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Alright I'm gonna start by throwing this out there, no I don't need more light or have any use for it, I just want it lol. I have a slight lighting/retrofitting addiction. Anyways here's my issue, no matter what aux light I try I can't tell it's on over my retrofits (D2S in my heads running 55w and mh1s in my fogs running 35w). So far I have tried no name 35w round lights that where terrible. then to 7 inch round anzo hid lights and they were OK but you couldn't tell they where on with the high beams. Then tried 55w Hella 500s (halogen) and you couldn't tell those where on. So I put 35w 5000k hid bulbs in the Hellas and could tell they where on a little when I had the low beams on but when I switched to highs (all 4 projectors), it's like they wernt on at all. So now I'm stuck. I love the look of the round lights behind the grill but everything I have tried just isn't cutting it. I know rigid makes a round led light but I don't want to pay 600 dollars for a set of aux lights. I do have a buddy selling some Hella black magics for cheap so maybe I'll try those with some 120w halogens and see how that goes. Only other thing I can think of is to try led bulbs or to retro the Blackmagics. I would like to have the same distance as a rigid spot beam, but I know that's gonna be hard to do in a round light that isn't crazy expensive. What do yall think? Should I just go ahead and switch to an led bar and loose the round lights behind the grill?
What size round light do you need... I can see what some of the manufacturers have available. Are these your main headlights or just off-road lights that get lost with your normal high beams?
I was going to suggest LED bulbs but I'd need to see the back of your housing and need to know what bulb size. The LED's I have are 6000 lumen together... I have a 23" AuxBeam LED light bar above my license plate frame... the LED Headlight bulbs are brighter then the 23" Light bar... gives you an idea on what they can do. So they should DEFINITELY give you a lot more light if you used those.
I'd love to have you try out a set, as that sounds like a really cool use for them outside of the headlight housing.
You won't get a good spot with the round lights, as they are designed to cover a lot while the rigid are smaller and more SPOT on, thus... SPOT beam pattern.
Let me see a photo of your truck with the round lights.
I love the round lights honestly. I wish I had a black truck I'd make it look like an old school 4x4 (think back to the future 1 where Marty sees that 4x4 in the begining of the movie).
They just scream "this is an offroad truck" to me... but everybody is going LED light bars these days, and hell that's whats on my own truck... looks good, but not as cool looking as your old school/traditional looking round lights.
What size round light do you need... I can see what some of the manufacturers have available. Are these your main headlights or just off-road lights that get lost with your normal high beams?
I was going to suggest LED bulbs but I'd need to see the back of your housing and need to know what bulb size. The LED's I have are 6000 lumen together... I have a 23" AuxBeam LED light bar above my license plate frame... the LED Headlight bulbs are brighter then the 23" Light bar... gives you an idea on what they can do. So they should DEFINITELY give you a lot more light if you used those.
I'd love to have you try out a set, as that sounds like a really cool use for them outside of the headlight housing.
You won't get a good spot with the round lights, as they are designed to cover a lot while the rigid are smaller and more SPOT on, thus... SPOT beam pattern.
Let me see a photo of your truck with the round lights.
I love the round lights honestly. I wish I had a black truck I'd make it look like an old school 4x4 (think back to the future 1 where Marty sees that 4x4 in the begining of the movie).
They just scream "this is an offroad truck" to me... but everybody is going LED light bars these days, and hell that's whats on my own truck... looks good, but not as cool looking as your old school/traditional looking round lights.
Hmm that's does sound interesting. It's just the off road lights that get washed put with the high beams. I can fit anything between a 5 inch round and a 7 inch round light behind my grill. Right now I'm running 5 inch Hellas. If I change to an LED bulb an H3 would be the easiest since that's what my Hellas use, but I could make another bulb with a similar base work. Here's a few pics of the truck, I'm actually putting on my body lift tommorow and getting some 35s around the beginning of August.
I have a pair of Rigid Hyperspots behind the grille of my F150 and I'd be willing to bet they will outrun your projectors. They are a narrow pattern but they throw light a long ways down the road. If you want round, have you considered the VisionX Light Cannon? Light Force also makes some nice round lights with an impressive range as well if you like that old school look.
