LED Headlights?

[welldigger]

Tanget but - I'm building an engine for about $15K to go into a truck I bought for $1.5K... After the fact it's always more expensive.

Back on target, headlights are like your #1 safety device after the sun goes down. You could have brand new tires (x6 on a 5-ton), new brake master cylinders, new brake shoes and hubs, all new stainless steel braided lines to the hubs - potentially thousands of dollars of PM hardware and hours of effort. None of that is worth anything if you never see that deer run out in front of you...

If you don't think the LED's are worth the money go for a ride in someone's truck who has them - it's an illuminating experience.

I have the older style trucklite leds. While they are a step up from stock they aren't jw speaker good. Not even remotely close. That being said I paid $150 for a n.o.s pair. Not $800 for the jw speaker versions. So I can't really complain too much since they do look cool And work better than stock sealed beams.

 

[patracy]

Wow- a light bar that's worth more than the truck it's mounted on? Amazing...

Is he spending your money?

 

[Woodsplinter]

Is he spending your money?

Ok, my weak attempt at humor didn't come through.

Its his truck and his money and he can spend it any way he wants- just as we all can. I agree that lighting is very important to safety, especially if you live in rural areas that are dark.

For those of us city dwellers its not as big an issue and we tend to forget about the needs of folks in rural areas.
I was merely trying to say I have different priorities for my limited retirement funds.

I sincerely apologize to all, particularly the OP, if my comments came across as insensitive as that was not my intent.

 

[mattwspeed]

We are finishing up a customers truck now. It has new LED headlights, Dual 34'' light bars above the windshield, a 20'' light bar on the front bumper with 2- 6'' oval LED's and a 34'' rear mounted light bar on the back of the cab for backing up or the pesky tailgater! Overall- that's 11 feet of double row LED light... we are in north GA so should be able to see it from Florida when there all on at the same time
PS- the difference in the LED headlights and the old ones are night and day! literally! Every truck we do will have them from now on!
This Truck will also be at the Atlanta International Auto Show in 3 weeks.

 

[turnkey]

Like the man saz...Iffn you got the bucks ,Light the way...I like 2 flashlites myself.

 

[drivebymashing]

2 grand is alot for headlights I agree. I have a three year old I rarely am out after 9 pm. My truck could have no headlights at all I never drive at night. Either way LED headlights look great!! Oreillys have some new 7 inch leds I thought about trying.

 

[tim292stro]

I think it was $2K for two trucks... the 7" round 8700 Evolution 2 J.W. Speaker headlights can be had from several retailers for about $700 a set (~$350 each).

The 8900 Evolution 5"x7" (200mm/H6054 - a.k.a. the one which fits CUCVs) is right around the same price, but they just released the Evolution 2 revision of these in December, and they are about $1K/set. Easily double the price of either version of the TruckLites, but you get what you pay for...

 

[datadawg]

Ok, my weak attempt at humor didn't come through.

Its his truck and his money and he can spend it any way he wants- just as we all can. I agree that lighting is very important to safety, especially if you live in rural areas that are dark.

For those of us city dwellers its not as big an issue and we tend to forget about the needs of folks in rural areas.
I was merely trying to say I have different priorities for my limited retirement funds.

I sincerely apologize to all, particularly the OP, if my comments came across as insensitive as that was not my intent.

I tbought you original post was witty and devoid of any malice. I did not think it was meant to offend anyone. No worrying needed.

 

[tim292stro]

Digging up an old thread - Grote and Maxxima have thrown their hats into the LED headlight ring. About the price of Truklite's solution (and 1/2 the price of J.W. Speaker). I haven't seen any reviews of these yet, but it's interesting to see another potential option out there.

Grote 5"x7" (200mm rectangle) for CUCV and is multivolt <-- as of this writing, summing racing has these for $186 each.
Grote 7" (PAR56) round for basically every other mil truck, multivolt <-- as of this writing, summing racing has these for $186 each.

Maxxima 5"x7" (200mm rectangle) for CUCV, multivolt
Maxxima 7" round (PAR56) for everything else, multivolt


Again, haven't seen a review, so no idea how well they work yet. That said, it seems they are using Philips-Lumileds parts (a little history, Lumileds is a spin-off of Agilent which is a spin-off of HP), not CREE - so there's less Chinese stuff in there for those of you who are sticklers (or want to be Brady compliant). These are also FMVSS/CMVSS compliant (remember that DOT does not an approval body, they just write a standard, it's up to the manufacturer to state compliance - and they get in trouble if they make a false statement and get caught).

 

[gimpyrobb]

Wow, those 2 (grote and maxxima) must be in cahoots!

 

[JohnnyBM931A2]

I really like both of those round headlight options.... The effect and clarity of the JW lights is awesome, but they have a noticeably different appearance (trying to keep my truck "stock" looking.) And the price kind of sucks, as you had mentioned. I may have to try one of these 2 alternatives. I have never pulled the headlights on my M931A2.. Do these headlights have the correct connector, or do I have to cut and wire in new ones?

 

[tim292stro]

These have the H4 connector:


You would have to either cut the wiring on the fixture and install packard plugs, or you could build short Faston to Packard adapters so nothing gets cut.


[EDIT:] For simplicity/ease you can buy a pre-terminated H4 repair socket (like these) and just put the Packard connectors on the pigtails. [/EDIT]