Let's not turn this into a war, just want some clarification.

I'll start off by saying, I have done the H9 conversion on my 2015 since I'm not sold on LED yet.

I see some complaining about the blinding nature of people who put LED in a reflector housing and that it should only be done with a projector if done at all.

I respect people not wanting to blind others which is why after my conversion to H9, I ran a few test with my friends on straights, inclines declines to make sure I wasn't blinding including one who was a Trooper. Happy to say, they didn't have any issues. This ranged from passenger cars to trucks.

I hope someone can explain to me how Freightliner which uses Trucklite LED's are doing this with with a reflector housing. Is it possible to design a reflector housing that can focus a LED properly or are they just ignoring
the possibility they are blinding traffic ?

I'm still in no rush to go LED or spend 1700 bucks on a OEM setup, just wanted to get some input.

Thanks,

Tim

 

Some reflector housings are built strictly for led bulbs, they are all oem however. You seem to be getting led and hid mixed up a bit. LED is seldom used in a projector housing, but HID should only be used in a projector housing. I am guessing Freightliner has reflector housings designed just for LED bulbs.

 

Yeah, my bad. I assumed since I have not really paid attention to it that most new vehicles used projector and led since it is more focused.

 

As summers said some housings work better with LED bulbs, some with halogen. And then you have the newer LED designs (like what I use/market) which are a bit different then anything else on the market... where you can rotate/adjust the bulb/beam.

That's not to say they work great in EVERY housing... LUCKILY on the Fords they work great (both on the 2015/2016 and the earlier trucks).

On the Jeep JK's they don't work as great from what I found (you thought ford had a bad housing HOLY CRAP the Jeeps are REALLY crappy).

But it all depends on the BULB as well. It's a combination of the HOUSING and the LED design.

Up until now, LED's were all the same pretty much. The newer ones allow you to rotate the bulb to fire the LED's at different angles and/or on some bulb styles (like the H13) they have these little director cups that help as well. So that combination helps out big time with cut-off.

Ford has an LED diode for their light and then a custom made beam director piece that was specially designed to focus the beam. Retrofits try and mimic this as well but notice how the Ford one is a rectangle? It's a rectangle for a reason.

Hopefully what summers said and what I said help you.

Don't be discouraged into putting LED's in, just make sure they are a quality kit AND tested with real results... not made up things that you read on amazon from those RICERS who think they look good when in fact they look like crap.

 

anybody have distance throw issues with leds in reflectors? Asking for a 2010 f150. Lights work great, super bright, just don't throw very far, sucks for highway night time. Wondering if it's all leds like this setup or just my particular leds.

Swapped to HIDs for a bit, they threw much farther, but weren't as bright.

 

lefonz, what kit did you buy?

 

Yeah that's the downside to the older housings. They fixed that a bit on the 2015 trucks but 2014 and earlier had pretty crappy designs as well. So you won't be able to throw far without a different housing, even with LEDs or HIDs.

LEDs will give you more light up close, but won't throw as far. HIDs will give you more light thrown down range but may not appear as bright up close... so it's a trade off.

Lumen vs. Lux.

 

Older....lol. 4x4truckleds, your H13 kit did just fine in my 07.

 

Well you know what I mean... they are just not as great as the newer headlight housing designs

 

Nope, especially the cut-off