If you're trying to outshine your retrofits, I wouldn't bother with an cheap LED bar, they will just be disappointing. You'll want something like Rigid's RDS series to have a chance of competing with your projectors. Cheap LED bars put out a lot of light, but many of them are combo bars so they just scatter a ton of light right in front of you rather than down the road, where you actually want it.
As far as your budget concerns go... you have a nice set of retrofits that put a lot of light down the road, most cheap aftermarket aux. lights aren't going to compete with them, they'll just get washed out. You're going to have to spend some money and get something decent with a good lens and pattern to keep up.
I have a pair of Rigid Hyperspots behind the grille of my F150 and I'd be willing to bet they will outrun your projectors. They are a narrow pattern but they throw light a long ways down the road. If you want round, have you considered the VisionX Light Cannon? Light Force also makes some nice round lights with an impressive range as well if you like that old school look.
If you're trying to outshine your retrofits, I wouldn't bother with an cheap LED bar, they will just be disappointing. You'll want something like Rigid's RDS series to have a chance of competing with your projectors. Cheap LED bars put out a lot of light, but many of them are combo bars so they just scatter a ton of light right in front of you rather than down the road, where you actually want it.
As far as your budget concerns go... you have a nice set of retrofits that put a lot of light down the road, most cheap aftermarket aux. lights aren't going to compete with them, they'll just get washed out. You're going to have to spend some money and get something decent with a good lens and pattern to keep up.
I'm thinking hyperspot is my best bet too. Seems that a D2 in a spot beam has just about the same distance as a D2S projector on high beam @55w. I haven't looked at visionX or cannon yet IL Check into those. I have also considered selling my retro fogs and puting 2 rigid D2s in each hole, one hyperspot and one of there DOT fog beam. I know I'm probably gonna have to spend a lot to get some good output, just like the heads and fogs. I'm just trying to keep it at 200 or less. Right now I have cheap *** eBay hids in those Hellas so I'm gonna upgrade those to morimoto stuff. I got a set of xb2 h3c bulbs and ignitors off of there close out section last night for $25 and I have a spare set of 55w morimoto ballast I'm gonna use so we will see how that does
AuxBeam makes a decent bar (they don't use the highest quality nuts/bolts but the LEDs seem to be great and no condensation) that is a cheaper version of a Rigid. Rigid make the best, but a lot of what you pay for us because it's made in America and because they CAN charge that much and people will pay (marketing).
The chinese bars for the most part, suck. There are a few companies (AuxBeam, Eyourlife) that have versions with condensation valves which work good. I have a 54" curved AuxBeam on my truck and it seems to work just fine. Very bright, no leakage.
As for the round lights you have, can you share a back photo (could be a stock image online)... i'd need to see the back so I can tell you if you can throw my LED headlights in there or use another product.
I know PIAA makes an LED round light, but I don't think it's as bright. Again, you are working with a single round light which has 1 single bulb inside I bet... what you may need is a round LED light that has LOTS of led lights inside to give you all that output.
A single bulb will act as a headlight would. So even if you put my LED lights in, they won't be any brighter then say a Jeep Wrangler's would be (they use round headlights and a single bulb). Granted LED is brighter then halogen, but it'll basically be ANOTHER set of headlights in your grill when all is said and done.
PM me when you figure out what you are looking to do. I sell Rigid, Putco, Morimoto, Hella, all the big boys and big brands. I just don't list everything on the site.
AuxBeam makes a decent bar (they don't use the highest quality nuts/bolts but the LEDs seem to be great and no condensation) that is a cheaper version of a Rigid. Rigid make the best, but a lot of what you pay for us because it's made in America and because they CAN charge that much and people will pay (marketing).
The chinese bars for the most part, suck. There are a few companies (AuxBeam, Eyourlife) that have versions with condensation valves which work good. I have a 54" curved AuxBeam on my truck and it seems to work just fine. Very bright, no leakage.
As for the round lights you have, can you share a back photo (could be a stock image online)... i'd need to see the back so I can tell you if you can throw my LED headlights in there or use another product.
