Changing over to LED headlights-My neighbor

[OR VietVet]

He is thinking about doing that on his 2006 F150 pickup. I have never done an install of LED's. He is thinking about getting Summit kit #SUM-RP24715. I know I have seen some horror stories from members that have had LED kits problems. Is it just the quality of the kit? Any better than Summit?

 

[Tonyv__]

Depends on what you mean by horror stories.

Will they last? Maybe.

Will you get better light output? Yes

Will the blind everyone on the road? Absolutely.

I’ve yet to see anyone upgrade to LED with the stock headlight housing without just sending light beams out of the front of their car.

 

[RST Dana]

Depends on what you mean by horror stories.

Will they last? Maybe.

Will you get better light output? Yes

Will the blind everyone on the road? Absolutely.

I’ve yet to see anyone upgrade to LED with the stock headlight housing without just sending light beams out of the front of their car.

I did it in my 16 and 17. It’s not an issue s long as you make the adjustments. Nobody complained, not even popo, and I put over 230k miles on the streets with 85% city driving.

 

[OR VietVet]

I did it in my 16 and 17. It’s not an issue s long as you make the adjustments. Nobody complained, not even popo, and I put over 230k miles on the streets with 85% city driving.

Are you talking about "aiming" adjustments or something else related to adjustments? I would assume the headlight assemblies come adjusted reasonably close to stock adjustments. I also assume, maybe wrongfully so, that they are just plug and play?

 

[RST Dana]

Aiming and rotation of the bulb. Wrong bulb orientation and it’s no bueno.

 

[strutaeng]

Wait, is your neighbor @homesick ?!

I'm kidding...

 

[OR VietVet]

Aiming and rotation of the bulb. Wrong bulb orientation and it’s no bueno.

Is there a site that talks about the "rotation /orientation" of the bulbs?

Are the assemblies pretty much "plug and play"?

The horror stories I read about had to do with correct resistors, or something like that, causing problems. I did not pay too much attention because I was not gonna do that to my truck.

 

[Tonyv__]

Is there a site that talks about the "rotation /orientation" of the bulbs?

Are the assemblies pretty much "plug and play"?

The horror stories I read about had to do with correct resistors, or something like that, causing problems. I did not pay too much attention because I was not gonna do that to my truck.

some vehicles have “bulb out” indicators on the dash, those are the problem vehicles. They rely on the load of the halogen bulb to complete the circuit and keep the system happy. Since LEDs use a lot less power, the load is smaller and not enough to tell the system the bulb is working.

For example, a lot of people will get hyper flash turn signal when they change to LED because the system doesn’t recognize a load and thinks the turn signal bulb is burned out. People will install resistors to eliminate hyper flash but it still doesn’t function as it should. If the LED was to fail the turn signals will blink at a normal pace because the resistors is tricking the circuit.


So overall, find out if the f150 is equipped with the bulb out indicator. That will save you a ton of headache

Next, as long as you get an LED kit that corresponds with the bulb size, for example 9006 factory bulbs, but a 9006 LED kit. They will be plug and play.

Orientation of the bulb. I won’t comment on.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

@OR VietVet

The price on the kit is attractive. My GM replacement housings with no bulbs were just under $400 each. At the price of this kit, I'd almost state that it was disposable, if it did not work out to your neighbor's satisfaction. To my knowledge, Summit Racing is not known for selling utter crap.

I'm going to 'assume' that the LEDs are properly aligned within the housing, as it is being sold as a kit. That being said, it seems like the LEDs are removable in a standard twist lock setting, just like most other headlight systems. The point being that if the LEDs themselves are not acceptable, alternative LEDs that are adjustable could be purchased and swapped in. I provided a diagram related to proper rotational position for proper beam spread itself. Vertical high/low adjustment of the properly aligned beam spread is still accomplished by the funky rod sticking up above the light housing, and I am assuming that the kit housings contain those adjustment rods.

Regarding LED beams and blinding oncoming traffic, I respectfully disagree. Properly aligned LEDs do not blind oncoming traffic, and they in fact produce a more defined beam cutoff line than incandescent bulbs do. I have adjustable LEDs, properly adjusted, and yes, they do cost more than cheap LEDs.

Regarding hyperflash, yes, resistors are required to eliminate hyperflash, and I cannot tell from the Summit page description, whether or not resistors are included in the kit. I kept the hyperflash (no resistors), because it is more noticeable to other drivers on the road around you, and isn't that the purpose of a directional after all? I will note that hyperflash is illegal in some states, though.

 

[15burban]

You want the bulbs clocked at 3 and 9 o clock.

I know you'll do it the right away and aim/adjust the headlights. Most people don't and that's a big reason why led's get a bad reputation for blinding people. Same with people who put leveling or lift kits on their rigs without adjusting their headlights back down.

