What LED lights do you run ? Why?

[BJ'sFJ]

Posted a similar thread on a different forum with lots of positive feedback. I'd like to know what LED lights you are running and why.
This will be a great place for others to see what lights everyone has on their rigs. Let me know if there is already a thread like this floating around. Thanks!

:yikes::sunny::safari-rig:


For example,

I'm running Baja Designs LED Lights on my FJ. Over the past year the front end of my FJ has changed a lot and so has my light placement.
I was able to move the lights around and play with different patterns/colors based on my needs. That is one of the main reasons I went with them.

 

[BlindWilly]

My Light

I've got a chinese knock off.
I don't know what brand because it was given to me by Dave at Trailworx Fabrication in Arlington, TX.
I had been by for some work and he needed an FJ to model his 50 inch curved light bar brackets. Since he had a newer one, he took his off, mounted everything up and photographed it.
I finally got it wired up this past weekend. It's super bright when I fire it up on the way to work every morning, HAHA.
My only complaint is the moisture that I see in the lights some mornings. It's free so I can't complain. I may take them down and seal them up if it's not corroded already in there.

 

[1MK]

Baja Designs.

I've spent years fooling around with Chinese and knock off products and was never happy. They work and are reasonably bright, but all suffered from bad optics and moisture issues. After getting my hands on a set of Squadron's and a 30" Stealth bar from Baja Designs, the difference was huge. Not only did the Stealth single row 30" bar outperform a 42" double row knock off with pure brightness, but the optics actually did what they're supposed to. Night time driving is much more enjoyable now that I have LED's that throw light WAY down the trail instead of scattered everywhere.

I still have a couple LED Pod knock off's on the rear rack and cannot wait to get them replaced. Their performance is so underwhelming after using the real deal.

https://flic.kr/p/Cp81cyhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/125556024@N05/

https://flic.kr/p/ChHRF6https://www.flickr.com/photos/125556024@N05/

https://flic.kr/p/A1CWZdhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/125556024@N05/

 

[LR Max]

Peterson 701c LED Headlights: Offered plug and play, SO MUCH better than my stock headlights. Plug and play was the biggest selling point. Performance...well...for anyone who drives an old as crap truck, I don't see a reason NOT to upgrade.

Aux.: Generic 20" double stack spot light bar. Bought it years ago right before the LED light bar craze. Bought it 2nd hand off a KOH truck and before my Petersons. Works great off road, kinda sucks on road and doesn't complement the 701c's well. Considering removing it as I don't really do any nighttime wheeling. I end up on 2 lane back roads at night and it hasn't been good for that.

 

[mjmcdowell]

LED lights.....

I run halogens. Watts are cheap, near-field scatter/glare stinks.

I have 3 RIGID D2 lights, 1 each in front of the A pillar, (spots) and one on a movable magnetic base for a work light (flood) w/12' cord to plug into an accessory outlet. they have worked fine on 2 trucks, my present one an 2015 f 150, over 22,000 miles driven with them and not just a few miles on dirt. I like them. mjmcdowell

 

[andoor]

I have two sets of Rigid Dually lights (one flood, one spot). I have been running them for a couple of years with no issues, the quality of thier products is excellent.

 

[4x4junkie]

What LED lights do you run?

None.

Why?

Too much glare, none are the proper color (white, not bluish-white).


Edit:
I take that back, I do have LED dome lights, but I converted them myself because (again) I couldn't find any decent conversion bulbs/units that weren't some cold bluish color.

 

[F40]

Rigid Industries D2 wide and a 20" E2 driving.

 

[dyogim]

Bought these lights because they were affordable. Couldn't justify paying hundreds of dollars for name brand lights. My needs were simple, illuminate my surroundings better than stock without breaking the bank.