I know PIAA makes an LED round light, but I don't think it's as bright. Again, you are working with a single round light which has 1 single bulb inside I bet... what you may need is a round LED light that has LOTS of led lights inside to give you all that output.
A single bulb will act as a headlight would. So even if you put my LED lights in, they won't be any brighter then say a Jeep Wrangler's would be (they use round headlights and a single bulb). Granted LED is brighter then halogen, but it'll basically be ANOTHER set of headlights in your grill when all is said and done.
PM me when you figure out what you are looking to do. I sell Rigid, Putco, Morimoto, Hella, all the big boys and big brands. I just don't list everything on the site.
I couldn't really find a pic of how the bulb mounts, but here's a pic of the back of the lights after I put the hids in. Those led bulbs probably have big cooling fans on the back right? I could probably fit them I'd just have to modify the back of the lights more. I can make almost anything work. I got some old style morimoto bulbs off the closeout section for 5 bucks so in gonna throw those In there and see if it's better the lights just use a stranded h3 bulb. The morimoto bulbs I got are actually compact h3s so the arc should be back in the same position as it was with the halogen bulb in there. Right now the hids I have in there are a little longer than a halogen h3 so it moved the arc forward which screwed up the focus of the light and is really hurting output and distance lighting. I'll let you know how these are and if It doesn't work as well as I'm I'll shot you a pm with what I decide to get
Yeah they have a fan that'll stick out. Yeah looks like you did some modifications already so you'd do the same here. Stick the bulb in and seal up the bulb against the housing so it does not move. But it'll light thing sup big time. Again it won't be any brighter then your headlights (unless you have stock headlights or a cheaper LED/HID kit with not as many lumens, then the LED kits from me would be brighter).
But again, these are 6,000 lumens combined... the led light bars you find are well over that because that's what they are designed for.
But if you had these 2 round lights it'll definitely help out a bit.
I'd love your business just trying to give you some honest input.
If it was me, i'd try it out, as I like tinkering. I did what you did with my fog lights on an old 2002 Frontier one day. I put HID's in there when NOBODY had done it before. I had to do a lot of modifications to make them fit but they looked really cool (till the HID's died and I gave up, as it wasn't worth my time)
Yeah they have a fan that'll stick out. Yeah looks like you did some modifications already so you'd do the same here. Stick the bulb in and seal up the bulb against the housing so it does not move. But it'll light thing sup big time. Again it won't be any brighter then your headlights (unless you have stock headlights or a cheaper LED/HID kit with not as many lumens, then the LED kits from me would be brighter).
But again, these are 6,000 lumens combined... the led light bars you find are well over that because that's what they are designed for.
But if you had these 2 round lights it'll definitely help out a bit.
I'd love your business just trying to give you some honest input.
If it was me, i'd try it out, as I like tinkering. I did what you did with my fog lights on an old 2002 Frontier one day. I put HID's in there when NOBODY had done it before. I had to do a lot of modifications to make them fit but they looked really cool (till the HID's died and I gave up, as it wasn't worth my time)
Yeah I'm no stranger to modifying lights lol I'm kinda a light *****. Alot of work went into those fogs, lots of cutting, custom made clear housing lenses, custom flat cutoff shield, foreground limiters, and lots of tuning. As far as I know there is only one other person with retrofited fogs In my body style f150. I also mounted mt D2S projectors a little different to give me more shroud to headlight lense clearance. I may be upgrading to rx350s or TLs or d2s 4.0s when they come out for my headlights. Do you sell led bulbs in different color Temps? I would be interested in something that's in the 3500k range for bad weather driving if I do another set of round lights and put LED's in them. Here's a picture 25 feet away from a wall with all 4 projectors on high beam.
Last edited by 2thousand5.4; 05-27-2016 at 05:00 PM.
So the 6000 lumen set I have... I have in a 3500k temperature, but it's not YELLOW. It's the same color as a halogen bulb... I didn't like that for my fogs. So I went with a cheaper version of the LED kit.. 3000 lumens and a true yellow color now... looks a bit weird driving but I'm used to it
05-26-2016, 10:11 PM
Aux lighting with retrofits
