'88 E250 LED Headlight Upgrade Pics

jayro88

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I had purchased some HellaLenses from a forum member a while back and had been trying to decide how to use them. Either set it up with halogen bulbs and a relay so the I didn't burn out my headlight switch, or to try some LED bulbs in the lenses. I had heard mixed reviews about LED bulbs for headlights, but I found these that got good reviews and were inexpensive enough to experiment (35.99).
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The bulbs were were plug'n play and come equipped with a heatsink/fan combo to keep them in the right operation temperature.
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I got them installed in the housing and installed one in the drivers side for comparison.
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There seems to be quite a difference in light out put. It wasn't quite dark yet, but you can still tell.
Low beams
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High Beams
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Low Beam light spread
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High beam light spread
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Low Beams
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High Beams
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Back of bulbs installed
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I'm gonna go for a drive after dark to see how they do. Also gonna have a buddy drive by me on a back road to make sure I have them adjusted so I am not blinding anyone coming the opposite direction.
 

Macrobb

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While I have no doubt that they are significantly brighter than the originals, the "8000 lm" rating is just... wishful thinking on the manufacturers part - LEDs anage between 80 and 100 lumens/watt, or 2880-3600 lumens for that bulb at 36 watts.
(Chances are, it actually runs at less than that, probably around 2K lumens).

Even so, with a standard 55W halogen putting out in the 1,000 lumen range, it's still brighter by 2x.
 

jayro88

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While I have no doubt that they are significantly brighter than the originals, the "8000 lm" rating is just... wishful thinking on the manufacturers part - LEDs anage between 80 and 100 lumens/watt, or 2880-3600 lumens for that bulb at 36 watts.
(Chances are, it actually runs at less than that, probably around 2K lumens).

Even so, with a standard 55W halogen putting out in the 1,000 lumen range, it's still brighter by 2x.

Manufacturer always inflate results, or they test items in a lab under perfect conditions to produce unrealistic results.

Now that the sun is down i went out and turned them on to see what they looked like. They REALLY light up the driveway. Enough that I am gonna wait until my buddy comes over to test the spread for oncoming traffic before going for a drive. The light pattern on my garage door looks the same as with the old bulbs, but i want to make sure.
 

jayro88

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Here is a shot of the lenses. I am assuming the lens pattern on the front is to direct the light down and away from oncoming traffic.
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crash-harris

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I've been thinking about doing this on the Enterprise. I need to get the HD headlight relay harness installed first. Does 3 months in the back seat of the truck count? Anyway...

I'd like to find some like those that are more on the warm side of the spectrum. I hate blue/white light with a passion, but that may be a brain chemistry thing.
 

crash-harris

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I don't like them in my house even. Make me feel strange/uncomfortable. I definitely wouldn't want to look at blue/white from behind at night in my vehicle.
 

jayro88

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I've been thinking about doing this on the Enterprise. I need to get the HD headlight relay harness installed first. Does 3 months in the back seat of the truck count? Anyway...

I'd like to find some like those that are more on the warm side of the spectrum. I hate blue/white light with a passion, but that may be a brain chemistry thing.

One reason I went this route was because it doesn't require installing a relay harness due to the lower electrical draw.
 

jayro88

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So stupid early morning me, I assume those headlamps replace the sealed beam? I would bet someone makes a seal beam LED replacement.

There are, but the last time I looked a pair of good ones were extremely expensive. Most of the lenses are plastic instead of glass.

There are some lower price ones on Amazon that might be okay, but I already had the lenses that I had gotten a good deal on used lenses that could be fit with an h4 style bulb.
 
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jayro88

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While I have no doubt that they are significantly brighter than the originals, the "8000 lm" rating is just... wishful thinking on the manufacturers part - LEDs anage between 80 and 100 lumens/watt, or 2880-3600 lumens for that bulb at 36 watts.
(Chances are, it actually runs at less than that, probably around 2K lumens).

Even so, with a standard 55W halogen putting out in the 1,000 lumen range, it's still brighter by 2x.

I read through the manual. It says that the rating of 8000 is total. So 4000 a buld. Each bulb has 2 sets of LEDs. So the numbers are still inflated, but not quite as much.
 

madpogue

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Those higher color temperature blue lights throw out less usable light. The big concern with them is that those who use them generally do so thinking it makes their vehicle look cool to others, but of course it's at the expense of their ability to see at night. Same thing with smoked and blacked-out lights. You see evidence of this on forums all the time; scads of photos of the vehicle and how awesome the lights supposedly look, and not a single pic of a dark road ahead lit by those lights.

The OP's lights seem to be an exception to this. They also don't appear to be as blue as the 6500K that the box claims. They look closer to a 5000K, which is actually better, more usable light (closer to daylight in color temp).
 

jayro88

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