Why would I want super bright front turn signal bulbs?

Did the MESO Stage 1 kit in the tails of my Gen3. Changed the front marker lights over to leds, but when I got to changing over the front turn signals, I started asking myself about brightness. I guess the stock 7440A hot-wire bulbs put out about 260 lumens. The aftermarket led replacement bulbs I was looking at all claim to be "super bright" with stated light output around 2500 to 3500 lumens.

Now, even if these manufacturers are padding their numbers a bit, do I really want a led bulb that puts out 10x what the stock bulb does? I don't want to be blinding the drivers coming at me at night while waiting to make a left hand turn. It doesn't sound healthy.

Diode Dynamics makes their H11 bulb with what seems to be a more reasonable 350 lumens (pricey, though, at $60/pr.) and I'm tempted to go this route. Am I missing something?

 

Not sure what your lights look like, but on the newer LED headlights when the daytime running lights are on during daytime, the turn signals are very difficult to see. That causes frustration with other drivers at side streets waiting for you to pass and not seeing that you are actually planning on turning. That has also been determined to be due to faulty wiring which is being repaired through re-call, but that's another story. Bottom line is that bright turn signals help other drivers around you to make wise decisions so it is not necessarily a bad thing.
I can see it being a concern at night time though if it is so bright that it blinds oncoming traffic....

 

I've got '19 Pro halogen headlights with led DRLs. I'm mostly worried about night time driving.

<edit> I was going to say that overly bright lights don't matter much in daylight, but I was recently stuck behind an ambulance, returning to the barn, at a stoplight during the day and his brake and turn led lights were so bright they were almost painful to look at. ...but hey, ambulance, so those lights were probably part of the whole light show.

 

I think a few hundred would be perfectly fine. I ran some cheap JDM Star LED ones for about 4 years from Amazon and they were plenty and never seemed to have any issue from people

 

You are correct to question this. "Communication bulbs" (turn/brake/tail) should not be drastically brighter then stock for the reasons you bring up. You don't want to blind other drivers at night, it is not a pattern with a cut off. While improved output on headlights/fog lights have cut offs and benefit the driver with better visibility, glaring bright communication lights have no performance benefit and are hazardous to other drivers. Also note that the lumen numbers posted by many places are raw values and often over inflated, so real output may be closer to 1/2-2/3. But even 1000 lumens is way to high for the purpose.

This is not how to communicate with lights:

 

Thanks... Would you know of any another reputable makers of lower output bulbs (aside from Diode Dynamics) that I should be looking at?

Browsing on Amazon, many (probably most) don't state lumens, just watts, which doesn't help when trying to find something close to stock brightness.

...and where is that pic from? Is that real, and if so, what was it used for?

 

Philips and Sylvania also make replacement LED bulbs that will be designed to be closer to the performance of stock.

The pic is the light communication helicopter scene out of Independence Day, to make contact with the aliens. Lets just say they didn't appreciate being blinded either.

 

I'll take a look at bulbs from those two makers. I should have thought of that.

LOL! I need to watch that flick again, don't remember that scene.

Thanks again...

 

Hey, just a heads up, just because a reputable manufacturer makes a replacement LED bulb in typical sizes, does not mean they will all be perfectly capable of functioning as drop in replacements (as we're all aware with the led headlight bulb testing here).

Here's a quick read on cpf about evaluating a bulbs effectiveness.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...-Bulb-Retrofits-in-Brake-Signal-Marker-Lights

 

Thanks... Good, short read.

Had trouble finding suitable bulbs from the two manufacturers mentioned previously. I have a couple of amber bulbs from Alla Lighting that struck me as being too bright when I first tried them, but I had the hyperflash problem to deal with, so put back the stock bulbs while waiting for some resistors. I might try them again once the resistors are installed using the criteria mentioned in the CPF post.

 

I got the meso front and the matching front more for hazard visibility than for the bright turn signals. I frequent the side of the road to help others, and I want to make sure my truck is more than obvious there... bright orange truck with super bright hazards should be good in a blizzard.

 

I guess you mean you've got the MESO Stage 1 (or 2?) and some front turn bulbs that match the brightness of the MESO kit. Those kits use switchback bulbs in the reverse light position, so I'm not sure how you matched them.

The MESO Stage 1 kit may be on the overly-bright side at night (dunno', hard for me to tell), but I'm willing to be a bit of an annoyance to drivers behind me due to every accident I've ever been in was getting hit from behind while stopped. I'm paranoid about this and tap the brake pedal a couple of times before actually braking just to get some attention back there (something I learned to do on my motorcycle).

I can appreciate having attention-getting hazard lights, but since the turn signals are the hazard lights, I still have the same concern about blinding oncoming drivers with the front turns.

Since I too have a habit of pulling over for people that need help, I have considered adding dedicated amber strobe hazard lights*, front and back, on custom brackets with a downward angle. I would think the strobe effect would be unusual enough to get people's attention. Whole 'nother subject, though.

* - Illinois Motor Vehicle Code is a little unclear as to whether these are legal on a non-commercial vehicle.

 

The rear turn signals may be switchbacks, but they are made by vleds, and vleds sells the matching front (minus the switchback part)
https://www.vleds.com/shop-application/turn-signals-front/7440/7443-50-hv-amber.html

 

The switchback can also be used for front applications with the White DRL and turn signals.

 

Huh, I didn't think of that, but I've got the Stage 1 which I'm not sure use VLEDs. Description on the MESO site just says "custom" leds. I'll have a look next time I have the tails off.

Not sure I understand this. Got a link to a thread on the subject?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOJCtivZ9FA

Can't find the thread but seen a lot of second gens with this

 

My stage 1 kit came with all vled, they were even in vled bags (I dont remember if the switchbacks were in vled bags) but the design of the switch backs are identical to the vleds I have in the front.

As for the "custom" part, I think its more of a led that vleds made for meso. perhaps @MESO can chime in on that.

 

I see, so this is a kit for those without factory led DRLs (like the Gen2s). Thanks for the link.

Thanks, but it really doesn't matter all that much. I'm still of the opinion that I don't want the front turns to be as bright as the rear. Got my load resistors in over the weekend, so I'll be toying with this in the next few days when I have the time.

 

Stage 1 uses my own spec’d brake bulbs(7443) not made by VLED. The switchback (reverse/turn)is made by them specifically for this total
Tail kit. Stage 2 is all VLED exclusively.
While I agree with crashnburn that you don’t want “overkill” bright because unlike headlights or fog there is no real cutoff beam pattern. However, some tail lights(3rd specifically) have a diffuser panel in front of the lights that help mitigate that direct intensity so you can get away with a brighter led and still be safer but not obnoxious.

 

Thanks for the input. By the way, the resistors I received were from you. Pretty impressive packs with nice connectors, slots for reasonably sized screws, and sticky tape on the backs. No wire splicing necessary. ...and the price was right (cost of shipping).

Much appreciated. Thank you!

Haven't measured yet, are they 3 or 6 ohm?