Older vs newer headlights

[Anthonyp]

2 hours ago, Frank DuVal said:

And there is the flaw in your argument again. Repeating BAD advice does not make it GOOD advice!😲

 

If one wants to be seen, nothing works BETTER than turning on the headlamps.

 

If your instructor taught you to hold the car on a hill at a traffic light by riding the clutch, would you repeat that advice? ❓ 

 

Again in the semi truck/trailer game there are marker lights. They are seen on roofs of semi trucks (and pickups that think they are semi trucks 😉) and sides of trailers. On passenger cars? No. OK, we do call them side markers on cars, but they are designed to come on with the headlamps, since they are part of the tail lamp system. We DO NOT call those red things on the rear of the car rear marker lamps!🤣

 

I can bring up that new vehicles have electrically applied parking brakes. How do they work in an emergency? Actually I would really like to know that, if I ever buy a car new enough to have them.🤔 But not for discussion here.....👍

Years ago the front parking lights worked separate from the headlights. They were wired to go off when the headlights were lit. Later they were wired to work when the headlights were lit. What is the purpose of having the front parking lights lit when the headlights are on when they are only needed when parked?

[Bloo]

 

[ABear]

[Frank DuVal]

6 hours ago, Anthonyp said:

What is the purpose of having the front parking lights lit when the headlights are on when they are only needed when parked?

To have some light if a headlamp goes out. Safety. No longer a motorcycle coming at you, but a wide vehicle. But, they are still used as parking lights when you want them to, like parked on a side street. Not needed when moving.

 

Now three pages later, the real reason NOT to use "parking or marker" lights when driving is when it gets darker the driver will forget just the parking lights are on. I see this all the time in city and suburban driving. Only when the car gets out in the country does the driver notice he cannot see. Sure, you think, I'll remember, then the kid cries, the wife gets you in conversation, you yell at other drivers for flashing their lights at you (what's wrong with those people?) and finally, hey why can't I see the road, my lights are on, just look at the dash.....😮

[ABear]

12 hours ago, Frank DuVal said:

Safety.

🙂

 

Frank, I have come to the conclusion that Mr "P" is bored and messing with us, not sure why, but that is what it appears Mr "P" is doing. Don't get dragged into the madness.. Just not worth it.

[Wire-Wheels]

I am in the process of restoring my 1973 Triumph TR-6. I am planning on converting both the headlights and driving lights to LED. I have done this conversion before on my

Mitsubishi and two different motorcycles. The headlight units will be changed out. The U.S. delevery, sealed beams will be replaced by the european H-4 units fitted with Auxito LED bulbs. The driving lights I am adding, will also be fitted with the compatible Auxito LEDs. They are brighter, I can see better, and they draw far less current from my cars little, original alternator. Better solution all around, in my opinion. ...Jim

 

Edited April 17 by Wire-Wheels (see edit history)

[ABear]

22 minutes ago, Wire-Wheels said:

The headlight units will be changed out. The U.S. delevery, sealed beams will be replaced by the european H-4 units fitted with Auxito LED bulbs. The driving lights I am adding, will also be fitted with the compatible Auxito LEDs.

Technically speaking, "European" fixtures most likely are not DOT approved and will also have a European light pattern that will be different from US requirements.

 

Add in LED bulbs which those fixtures were never designed for LEDs and you will have light scatter which will adversely affect OTHER motorists in a negative fashion.

27 minutes ago, Wire-Wheels said:

They are brighter, I can see better, and they draw far less current from my cars little, original alternator. Better solution all around, in my opinion. ...Jim

While they may be brighter, YOU may be able to see better and draw less current is all good for YOU, these plusses for YOU will ultimately bad for EVERYONE ELSE that is in front of YOU or coming towards YOU.

 

In case YOU didn't notice, there IS a lot of "YOUS" in YOUR choices above and very little regards to OTHERS making it a BAD choice for OTHERS.

 

If you do not believe me on how distracting it is with putting LEDs into headlight fixtures that were not designed for LEDs I would recommend that you have someone drive your vehicle behind you at night and then have them drive towards you.. You need to understand how much OTHERS must suffer for YOUR "improvement".

 

You do have OTHER options to help with your poor OEM lamps. One of the BEST options is to add in a headlight relay system. One of the issues with OEM headlight systems is the wiring used while it is sufficient size to not overheat, it is actually undersized for voltage efficiency..

 

The bulbs are designed for 13.8V, typically the wiring ga used and the distance of the wire from battery to switch and switch to lights results in the bulbs getting about 10V with engine running. Basically about 3V-4V loss or about 25% loss of voltage. 25% loss of voltage translates to about 30% loss of potential light from your headlights.

 

A relay kit removes that loss by removing nearly 20' worth of undersized wire, a heavy ga wire is run to relays and from relays to headlights. Result will be at worst .5V loss.

