Yet another HID vs LED thread, offroad lights.

[theizzardking]

Yeah, I've spent a few days searching this but can't find a clear answer and my knowledge of the tech is a few years behind the curve.

I'm currently running 4 x 4 inch 55 watt hid lights on the roof and they are super bright, really happy with them, but one of them is failing, the ignitor isn't being reliable so i either need to replace this one light for $120 or i can get a led light bar for just a bit more and reduce my draw as well as stream line my wiring, plus they look cool,new hotness and all of that, sounds great, i just don't want to sacrifice a large volume of light for it.

my question is where are the new light bars at i terms of comparing to HID's it's my understanding that HID's are inherently brighter than LEDS but it seems that LEDS are making strides at closing the distance....

how much am i giving up by going from 4, 4 inch 55 watt hid's to a 32" 180 watt led light bar (one of those amazon deals)?

What say you guys?

 

[ajonesnv]

Yeah, I've spent a few days searching this but can't find a clear answer and my knowledge of the tech is a few years behind the curve.

I'm currently running 4 x 4 inch 55 watt hid lights on the roof and they are super bright, really happy with them, but one of them is failing, the ignitor isn't being reliable so i either need to replace this one light for $120 or i can get a led light bar for just a bit more and reduce my draw as well as stream line my wiring, plus they look cool,new hotness and all of that, sounds great, i just don't want to sacrifice a large volume of light for it.

my question is where are the new light bars at i terms of comparing to HID's it's my understanding that HID's are inherently brighter than LEDS but it seems that LEDS are making strides at closing the distance....

how much am i giving up by going from 4, 4 inch 55 watt hid's to a 32" 180 watt led light bar (one of those amazon deals)?

What say you guys?

I can't give you actual numbers, but I have 2 8" HID's on my bumper and a 32" 180 Watt LED bar on my rack. The LED's are brighter than the HID's, but they cannot touch the throw my HID's have. From all Ive read, unless you drop coin on a name brand that specs them out accurately, most all the bars will have less than desired throw.

The HID's are KC and the bar is OPT7 off eBay/Amazon.

 

[Ed_C]

Any pics of the ballasts and bulbs of those HID lights? You can get higher wattage replacement HID components for less than $120

 

[theizzardking]

Any pics of the ballasts and bulbs of those HID lights? You can get higher wattage replacement HID components for less than $120

they are the CA's in this thread

Hella Optilux 4" HID vs. Custom Accessories 4" HID (comparison) - Expedition Portal

i can get the light to ignite if i flip the switch a number of times, otherwise it tries and then just fizzles out.

 

[cashmoney]

The LED bars are definitely bright but I've yet to see one that can match the distance of a regular off road light much less an HID version.

 

[absalom]

Pull em apart and see what the ballasts look like. Worst case scenario, you just hook up some $15 DDM 55w external ballasts and call it a day

 

[I_bRAD]

I can't give you actual numbers, but I have 2 8" HID's on my bumper and a 32" 180 Watt LED bar on my rack. The LED's are brighter than the HID's, but they cannot touch the throw my HID's have. From all Ive read, unless you drop coin on a name brand that specs them out accurately, most all the bars will have less than desired throw.

The HID's are KC and the bar is OPT7 off eBay/Amazon.

I think both are an acceptable light source, but typically I'd expect the HID to have more refined optics. I don't follow the specific market but I'm willing to bet many LED light bars just go with simple or no optics and just offer a ton of LEDs which looks bright enough when you turn it on, but the light isn't directed efficiently.

 

[Run 4 Fun]

I can't give you actual numbers, but I have 2 8" HID's on my bumper and a 32" 180 Watt LED bar on my rack. The LED's are brighter than the HID's, but they cannot touch the throw my HID's have. From all Ive read, unless you drop coin on a name brand that specs them out accurately, most all the bars will have less than desired throw.

The HID's are KC and the bar is OPT7 off eBay/Amazon.

