not melt the snow on the headlights, this caused the snow to just stick to the headlights, I couldnt see anything light wise beyond 20 feet in front of me (mind you visibility I could still see the closest vehicle 500 yards ahead of me) But knowing I was on the road was difficult. I am lucky that the road is straight, I live and work on the outskirts of town (5 min drive to the office), but still, it was bad. The photo from my dashcam doesn't do it justice, it was much worse.

I will be looking for different headlight bulbs. Where I love the look of these, safe they are not.

 

Go old school Nordic: Volvo or SAAB they had wipers on the headlights.

 

I was thinking something like this could be mock'd up pretty easily

 

Thank you for mentioning this. I have been contemplating making a swap, but living in Wisconsin brings its share of snowy nights that the Tacoma must navigate through. This adds a new dimension to the decision process!

 

The headlights won't get warm enough to really get heavy wet snow off. And that's the snow that will stick to your headlights.

I just drove this morning in heavy wet snow and it stuck to everything. Lights were on for an hour and they were still covered in snow that would not melt or fall off.

 

I actually do this usually, but havn't this year.

My past vehicles have never had issues, each snow this year the snow sticks. I understand what was said above, that they will never be "HOT" to the touch, but there is 0 temperature released from the LED's so there is nothing to release the built up snow even when sitting at stop lights. Anything will be better. So I guess this goes back to the issues of the LED throw in the non-LED projectors made worse by poor conditions, and covered in snow. Either way, the combination was not safe, and is being remedied

 

Reading about the lack of throw in particular was my biggest concern. I'm out in Montana and once you hit the highways, it can get really dark, and seeing far is pretty critical.

I ended up going with the DDM Plus Canbus HID kit, which is legit plug and play, and for the last month, they've been awesome.
Posted about them here - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-3rd-gen-today.399305/page-3624#post-16712852

 

A nice layer of PAM... Works on our satellite dish to keep the snow off. It kinda builds up then sluffs off.

 

Some (most?) new vehicles with LEDs have headlight heaters because of this issue.

 

Also, getting some yellow fog lights will help increase vision in bad weather conditions. I find LED lights don't do well in general with snow/rain...that's why I'm considering some yellow fogs for the penetrating light power.

 

I had not considered this. Might not be a bad idea

 

It's the beam pattern, not the color, that helps with respect to fog lights. Here ya go https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/fog_lamps/fog_lamps.html

 

Yes, beam pattern definitely plays a role, but yellow is known to penetrate different condition over say white due to different wavelengths.

 

I'm not going to argue because marginally, a warm color could help. The biggest by far advantage is a wide beam close to the ground, below the fog and illuminating only the sides and right in front of the vehicle. It could be red or green if it has that pattern and still work fine. But yes, illuminating a "white" object (snow, fog) with a white light is not the absolute best.

 

Great article, I find this stuff fascinating to read about. So i've been on a lighting research kick, and I could be mistaken (I often am) but I think his quote here -

"Good (and legal) fog lamps may produce white or Selective Yellowlight—it is the beam pattern, not the light colour, that defines a fog lamp—and most of them use tungsten-halogen bulbs though there are some legitimate (and a lot of illegitimate) LED fog lamps beginning to appear."

I take that to mean that a light IS a fog light, based off the beam pattern, and not the color. This makes sense, as a light mounted low on a vehicle that aims up at the sky isn't serving the function of a fog light. I don't think he is stating that color is not a factor in fog lights helping visibility, however.

*Edit - damn you guys above are quick! hiPSI, that's the conclusion I came to as well after reading extensively about the topic.

 

Just switch to HID low beams, problem solved.

 

Yup, I immediately ordered the Xenon Depot H11 Extreme HID kit with the 4300k phillips bulbs when I got to work.

 

I went with The Retrofit Source 5500K kit and I love it. Puts out tons of light and I've had no problems.

 

Gotcha. I'll be getting some dual color LED fogs here soon. One being white and the other yellow so I'll get to see if there is a noteworthy difference (change bulb color via turning fogs off then back on - repeat until at desired color). Since I've upgraded all my bulbs to LED...they're all super bright during dry conditions but I've found when it snows or rains they're lacking (hence me trying this dual color fog light).

 

Installing HIDs, it's just plug and play but you have a ballast to deal with right? Uses the same housing and all?