LED Driving Lights

These are a slightly different formfactor


http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/529939232/CREE_chips_5w_10w_20w_30w.html

Couldn't agree more.

I Love led lights but they are a waste of space and dollars for front vehicle lighting.

When we first tried the LED light bars we got all excited seeing how much light output they had, it all can to a sudden stop whilst testing with the light bar we could not see much more then 150m at the best down the road but the spread and close light output was fantastic and by far the best spread available.

Bring on the HID driving lights, when we turned on the HID lights with no LED light bar running we could easily pick out objects over 700m away..... turn the LED light bar on and we lost the effect of the HID's and again we could not see past the 150m mark.

This problem escalated when we used the round 18 LED driving lights.

After some theory thinking and looking at nature for answers we discovered the close high intensity light out put of the LED light bar was making our eyes shut down that made use loose distance..... much the same as looking at the sun or better still think what a camera does at high light inputs..... the camera starts closing the iris down reducing the amount of light entering.

With less light directly in front your eyes open up to let more light in increasing distance.

Remember what our eyes see if the reflective light off of an object that gets converted into an image.

This is one of the problems when your on high beam using quality driving lights and you come upon one of those BIG green road direction signs..... you loose distance and can't see much around you and as soon as you go down to low beam you can see further and better.

LED light bars have there purpose and if using them how you do then you have the best of both worlds...... the reason your HID driving lights work so well with the LED light bar as compared to the same combination being fitted to a car or 4x4 is that you have a longer bonnet that sits higher reducing the reflection and light intensity you see, if you compared the same combination on a cab over the quality of light may be different.

Any light temperature output below 5000K (yellow to white light) will be less blinding to on coming vehicles and the light is not adsorbed by object as much reflecting more giving you greater vision then if you were running lights that had a light temperature output above 5000K (blue to black light), light 5000k and above is absorbed more by objects giving less reflection making the illumination darker...... the human eye was never designed to work with anything above 5000k, 5000k is very close to maximum day light..... so when we were designed/made our makes thought we don't need to have eyes that can adjust above day light.....hence why those so called blue lights (that every one thinks are HID) look so bright and are dazzling to on coming vehicles.

Another good example is on emergency vehicles the blue light is more brighter then to other colour used.

We only recommend lights rated around 4200k..... greater vision and less dazzling.

For short range driving in the 2 to 300m range LED driving lights are hard to go past if you don't mind spending BIG money...... for everyday driving HID is the way to go..... in a few years this may be different.

If I was driving on windy road or through hilly terrain and it was critical to have very good lights I would recommend the Great White 18 LED as the Bees Knees.... ther short range light output is incredible.

What brand light bar do you use and what your thoughts on it.

Bob,
I haven't driven the highway for a good few years now.

Underground we are using a mix. They put some big leds on some of the drill rigs, but in the end they didn't want them and preferred the metal halides (same as HID) even for the fact they had to let them warm up before use.

All the trucks u/g use Hids.

Boggers are a mix of Hid and Led although the Leds are only used to light up the sides.

Some of the service vehicles are using Led headlights that spray light everywhere, eyes mainly.

They will get better but they aren't there at the moment. Also the amount of power they use is starting to creep up.

As a work light and a reverse light they a great.

May that long bonneted star never go through rain and shrink into a snub bonneted star. Bob I think you know what I am talking about.

One advantage of the snub nose Star is it gives you is a big foot rest in side..... reminds me of the old SAR's

Olcoolone,

Can only agree with your thoughts on this subjuect, from my own experiences on highway, and secondary roads. Large signs became a "light barrier", and the only way to see past them is to dip.

The light bar in photo is a Rigid Industries one sold by Snake Racing. Don't know it is a flood, spot or combo. Did see odd one with water ingress, and if the side mounts arent tight, they ride up, and you lose a lot of that limited distance. To tighten the pivot screws, one needs a tube spanner or similar thin walled socket, so invariably I use to tape them back into position with duct tape. Otherwise, a good robust light.

"They" did send one truck up with round LED lights, and don't know if they were aligned properly, but never saw them again. Can't remember if they were great Whites or not.

Also interesting your comments about 4200K globes, OC1, might have to investigate them. Maybe you could send me 2 HID globes, and I could test them for you, ha ha.

RA,

Yeah, exciting times with all the new lights on the market, eh? Have a round LED work light set up on side of Tojo ute, throws lots of light, almost too bright, but as Olcoolone says, don't seem to carry.

Fair bit of HID on highway now too, RA, but you'd probably have seen that. Makes the drop to low a bit interesting at times, but as long as there's no cattle in the area, then it's still full noise, and cruise on.

Yeah, "they" sent a couple of those little Stars up this way late last year. Nothing to write home about, but they were rated @ 100kph(for B double work in NSW), so meant we could pull a B-triple up to Barkly, in under 13 hr, and get an extra hour in the sack. Good stuff!!!

Ah well, Gentlemen, have given my ego a rest overnight. Might have a yarn to Phil below. See ya, Bob.