Exactly this, I like the combo of my 32" led on my rack to light up anything right in front, but my hella's converted to hid on my bumper throw light a good distance in front of me. I would do both.

 

[theizzardking]

Exactly this, I like the combo of my 32" led on my rack to light up anything right in front, but my hella's converted to hid on my bumper throw light a good distance in front of me. I would do both.

my bumper lights are hellas 500ff's not really wanting to change them out, i do like your guys' solution for pure off road use but i like the 500's as driving lights, i think the nearest street light to me is a couple of miles away , with the 500's i can drive around with them on and not worry about getting flashed or pulled over.

i feel the HID's on the bumper would be too bright for a daily driving type scenario.

ideally I'd do projectors and go the route your suggesting, but I'm not made of money, lol

 

[Rambler808]

Just compare the lumens of your pods to that of a light bar. I have a 42" bar with 18k and it works well for me

 

[Ed_C]

i feel the HID's on the bumper would be too bright for a daily driving type scenario.

Nonsense,you want your driving lights as bright as possible,you're not supposed to have them on with lowbeams anyway. My Tundra's HID projector retrofit was lowbeam only so I ran Hella FF1000 Xenons (not FF1000 halogens converted to HID) as high beams, I drove it daily.

By the way that link for the lights doesn't do me any good, I'd like to see what the internals look like.

Just compare the lumens of your pods to that of a light bar. I have a 42" bar with 18k and it works well for me

Be weary of manufacturers' lightbar lumens claims. Most of their wattage ratings are a lot lower than claimed, lower wattage = less output

 

[rideexileex]

HID's are going to win in the per watt basis, no question. The determining factor to me is if you want to be able to cycle the power a lot. Flip the switch a bunch, and the LEDs dont care. The HID ignitors hate it.

 

[Dropzone]

LEDs are pretty cool, I have to say. I just got a small LED light bar from http://www.ledoutfitters.com website, and use it as a license plate light. It works and look pretty nice, I have to say. I want to change other lights to LEDs too now

Every light on my old trick was converted to LED- dash lights to headlights, it made my electrical system happy

 

[D Farms]

there are a few differences between hids and leds.

hids can generate much more light from one point using more power at one point than leds. leds are limited to about 10 watts for a small single die. obviously a cob led can get larger and have more wattage.

Hids are easier to control the light output and can have a tighter beam with more light concentration.

most led lights use multiple leds and optics for each led which makes them more expensive to produce, the circuit is also more complicated and it all needs serious cooling to run.

ive taken apart a few led bars and made a few of my own using 10w cree leds and proper optics. often times the cheap ebay led bars use 3w leds but are only running them on 1w. the optics are also usually total crap and not even focusing any light. ive also got a set of rigid d2s and the optics are excellent in comparison, the spots are true 5 degree spots and they pull the advertised ammount of power and the ammount of light output is correct.

Recently I also got some halogen kc spot lights, with the halogen h3 bulb they were about a 5 degree spot. I took my old pnp 55w hid kit and retrofitted the spot lights and the output is amazing. they make a 7 degree spot at a much higher intensity than the halogen, and higher even than the rigid hyper spots, depsite being slightly wider. additionally because the front of the bulb is exposed they provide a mild flood which is very nice. two problems i had with this setup, the bulbs jiggled around and need to be secured, and i like to use them on the road at night but they shouldnt be flipped on and off as it wears them prematurely.

to sum it up leds are great for floods and specific area lighting. if you want bright spot lights for high speed, hids are the way to go. if you had to have just one light the ideal one would be a curved roof light bar with good optics and good leds that are running at full power. the ideal setup is to have different lights for specific spots of the truck.

also to be clear there is nothing wrong with using cheap light bars but try to get the ones with the best optics, the osrams lensed led bars seem to be pretty good value. also the lumens per watt of hids and leds arent always the scientific value that everyone seems to refer to, most leds are probably outputing much less with the poor quality optics and circuitry than they do in the test lab. hids get less efficient the more watts you burn through them, and they take a lot more on startup.