H2 ADVISE 4 LED HEADLIGHTS AND DRLs
I agree with your points.
I have done a ton of looking around at LED headlights. It seems the only ones decent and at a decent price are JW Speaker and Philips. Any others are far too expensive. It's just like the LED bars when they first came out they were so ridiculously expensive then a couple years later they came down in price. Now there still are companies such as Rigid who charges an arm and a leg for an LED bar when you can buy the same thing from say Amazon for a fraction of the price.
The crazy thing is, I would be surprised if Rigid actually manufactures their own components. I'm sure they order parts from overseas and just assemble the bars here in the states and slap their name on it.
Either way, I have ran HID's since kits first came out back in the early 2000's and the kits were very expensive.
You mentioned rust. Even with relay kits to make HID's kits almost full proof after a while connections and relays will rust and the reliability of the kit greatly decreases. I took my kit out for that same reason you did. I was finally fed up with HID's after all these years of advocating for their usage.
I also do agree that any option is better than the factory nasty lights. Same reason I spent so much time doing my full LED interior conversion in both my truck and my wifes. It just makes things look so much cleaner and refined. Of course that's the norm with newer vehicles but these girls of ours are getting up there in age lol.
I have done a ton of looking around at LED headlights. It seems the only ones decent and at a decent price are JW Speaker and Philips. Any others are far too expensive. It's just like the LED bars when they first came out they were so ridiculously expensive then a couple years later they came down in price. Now there still are companies such as Rigid who charges an arm and a leg for an LED bar when you can buy the same thing from say Amazon for a fraction of the price.
The crazy thing is, I would be surprised if Rigid actually manufactures their own components. I'm sure they order parts from overseas and just assemble the bars here in the states and slap their name on it.
Either way, I have ran HID's since kits first came out back in the early 2000's and the kits were very expensive.
You mentioned rust. Even with relay kits to make HID's kits almost full proof after a while connections and relays will rust and the reliability of the kit greatly decreases. I took my kit out for that same reason you did. I was finally fed up with HID's after all these years of advocating for their usage.
I also do agree that any option is better than the factory nasty lights. Same reason I spent so much time doing my full LED interior conversion in both my truck and my wifes. It just makes things look so much cleaner and refined. Of course that's the norm with newer vehicles but these girls of ours are getting up there in age lol.
Thread Starter
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Junior Member
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 7
From: New Jersey
Great advise guys, I really appreciate all of your comments and suggestions. Thank you for taking the time to help me out.
I am going to do one thing at a time starting with the DRLs. (replacing the bulbs to LED) Then work my way up to the headlights and then probably work towards adding the diode MOD for DRL and headlight together. That sounds fairly easy but I'll ask about it more when I get there.
LoJack, I am going to start by ordering the LED bulbs you suggest from Amazon for my DRLs and reverse lights. Are your parking lights also the same LEDs? Did you change them too?
H22003
I am going to do one thing at a time starting with the DRLs. (replacing the bulbs to LED) Then work my way up to the headlights and then probably work towards adding the diode MOD for DRL and headlight together. That sounds fairly easy but I'll ask about it more when I get there.
LoJack, I am going to start by ordering the LED bulbs you suggest from Amazon for my DRLs and reverse lights. Are your parking lights also the same LEDs? Did you change them too?
H22003
I have the full LED tails in mine with LED's bulbs in the lower bumper lights. Basically I have replaced every bulb in my rig with LED minus the sun visor bulbs-those are some odd ball light that I cannot find anywhere.
These are my tails with LED bulbs in the reverse lights:
These are the bulbs I used in the reverse lights and lower bumper lights:
Remember, you always want to match the LED bulb color with the color of the lens they are going in. Reverse lights (clear) with white leds, lower bumper lights or tail lights with red leds.
These are my tails with LED bulbs in the reverse lights:
These are the bulbs I used in the reverse lights and lower bumper lights:
Remember, you always want to match the LED bulb color with the color of the lens they are going in. Reverse lights (clear) with white leds, lower bumper lights or tail lights with red leds.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 495
From: Viera, FL
Tim
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 1,298
From: Sunshine state , MIami
Just for the record. I spent $26.99 on Amazon for the Sylvania Silver Star Ultra halogen bulbs. They are not as white as the LED's but there is no yellow as compared to what was in my truck to begin with. I thought it was a great compromise at this time. I will eventually upgrade to HID but it will be with the right projector lenses. I'm not a big fan of JW Speakers replacement, I have one in my Harley and the beam pattern is just not right.
Tim
Tim
If you switch from factory bulls to this one is fine but from HID you will be very disappointed
Thread Starter
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Junior Member
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 7
From: New Jersey
Update on DRLs and Headlights
Hey There,
I just wanted to let you know that I did the DRL & Headlight Mod today. That was easy. Thanks men for sharing that.
I also order new OEM reflector housings (AM Autoparts) for my DRLs and installed them along with 30W White 3157 Cree LED bulbs and also for reverse lights. So far so good. The OEMs were a bit pricey but they look cause they're brand new. I did things this way because I'm not yet ready to cut holes, splice wires, or install switches yet. I need to take things slow to help build my confidence.
I also ordered LEDs Xenon White Premium (set of 15 but needed 16) for interior and switched them out. Easy install after watching a youtube video for same.