 

Premade Headlight Relay kits can be had for about $40 which is a bargain price compared to what you are planning to do.. Most can be pretty much plug and play, relay coils connect to one of your existing headlight harness connections, kit will have wiring that goes right to your headlights. If you wanted to make your own, 30A Bosch relays can be had for about $3 each, need two of those, plus 10 ga wire plus fuse and fuse holder and any connectors you need.

[Wire-Wheels]

If you do this correctly, they will not blind anyone. This will be my 4th. LED conversion. The LED bulbs do not work like other bulbs. They must be installed in the proper orentation in the housing because the bulb shapes the light pattern, not the lens. Also, it is better if you use LED bulbs behind an unfluted lens. If they were such a problem, you would not see all the newer vehicles using them. You have to do your homework before you make these kind of upgrades. ...J.D.

Edited April 17 by Wire-Wheels (see edit history)

[ABear]

9 minutes ago, Wire-Wheels said:

If you do this correctly, they will not blind anyone. This will be my 4th. LED conversion. The LED bulbs do not work like other bulbs. They must be installed in the proper orentation in the housing because the bulb shapes the light pattern, not the lens. Also, it is better if you use LED bulbs behind an unfluted lens. If they were such a problem, you would not see all the newer vehicles using them. You have to do your homework before you make these kind of upgrades. ...J.D.

Umm.. No.

 

Reflectors designed for incadescent filaments are not able to focus the LED source correctly and that is the problem.

 

While improvements in LEDs has come a long way, it is impossible for a LED to be placed in the exact position that a filament should be. Not to mention the filaments light the reflector almost 360 degrees, LEDs at most are 120 degrees which means 240 degrees of the reflector isn't doing it's job and you have 120 degrees doing pretty much all of the work. Creates severe "hot spots" instead of spreading out the light in a even fashion. It is those hot spots which ultimately creates the blinding light to on coming traffic and really obnoxious blinding light to those in front of you.

 

While you can "clock" LEDs to somewhat focus in a incadescent reflector, the results are not as good over all to all parties.. You "think" you have improved your lighting for you, but reality is you created a hot spot and a lot of side scatter that gives the appearance of improvement.

 

Pictures might help a bit to explain..

 

First is typical incadescent reflector, notice where the filaments are placed.

 

Next two pix is comparison between incadescent bulb and LED bulb..

 

Notice filament is very slim and thin, LED emiters are many times wider.

 

Next pix LED on left, Halegon on right (drivers side) looking towards vehicle

 

Next pic from inside vehicle, Right is LED, Left (driverside) is Halogen.

 

Notice that the Halogen is much more evenly dispersed than the LED side, in fact the LED side is extremely bright to the left and much dimmer on the right compared to the Halogen. Notice that there also is substantial scatter up on LED side which is well above the Halogen. The LED is also not as focused on the right creating a lot of beam scatter which if a LED was on the drivers side would create much more glare to on coming traffic.

 

I am not against LEDs but in reality, they NEED to be used with reflectors designed for them sort of like HIDs need to be used in Projector housings.

 

 

[Wire-Wheels]

Maybe some of these old codgers need to stay in at night. I can see just fine. ;p

[ABear]

1 hour ago, Wire-Wheels said:

Maybe some of these old codgers need to stay in at night. I can see just fine. 😜

Pretty selfish you are, AND that is the problem.

 

You might be able to see fine, but there is the problem of other drivers being blinded by your selfishness who may or may not be able to safely drive with your blinding lights glaring at them.

 

Perhaps try to be less selfish and give the headlight relays a try, they can vastly improve your existing incandescent lights and the improvement will be noticeable to you without creating blinding glare to others..

 

Give it a shot, I suspect you will shocked on how good those lights will become.

 

If you don't believe me that the existing wiring is causing much of the problem you seek to fix, try taking a volt meter and checking the voltage at the lights with engine running.. Guarantee you will only be reading about 10V and at 10V you are only getting about 70% of the light you should have.

 

And no, I am not an "old codger", just smarter and wiser than most LED headlight converting fools..

[Willy]

Wow! So much discussion on headlights, I want to add my two cents. Working graveyard for 14 years, I always had to deal with bright headlights. One night, I was being blinded by an oncoming car. I flashed my brights, no response, so I flashed them again. That car was a cop - hit his flashing lights, turned around, pulled me over. He came on real strong, until he saw my dash cam on, then just gave me a warning. Thinking about it after, I realized they probably have their headlights high, to see licenses at night. What I have to deal with now, is all the big pickup trucks that had lift kits installed, but never adjusted their lights.

[Wire-Wheels]

When all is said and done, these modern inovations are a fact of life that is not going away. Getting all wound up about it does not make it go away. It is like a dog barking at the moon. If he would just go back in his dog house, the moon would not be keeping him awake, and we all could get some sleep. All his barking is not going to make it go away. ...Jim

Edited April 18 by Wire-Wheels (see edit history)