Led Lighting?

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Boostpowered

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So last night i had to do a little off roading to get out of the area i was fishing and i noticed that even with higbeams on i could not see very far through the tall grass. Im not willing to put a light bar on the roof until i find a cargo basket i like, so my question is to those of you with ditch lights and bumper mounted leds. Do they throw light any further than having headlights on high? Im leaning more towards ditch lights since they are higher up than bumper mount and they can be moved in different directions
 

HomeBrew82

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I swapped my stock headlights for LED low and high beam direct replacements from Hikari. It has been a little while since I installed them, but I’m never going back. Not only do my eyes no longer fatigue while driving at night, but these things are so bright I don’t need additional LEDs mounted on my roof rack or ARB bumper. I’ll eventually mount some extra lights, but I don’t NEED them.
So, to answer your question, I feel like an LED setup will throw light further than your stock beams, especially if the lumens are higher and if your mounting point is higher as well. I am currently looking to add this to my roof rack:

https://extremeledlightbars.com/x6s-slim-series-2d-amber-white-38-single-row-led-light-bar-17100-lumens-combo-beam

If direct replacement LEDs are attractive to you, do the research to make sure the part number is compatible with your vehicle and grab them off Amazon. Sorry I don’t have any other info on LED pods or the sort. Hopefully someone else can chime in on that.

Cheers,
Jim
 
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4L_Warrior

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Jim, I changed mine out over a year ago too!

What they didn't say was that I would also need to change out my signal slasher unit to an LED one. If you don't it will hyper flash like you have a burned out bulb (not a big deal, but a trip to the part house). Also, I had to order and install an inline resistor between the LED bulb and factory plug. On newer trucks that don't allow use of factory driving lights and high beams at the same time, you have to add the resistor to keep the computer happy.

I agree with you, why did I wait so long to go LED. I have slowly replaced every bulb with LED ones!
 
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mylilpwny

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I have recently mounted Baja design squads in my fog light location. They are by far better than even my high beams. I do plan to mount some ditch lights on the hood. I am not a huge fan of roof mount lights, they are great for the light itself but just do not like the look. Very pleased with the out come, I have floods with Amber covers on bottom and spots on top. Pictures are not great but give an idea between low beam, high beams and then with pods on. IMG_20180915_193129.jpegIMG_20180915_193133.jpegIMG_20180915_193144.jpegIMG_20180917_182400.jpeg
 

darjo242

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When I bought my 2017 Wrangler, it came with LED headlights standard from the factory. The 2012 Wrangler I traded in had halogen head lights. Damn what a difference and made me wish I had put LEDs in my 2012 after I bought it. they're brighter, I get greater distance of light and I don't have to strain my eyes driving at night while watching for elk, deer, humans, etc on the side of the road.

I would for sure look into swapping LED headlights in to your vehicle if they are available. I will never go back to the old style of headlights again.
 

Boostpowered

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What mounting brackets did you use? I may do this for side lighting
I took some 1 inch aluminum bar stock and beat it into shape with a hammer, i then put 2, 8mm nut rivets into each side of the hood to bolt the brackets to. I didn't like the way the brackets on the market use hinge bolts and didn't want to pay 150 for a pair. my brackets line up with the inside edge of the hood hinge.
 

HomeBrew82

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That setup should definitely make a big difference for you. You’ll be asking yourself why you didn’t do it sooner for sure. Looks good too!
 

HomeBrew82

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Jim, I changed mine out over a year ago too!

What they didn't say was that I would also need to change out my signal slasher unit to an LED one. If you don't it will hyper flash like you have a burned out bulb (not a big deal, but a trip to the part house). Also, I had to order and install an inline resistor between the LED bulb and factory plug. On newer trucks that don't allow use of factory driving lights and high beams at the same time, you have to add the resistor to keep the computer happy.

I agree with you, why did I wait so long to go LED. I have slowly replaced every bulb with LED ones!
I was fortunate enough not to have to change anything but the bulbs. I had read all sorts of stuff on forums saying that I would need additional resistors (If I remember correctly) to curtail some of the current flow. I’m happy it was just plug and play for me.

