slantsixdan
=..=
I've eyeballed a few new(ish)-on-the-market LED 7" headlamps, and one out of three of them gets a thumbs-up. That's the Philips H6024LED. It's made in Taiwan, rather nicely per my inspection, and it appears they picked one of the better beam specifications in the regulation to engineer/build to (which is what all the "Integral Beam" verbiage is about—there's like nineteen of us in the world who know what that phrase means; nobody else knows or cares, but I guess it sounded flashy to the marketers), rather than the lax old sealed beam standard. It produces a very wide, well-formed and -focused beam, and can readily be aimed visually, optically, or with the old-fashioned Hoppy-type sealed beam aimer that interfaces with the three lens pips. I might not go so far as to call it my favourite, but I don't think I'd find much to gripe about driving with these at night.
Next was the Peak 6024LED, which is marketed by the people behind Peak antifreeze (who have recently decided themselves into lighting people, too, in the manner of MBAs who consider it beneath them to know or care anything about what they're selling; to them it's all just "product"). I had no real hopes for this—and even so, it wound up disappointing me—because even just in the pics it was screaming to me that it's a pathetic joke. I wanted to scrutinise it anyhow, because it does look more like an olde-tyme sealed beam than any of the others. Uhhh…yeah, that's because clueless dillweeds in a trinket factory in China didn't bother with any decadent western running-pigdog capitalist ideas like involving an optical engineer or two; they just pasted the lens from a (cruddy Peak) halogen sealed beam onto a rinky-dink housing containing a thrown-together LED plate. That's not how any of this works; it's like I grabbed some rando's eyeglasses, which he got out of a Cracker Jacks box, and expected I'd be able to see with them. I'd describe it as "Mickey Mouse", but that would be a serious insult to Mr. Mouse and all he stands for. This lamp almost certainly does not merit its "DOT" marking, it is not aimable by any method, and its performance is terrible: a narrow, unfocused blob/cloud of light. Too much glare and backscatter, not enough seeing light…yuck. This dreck is worse than the equally-Chinese-and-shoddily-engineered Holley Retrobright. I sure as hell would not want to have to drive with these at night, and if it were a choice between these and a carefully-chosen set of regular sealed beams or good H4s, I'd pick the regular sealed beams or the good H4s, sure.
Then came Truck-Lite's newest, their 37270C "projector" unit. Made in America, with Truck-Lite's usual high build/materials quality, but poorly conceived and engineered. It produces a good, strong hot spot for distance light, but overall it puts out a thin stripe of light with no depth to it. The road surface will be poorly lit, making you feel like you're always driving into a black hole. I sure as all hell would not want to drive behind these in a big commercial vehicle (truck/bus) which is Truck-Lite's main market. They'd be somewhat less unpleasant to drive behind with a low mount height—think Porsche 911, Mazda Miata, that kind of thing—but not a whole lot less unpleasant, judging by the reaction of the guy at the link who reviewed them after trying them on a Miata (online "reviews" are usually crapola at best, but that particular guy apparently isn't an idiot or a bot). This lamp is a great illustration of the big gap between light drivers need for safety (which it provides plenty of) and the light drivers want for comfort (which this lamp is seriously deficient in). So thumbs-down on this one, but the previous Truck-Lite design, the 27270C mentioned below, is still a fine choice; it strikes a better balance between need-light and want-light (though I might very well pick the Philips item instead).
To make this post a one-stop resource, here's previously-posted, still valid advice on the subject:
If you want LEDs, be careful; there's a mountain of fraudulent/unsafe junk on the market, including all "LED bulbs" that fit in halogen headlamps (see here ) and a whole lot of toys shaped like whole sealed beam headlamps. But there are some good-to-excellent ones on the market, too. the Peterson 701C is pretty good, and so is the Truck-Lite 27270C. Probably the king daddy of them all is the JW Speaker 8700, which comes in black or chrome (and can be had with a heated lens to cope with winter slush/snow). All three of these are well made in America. There's a lot of lookalike copycat junk "recommended" when you look at these; ignore them. Super-poopy junk from NAPA, too; avoid it.
Whatever headlamps you wind up using, the most important thing about them is that they be aimed correctly.
Next was the Peak 6024LED, which is marketed by the people behind Peak antifreeze (who have recently decided themselves into lighting people, too, in the manner of MBAs who consider it beneath them to know or care anything about what they're selling; to them it's all just "product"). I had no real hopes for this—and even so, it wound up disappointing me—because even just in the pics it was screaming to me that it's a pathetic joke. I wanted to scrutinise it anyhow, because it does look more like an olde-tyme sealed beam than any of the others. Uhhh…yeah, that's because clueless dillweeds in a trinket factory in China didn't bother with any decadent western running-pigdog capitalist ideas like involving an optical engineer or two; they just pasted the lens from a (cruddy Peak) halogen sealed beam onto a rinky-dink housing containing a thrown-together LED plate. That's not how any of this works; it's like I grabbed some rando's eyeglasses, which he got out of a Cracker Jacks box, and expected I'd be able to see with them. I'd describe it as "Mickey Mouse", but that would be a serious insult to Mr. Mouse and all he stands for. This lamp almost certainly does not merit its "DOT" marking, it is not aimable by any method, and its performance is terrible: a narrow, unfocused blob/cloud of light. Too much glare and backscatter, not enough seeing light…yuck. This dreck is worse than the equally-Chinese-and-shoddily-engineered Holley Retrobright. I sure as hell would not want to have to drive with these at night, and if it were a choice between these and a carefully-chosen set of regular sealed beams or good H4s, I'd pick the regular sealed beams or the good H4s, sure.
Then came Truck-Lite's newest, their 37270C "projector" unit. Made in America, with Truck-Lite's usual high build/materials quality, but poorly conceived and engineered. It produces a good, strong hot spot for distance light, but overall it puts out a thin stripe of light with no depth to it. The road surface will be poorly lit, making you feel like you're always driving into a black hole. I sure as all hell would not want to drive behind these in a big commercial vehicle (truck/bus) which is Truck-Lite's main market. They'd be somewhat less unpleasant to drive behind with a low mount height—think Porsche 911, Mazda Miata, that kind of thing—but not a whole lot less unpleasant, judging by the reaction of the guy at the link who reviewed them after trying them on a Miata (online "reviews" are usually crapola at best, but that particular guy apparently isn't an idiot or a bot). This lamp is a great illustration of the big gap between light drivers need for safety (which it provides plenty of) and the light drivers want for comfort (which this lamp is seriously deficient in). So thumbs-down on this one, but the previous Truck-Lite design, the 27270C mentioned below, is still a fine choice; it strikes a better balance between need-light and want-light (though I might very well pick the Philips item instead).
To make this post a one-stop resource, here's previously-posted, still valid advice on the subject:
If you want LEDs, be careful; there's a mountain of fraudulent/unsafe junk on the market, including all "LED bulbs" that fit in halogen headlamps (see here ) and a whole lot of toys shaped like whole sealed beam headlamps. But there are some good-to-excellent ones on the market, too. the Peterson 701C is pretty good, and so is the Truck-Lite 27270C. Probably the king daddy of them all is the JW Speaker 8700, which comes in black or chrome (and can be had with a heated lens to cope with winter slush/snow). All three of these are well made in America. There's a lot of lookalike copycat junk "recommended" when you look at these; ignore them. Super-poopy junk from NAPA, too; avoid it.
Whatever headlamps you wind up using, the most important thing about them is that they be aimed correctly.
