Cheap LED Headlights. Do you get what you pay for?

**101RRS** · 10th March 2017, 11:41 AM

No directly related but supports the view of poor hi beam performance of LEDs - my brother has a work provided current model diesel RAV 4 as his work car. It has Toyota OEM LED headlights and my bro says the LED low beams are fine but very poor on high beam - if it was his own car he would be fitting additional driving lights to make up for poor high beam performance.

Garry

**rijidij** · 10th March 2017, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by alittlebitconcerned

Thanks for the link Murray and well done on the comparisons, it's very interesting and a great read.

I spoke to the seller of the lights I linked to and he mirrored what you were saying re the strength of the highbeams on his lights. He said many of his customers use spot lights as their highbeams. I have some IPF spot lights on my Puma that I've used once in 8 years. I could adjust these for use as my highbeams, at least they would get some use.

Anyone know of any downside to this approach?

A good set of driving lights will usually out perform standard high beams, so not a bad idea.

I've been trying to find some LED driving lights with a narrower spot beam to get some more distance penetration, LEDs are not generally considered good long distance lights.
I've just fitted a pair of these, they're only 5" 25w and I haven't had a chance to drive with them yet, but they have a very definite intense spot beam because of the deep lens.
I'll let you know how they go.

Cheers, Murray

**alien** · 10th March 2017, 01:40 PM

First thing I did for the headlights was fit a relay kit.
Def-HWUK Headlight Wiring Upgrade Kit | TRAXIDE - RV | Traxide - RV
This was due to voltage drop in the origional small wiring and to eliminate melting the headlight switch.

I don't feel the need to upgrade the lights as I'm happy with the standard H4 55/60w globes.
I find I need to use the the hight adjuster when I have the van on.
My low beam has a crisp edge and if not lowered I get flashes from oncoming traffic.
High beam is good and is suplimented with IPF(AR

spread beam halogen driving lights.
Every time I drive in the dark I'm impressed by the set up I'm running.
My golden rule is get low beam right, it's the one you need when traffic is coming at you at 100km/h.

Rant/work experience....
I spend every weeknight driving until @3:00Am in various trucks.
1 Kenworth has LED lights, speaker style high/low plus factory driving lights.
While the white light is bright it doesn't have the penetration(distance) on high beam I'd see
from the halogen lights it replaces.
Another Kenworth had the blue H4 high/low globes, a total waste except for the "look at me" factor.
The other Kenworths run standard H4 with Narva plus 30% globes and when adjusted right are good.
The high beam inserts are equivalent to the old Hella 160 driving lights and this works well as a set up.
The Mack is useless on high beam, the low beam is a H11 so single filiment on all the time.
High beam while adding a reasonable spread doesn't have the depth of penetration required at 100km/h with over sized rats jumping out of paddocks onto the road.
One of the utes has a small light bar and has no better penetration than the standard useless headlights.
Being brighter it gives the feeling of an impromvent but my experience is it attracts more wild with only 700mtr of usable light.

In summation I'd fit a relay kit adjust the lights correctly and keep
the lens' clean.

Thread: Cheap LED Headlights. Do you get what you pay for?

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