LED & HID driving light positioning

[azblazer]

On the ORD front bumper.

 

[DEMON44]

This is what my true/factory HID low and high beams look like....

That is what a beam pattern and cut off should look like!

Why. That's not what an oem looks like. My lights are in an oem houseing. Why shouldn't they have oem pattern. Seems fairly nonsensical to assume a stock housing would somehow magically change it's pattern.

 

[azblazer]

More info on what you have there Luke. I think with my small headlights i am screwed but i could swap the front core support to use an H6054 i think it is which opens up more options.

 

[DEMON44]

What bulb goes in there.

And I was only replying cause this other guy is so hung up on this cut line for some reason. Which I currently don't get.

 

[azblazer]

Who makes those LED's your running?

 

[DEMON44]

I'm not sure I recall the name just now. But they are using Cree LEDs. But between me and my roommate up at work. We have a set in every brand pickup. they all friggin rock. And no. I still do not get flashed.

I've been on the highway tonight for 6 1/2 hours already. No oncoming flashes. I won't arrive at work until 3 am I'll keep you updated on who flashes me. But I'll bet it'll still be zero. Just like my last trip. And the trip before that. and the trip before that.

 

[DEMON44]

This is what they look like right now.

 

[DEMON44]

So we are running the same bulb in. 3 different fitments. 06 superduty. 94 dodge ram. 03 Chev silverado. Awesome light in each. And second gen rams are notorious for terrible, IMO actually dangerous stock headlights.

 

[azblazer]

That 3rd gen dodge i had wasn't much better. I put after market housings in with xtra vision bulbs as the HIDs were great until one needed high beams...the delay was a killer.

 

[K20Chevrolet]

Why. That's not what an oem looks like. My lights are in an oem houseing. Why shouldn't they have oem pattern. Seems fairly nonsensical to assume a stock housing would somehow magically change it's pattern.

Sorry to say this, but as an automotive engineer I can tell you, the OEM beam pattern is only working in the OEM housing if the focal piont of the bulb is exactly in the same place. If you change the halogen bulb out with an HID or LED bulb then the focal point is not exactly in the same location spreading the light in the reflector differently therefore creating a different beam pattern than the stock. Your LED bulb in the stock housing has no cut off line anymore at low beam. FActory setup is if the kind of bulb matches the headlight. For example our OEM housings were made for only halogen bulbs, nothing else. My hid lights are not the stock housings on the truck, BUT the headlight is an OEM HID light, so the housing was made for the hid bulb from the factory, so the focal point is right where it should be. And there are LED lights out as well from Hella, J.W. Speaker and Nolden which are LED specific.

All these HID and LED kits you can swap in your stock halogen housings might be bright, but the beam pattern is way off. Let alone it is not legal.

So basically if you want HID or LED lights, you would have to change the entire headlight assembly for one made for that kind of light source in order to have a legal and perfect beam pattern and more importantly cut off at low beam to not blind people.

Your pattern on the garage wall looks almost the same in low and high beam, with high beam just being brighter. Look at mine, high beam is bright, but low has a sharp cut off line between bright and dark. that is how the low beam pattern should look like.

So your housing is OEM and doesn´t change the beam pattern, your non stock bulb is what changes it. It is simple physics and optics.

And there is a reason why true HID or LED lights cost so much. If it was as easy as just swaping out a bulb, they wouldn´t go through all that engineering to produce these high end lights.

And I don´t dissagree that you don´t get flashed on the road, that might be true. But still, the pattern you showed on the wall are not the way a low or high beam pattern is supposed to be.

If you put your stock bulbs back into your hedalight housings and put the truck in front of the garage and turn lows and high on and compare them with the led bulbs you have in there now, you´ll see what I´m talking about. With the stock bulbs your beam pattern on teh garage door will look completely different.

 

[DEMON44]

I understand what you saying. But it will also turn in to the same deal as modifying your exhaust system. Of course it's illegal to modify, there's a federal statute that says so. But everyone still does it.

I am more than ok with the upgrade insert. In that I don't feel like I might die while driving like I did with the oem lights.

 

[K20Chevrolet]

Let´s move back on topic... driving light mounting positions....

I might actually go for 4 or 5 hid´s above the roof again for distance and keep the LED down low on the bumper.

Not sure if I should swap the led´s to amber...