DDM Tuning oval floods upfront: http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/120mm-Oval-24W-Flood-Work-Lamp

RioRand (Amazon.com) flush mounts in the rear: http://www.amazon.com/RioRand®-Flus...8&qid=1452665268&sr=8-10&keywords=riorand+led

 

[Ray_G]

Amazon sourced chinese LEDs tucked into my bumper...mostly b/c they were cheap, bright, and fit well. Their application is as much aux light vice fog, and they certainly put out good light (shot with them on shows difference between halogen & LED setups as I made the transition).

 

[overl4nder]

I run Aurora 200W 20". I used to sell them a short while ago. Really good narrow beam with 5500K light, not bluish at all.
The price is also very good.

Before that I had Oledone 60W ovals, but they had a bit too much spread for my taste.

 

[Hilldweller]

The benefits of LEDs are their small power demand, long life, low weight.
Most of the ones available at reasonable prices don't perform as well as a halogen or HID competitors right now though.


On my JKs I've run/tested:
1) Trucklite Phase 6 (poor performer; very robust) Needed flicker-kicker adapter for PWM
2) Trucklite Phase 7 (better performer but not as good as Cibie halogen) Needed flicker-kicker adapter for PWM
3) JW Speaker model 8700 (heated glass lens, good performance, hard to fit, discontinued) Needed flicker-kicker adapter for PWM
4) JW Speaker model 8700 Evolution (plastic lens, good performance, easy to fit) Needed flicker-kicker adapter for PWM
5) JW Speaker model 8700 Evolution 2 (better performance, plastic lens, easy to fit) Needed flicker-kicker adapter for PWM
6) JW Speaker model 8700 Evolution 2J (best performance so far, plastic lens, easy to fit) no adapter needed for Jeep JK

If you have a TJ or Land Rover with 7" round headlights that use/used PAR-56 sealed beams headlights, the JWS Evo-2 will work plug & play and outperform any other legal LED headlight.

For slow-speed floodlight use I have a cheap set of cube lights from http://www.xtremeledlights.com/
low power demand, robust, cheap. the light has no focus and is useless over 25 mph

For fog use I have JW Speaker model 6145 foglights. Again, over 35 mph they inhibit distant vision. But they're great for picking out the road in the fog at slow speed.

 

[BJ'sFJ]

None.


Too much glare, none are the proper color (white, not bluish-white).


Edit:
I take that back, I do have LED dome lights, but I converted them myself because (again) I couldn't find any decent conversion bulbs/units that weren't some cold bluish color.

Baja Designs are at 5000K Daylight color temperature. Most others are around 6000K or 6500K which gives off that blue tint to the lights.

 

[Hilldweller]

Baja Designs are at 5000K Daylight color temperature. Most others are around 6000K or 6500K which gives off that blue tint to the lights.

Not really.
What most lay people refer to as color temperature (prompted by inaccurate advertising) is SPD, spectral power distribution.
In terms of color rendering index, a smoother SPD, like from a halogen bulb, is "better".
LEDs are moving along in their SPD and each generation sees improvements.

 

[4x4junkie]

Not really.
What most lay people refer to as color temperature (prompted by inaccurate advertising) is SPD, spectral power distribution.
In terms of color rendering index, a smoother SPD, like from a halogen bulb, is "better".
LEDs are moving along in their SPD and each generation sees improvements.

That is exactly the problem with phosphor-based LED technology... SPD as a rule is very poor, however it's downright atrocious at about 4500°K CCT and above. Such LEDs have a very sharp output spike deep within in the blue end of the spectrum, and is what makes them glare so badly. It is why current LED offerings (even with the best of optics) cannot penetrate as deep into the darkness like a good quality halogen incandescent or HID light can.
(and FWIW, I have not seen much SPD improvement in the very high CCT chips that seem to be common in vehicle lighting, most of these improvements have been in lower-CCT stuff for household lighting).

Baja Designs are at 5000K Daylight color temperature. Most others are around 6000K or 6500K which gives off that blue tint to the lights.

Unfortunately I find them too blue for my tastes also. Until BD (or anyone else for that matter) starts using LEDs in the 3500-4000K range where SPD (along with CRI) is somewhat better, my $$$ stays in my wallet.