Back in the early 70's those big black Bosch lights were all the truckies in WA used because there wasn't anything available that was any more effective. Remember when they first came out with incandescent bulbs? The glass bulb was so big they used to drop off on the Pilbara/Kimberley dirt roads back then. Then they brought out the QH adaptor but the top of the outer rim used to come adrift on dirt roads. Blokes used to hold the rim on with rubber straps hooked over the lens cover clips or drill a couple of holes and place a metal link between the rim and the lamp body to keep them from falling apart. Those lights were actually a Bosch search light P/No. SL5 which later changed to SL200, the SL = search light. The reason those lights were so effective is that what makes a good light is two things. The depth and diameter of the reflector, simply a factor of physics. I used those lights for years for rallying and long distance driving for my work and still have two (in the shed) I now use two QH Rallye 4000's on one vehicle and two Lightforce 35w Blitz 240's on another and don't think either are much better than the old black Bosch jobbies. All the rest Narva, Hella Bull 250 and Rig 200 are copies of the Bosch which they had to do as the truckies were all using that design lamp. They not only had excellent range but good width of spread so they illuminated the sides of the road where roadkill are likely to be lurking. Just one minor point that people need to be aware of before they waste their money. Having only one of those LED strip lamps across the width of the vehilce is illegal. ADR13 requires that driving lamps be symetrical and you can have two or four

Regarding your point on ADR13, could it not be argued that whilst it is one fitting it is multiple lamps within that fitting so technically it is not 1 light.???
I am assuming this rule has not been updated to keep in mind LED fittings.

If it has one set of wires going to it then it is classed as one lamp (in WA anyway)

Fair enough just playing devils advocate

Invested interest??????

Correction to my post....not White Knights but Great White brand.

Absolutely brilliant :-))

Mat

Going by the Accessories for the Great White they are the ones I seen in Darwin at Repco.

Agreed. It's not the roos in front you hit, but the ones off the road that you don't see until they right on you. I used to have my driving lights aimed off road, not staight ahead

Good idea. We have our fog lights pointed out the front sides at about 10:30 and 2:30.

They will go back straight if we ever get some driving lights. The double headlights are good enough for us.

I'll bite, Phil. Hope you've got your flack (sic) vest on?]

Some months back, you posted, that you did little night driving, and didn't see the need for you to have driving lights. Some of us do a lot of night driving, and we have driving lights so we can do it more safely. OK, some of these shine out for 2 km, but its the light they provide for the first 600 - 800 metres that gives one a safe buffer zone, to sight any wildlife etc.

You state that we only need a 200 metre light zone, as this gives us 7 seconds to react @ 100kph, and avoid the 'roo, cow, camel or broken-down ute. Don't think there's a single road train driver in Australia that would be happy with only that margin of safety!!!

Also you state that in that 200M, there is enough time for the roo, or tortoise to get off the road. What about if they don't get off the road, or even hop towards you, or it's a mob of cattle on the bitumen, that won't get off, because it has rained, and they don't wan to walk in the mud? That 200m is starting to get a bit tight now, Phil, and you were just telling your wife that you'll be pleased to get home, so you just used 2.5 seconds of your "ample" 7 seconds.

When I am driving I dip the lighjts as soon as I see another vehicle, which can often be many k's away. When I was driving trucks, many, many motorists would only dip their lights when they could read the front number plate of the truck. And if you re-read my post, you will note that blokes flashed their loading lights at me, these are the little lights, on the mirrors, that face backwards.

In my experience, most of the poor lights, over-bright etc etc are normal halogen, and poorly adjusted, or damaged. Not as you say, Phil, all the LED/HID "idiots"

Some free advice here, Phil. Keep your lights on high beam at corners & hills. If you're on low beam, oncoming motorists won't see the glare of your lights, and you'll get a regular blast of high beam. Remember you've got to look after your safety, as well as the other blokes.

As for the ego trip, Phil, the only ego trip I've been on is after doing an unexpected "all-nighter", and got back to base safely, and not caused anyone any harm.

And if you're going to stir sh*t, you'd be better off in a raincoat, not a flak vest.

Bob.

Bob you didn't even dent it. (chuckle)

I was only addressing the need for cars. Not trucks, thats different - Totally. And I was saying that in the past I was wrong. It's not the LEDS. It's the drivers. Just as the gun is not the culprit, it's the person behind the gun who is the culprit.

Fair enough also about the first 600 meters of "usable" coverage.

I just typed up a bunch more words and before submitting I read your post again. I then deleted most of it because your opening statement about the amount of night driving triggered a thought. Isn't it the lights already on the car and your eyesight that are the main criteria. Not the amount of time we get out at night.

As an aside on the capabilities of the standard lifgting on our car:
We recently went on a club trip that went a bit wrong and (believe it) we ended up having to do a 200kms night detour at night. We were about 50 meters behind the car in front and when I put my lights oin high they lit up the area in front of him to such an extent that he asked what we had on the front. He knew I was going to do it by the way. I guess we are lucky with good lights as standard. But seeing that we can afford it now we may get some. It's a bloody long way to the center from here.

Believe it - I did delete the rest of my response because I think my comment on the need for eyesight and car capabilities is more constructive and relevant.

I appreciate your comments.