Next, is to decide on new headlights! Not too sure what to do. Need an easy fix.
Thanks again!!
I just wanted to let you know that I did the DRL & Headlight Mod today. That was easy. Thanks men for sharing that.
I also order new OEM reflector housings (AM Autoparts) for my DRLs and installed them along with 30W White 3157 Cree LED bulbs and also for reverse lights. So far so good. The OEMs were a bit pricey but they look cause they're brand new. I did things this way because I'm not yet ready to cut holes, splice wires, or install switches yet. I need to take things slow to help build my confidence.
I also ordered LEDs Xenon White Premium (set of 15 but needed 16) for interior and switched them out. Easy install after watching a youtube video for same.
Next, is to decide on new headlights! Not too sure what to do. Need an easy fix.
Thanks again!!
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 781
LED headlights, DRL's, mini grill LED's, LED's in my fog light bar on skid plate and I just swapped all of my roof rack lights with LED bars.
I did the DRL mod so my DRL's are on at all times, during the day as normal and they also stay on when the headlights are on.
You would need these to fit in the DRL spot:
Amazon.com: Led Village Round 18w Flood LED Work ATV Off Road Light Lamp Fog Driving for 4x4 Offroad SUV Car Jeep Truck Trailer Tractor ATV UTV: Automotive
Now that does require cutting the mounting portion off so the housing is a circle to fit in the bumper. I then removed the factory wire plug and soldered the light wires directly to the pins, heatshrinked it all up. These lights have 4 mounting holes on the rear. If you buy some threaded rod, lock nuts, and washers you can make your own studs and use the stock mounting holes to mount the lights-no cutting, drilling, or hacking up the stock bumper.
My headlights are 24 volt military trucklites given to me by a member for helping him out with some issues he was having with his rig. Really stand up guy in my book. However, recently I bought some new LED headlights that I haven't gotten to mess with yet.
Now let me correct some information given. I would not personally waste money on higher wattage bulbs, they are expensive and do not last long due to the higher wattage. HID's are far from $1,000 unless you are talking about STARR's which is a huge waste of money. You can retro fit an HID kit into the stock housings for less than $100.
However, tharber is correct. HID's in stock reflector housings in most states are illegal but the cops generally don't know what they're looking for so unless you're running a crazy color temp it generally isn't a concern. BUT, reflector housings are not designed to correctly reflect an HID beam as the capsule fires the beam upward and not horizontal like a halogen which results in massive glare to oncoming drivers.
There are many LED headlights on the market now for $200 upwards of over $1k. I have a pair of Philips LED heads sitting in my garage I still need to mess with.
Be extremely cautions when doing the diode mod. You MUST ensure the diode is correctly oriented because if you get it backwards you can fry a multitude of components. It happened to one member a while back and we all concluded that it was installed backwards. Just follow the directions exactly and you'll be fine with that.
Any other questions you have post them up and we'll help you out!
I did the DRL mod so my DRL's are on at all times, during the day as normal and they also stay on when the headlights are on.
You would need these to fit in the DRL spot:
Amazon.com: Led Village Round 18w Flood LED Work ATV Off Road Light Lamp Fog Driving for 4x4 Offroad SUV Car Jeep Truck Trailer Tractor ATV UTV: Automotive
Now that does require cutting the mounting portion off so the housing is a circle to fit in the bumper. I then removed the factory wire plug and soldered the light wires directly to the pins, heatshrinked it all up. These lights have 4 mounting holes on the rear. If you buy some threaded rod, lock nuts, and washers you can make your own studs and use the stock mounting holes to mount the lights-no cutting, drilling, or hacking up the stock bumper.
My headlights are 24 volt military trucklites given to me by a member for helping him out with some issues he was having with his rig. Really stand up guy in my book. However, recently I bought some new LED headlights that I haven't gotten to mess with yet.
Now let me correct some information given. I would not personally waste money on higher wattage bulbs, they are expensive and do not last long due to the higher wattage. HID's are far from $1,000 unless you are talking about STARR's which is a huge waste of money. You can retro fit an HID kit into the stock housings for less than $100.
However, tharber is correct. HID's in stock reflector housings in most states are illegal but the cops generally don't know what they're looking for so unless you're running a crazy color temp it generally isn't a concern. BUT, reflector housings are not designed to correctly reflect an HID beam as the capsule fires the beam upward and not horizontal like a halogen which results in massive glare to oncoming drivers.
There are many LED headlights on the market now for $200 upwards of over $1k. I have a pair of Philips LED heads sitting in my garage I still need to mess with.
Be extremely cautions when doing the diode mod. You MUST ensure the diode is correctly oriented because if you get it backwards you can fry a multitude of components. It happened to one member a while back and we all concluded that it was installed backwards. Just follow the directions exactly and you'll be fine with that.
Any other questions you have post them up and we'll help you out!
Thanks, its the old Plus1 fog light bar. I found mine for $99, just needed some good prep work and a new layer of paint. I'm hoping some day they made some H3 LED bulbs with some actual good light output. The LED's I have in that bar are more of a flood light, I'd prefer some good spots.
I have new headlights now as well, just check out my avatar!
I have new headlights now as well, just check out my avatar!