Looking into possibly swapping out the turn signals and fog lights in my ARB bumper to LED later down the road. At that point I’ll have to add resistors to the signals most likely.
 

Fozzy325

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I have just purchased replacement bulbs for external and internal. I did it with my Harley and I just added a small capacitor to each indicator wire in the loom and that fixed problems
 

Boostpowered

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Im not super impressed with the light output, they do great for side lighting on trail but if you expect ditch lights to light up the road out front more than the headlight on a colorado, They dont. if pointed forward most of the light is reflected of the hood back into your eyes. So my review is that if you get them for off road side/ditch lighting they are real helpful but on road they are about useless as driving/fog lights. Due to being up high on hood they are illegal to use as driving lights on the road.
 
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HomeBrew82

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Im not super impressed with the light output, they do great for side lighting on trail but if you expect ditch lights to light up the road out front more than the headlight on a colorado, They dont. if pointed forward most of the light is reflected of the hood back into your eyes. So my review is that if you get them for off road side/ditch lighting they are real helpful but on road they are about useless as driving/fog lights. Due to being up high on hood they are illegal to use as driving lights on the road.
Didn’t think about how bad the reflection off the hood would be. Makes sense, and that would certainly annoy me, especially with my white paint!

As with fog lights, I forget what the actual spec is, but fog doesn’t really sit within about 2.5’ off the ground. To optimize a fog light application, the lights would need to be within this range (again I forget the actual spec) and must have a wide beam pattern, as opposed to spot or beam. The objective is to throw light in a wide pattern along the road below the specified height, avoiding the fog and subsequent reflection of light back into the eyes of the driver. Thus, why high beams don’t work in foggy scenarios.
 
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Boostpowered

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I got them to be ditch lights for off road they work in that capacity, i can see where to put my front tires on the trail in the dark. my stock fog lights are about 11" from the ground they work fine as fog lights. The reason i put the ditch lights on is to see the trail especially when im going over the top of a crest and the stock headlight/ fog light is pointing into the sky and you cant see the terrain in front of you. Im just bummed that when i run the lights straight ahead they are no brighter than the oem halogen beams and reflect off the hood. Again They work for what i got them for but they are not good for muliple roles at least not on top of the hood, for ditch lighting or general work lighting out to around 40 yards its good but for driving/fog or any kind of long distance illumination past 40 yards it not gonna work out too well. I may try some stips of flat black vynle on the hood where the most reflection is just to see if its blinding me from seeing some better performance but i suspect it wont do much.
 

HomeBrew82

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I got them to be ditch lights for off road they work in that capacity, i can see where to put my front tires on the trail in the dark. my stock fog lights are about 11" from the ground they work fine as fog lights. The reason i put the ditch lights on is to see the trail especially when im going over the top of a crest and the stock headlight/ fog light is pointing into the sky and you cant see the terrain in front of you. Im just bummed that when i run the lights straight ahead they are no brighter than the oem halogen beams and reflect off the hood. Again They work for what i got them for but they are not good for muliple roles at least not on top of the hood, for ditch lighting or general work lighting out to around 40 yards its good but for driving/fog or any kind of long distance illumination past 40 yards it not gonna work out too well. I may try some stips of flat black vynle on the hood where the most reflection is just to see if its blinding me from seeing some better performance but i suspect it wont do much.
I would look at mounting another pair directly behind your grille (maybe having to make brackets similar to your ditch light mounts) and leave the ditch lights where they are. Then make sure to purchase lights that have better lumen output for what you need. Not sure what kind of budget you're bound to, but if those 70 watt lights are only throwing light for 40' I would look into some IPF lights, or other similar lights. I had these on my Tacoma back in the day. Quality and affordable and you'd be throwing light more like what you're looking for (way more than 40'), plus they'll match your factory light color. If you're thinking LED, you could go with a light bar tucked behind the grille and that would be the least expensive option, or even get ones similar to the IPFs in the link and go LED, but they're pricey. Just my two cents.