When I put leds in my truck, ram 2500 with 3" lift and 35" tires I parked my pontiac 20 feet in front of it and adjusted the headlights that way. As I know from driving on many back roads in my little car it sucks getting blinded by others.

Usually with headlight assemblies you get what you pay for. I have no experience with summits but there's a lot of complaints about adjuster screws breaking or not being able to properly adjust with cheaper assemblies like ebay ones etc.

 

[Tonyv__]

You want the bulbs clocked at 3 and 9 o clock.

I know you'll do it the right away and aim/adjust the headlights. Most people don't and that's a big reason why led's get a bad reputation for blinding people. Same with people who put leveling or lift kits on their rigs without adjusting their headlights back down.

When I put leds in my truck, ram 2500 with 3" lift and 35" tires I parked my pontiac 20 feet in front of it and adjusted the headlights that way. As I know from driving on many back roads in my little car it sucks getting blinded by others.

Usually with headlight assemblies you get what you pay for. I have no experience with summits but there's a lot of complaints about adjuster screws breaking or not being able to properly adjust with cheaper assemblies like ebay ones etc.

I feel like I’m never able to see a cut off line when I try to adjust the headlights. But maybe some housings take better to LEDs than others.

 

[thefrey]

I did a decent amount of research myself when trying to determine if I wanted to upgrade to bulbs...

Here's the facts:

- An LED bulb will never be able to produce the same light output directly from the bulb that a halogen does. A halogen is throwing light at 360 degrees from the filament. A LED bulb is not.

- No LED bulb is DOT legal in the US for on road use when placed into a reflector housing.

However, I will say that LED bulbs do get a bad rap, as most people do not do their research. They throw a cheap amazon bulb that is stupid bright in their headlights and have no intent to properly aim them.

A properly designed LED bulb that has LEDs in the correct location to mimic a halogen bulb, and that is aimed correctly, will minimize glare inside of a reflector housing, but it will not eliminate it 100%. Will it be tolerable for other drivers / will they notice? Most likely no. Will there be extra glare compared to a halogen bulb? Probably. It is just an issue of physics. I think some housings take better to LED retrofits than others, too.

 

[OR VietVet]

I did a decent amount of research myself when trying to determine if I wanted to upgrade to bulbs...

Here's the facts:

- An LED bulb will never be able to produce the same light output directly from the bulb that a halogen does. A halogen is throwing light at 360 degrees from the filament. A LED bulb is not.

- No LED bulb is DOT legal in the US for on road use when placed into a reflector housing.

However, I will say that LED bulbs do get a bad rap, as most people do not do their research. They throw a cheap amazon bulb that is stupid bright in their headlights and have no intent to properly aim them.

A properly designed LED bulb that has LEDs in the correct location to mimic a halogen bulb, and that is aimed correctly, will minimize glare inside of a reflector housing, but it will not eliminate it 100%. Will it be tolerable for other drivers / will they notice? Most likely no. Will there be extra glare compared to a halogen bulb? Probably. It is just an issue of physics. I think some housings take better to LED retrofits than others, too.

The ones he is looking at are the complete housings and LED's.

 

[RST Dana]

I did a decent amount of research myself when trying to determine if I wanted to upgrade to bulbs...

Here's the facts:

- An LED bulb will never be able to produce the same light output directly from the bulb that a halogen does. A halogen is throwing light at 360 degrees from the filament. A LED bulb is not.

- No LED bulb is DOT legal in the US for on road use when placed into a reflector housing.

However, I will say that LED bulbs do get a bad rap, as most people do not do their research. They throw a cheap amazon bulb that is stupid bright in their headlights and have no intent to properly aim them.

A properly designed LED bulb that has LEDs in the correct location to mimic a halogen bulb, and that is aimed correctly, will minimize glare inside of a reflector housing, but it will not eliminate it 100%. Will it be tolerable for other drivers / will they notice? Most likely no. Will there be extra glare compared to a halogen bulb? Probably. It is just an issue of physics. I think some housings take better to LED retrofits than others, too.

I’ve been driving for over 55 years and have been at a fair share of vehicular accidents, and at no time has anyone complained or blamed them lights from another vehicle being an issue. Now before I get my afternoon nap completed, I’m sure someone will post about their cousin’s, next door neighbor’s, barber’s niece getting a ticket in bfe.

 

[Tonyv__]

Edit

meh, unnecessary comment.

 

[thefrey]

I’ve been driving for over 55 years and have been at a fair share of vehicular accidents, and at no time has anyone complained or blamed them lights from another vehicle being an issue. Now before I get my afternoon nap completed, I’m sure someone will post about their cousin’s, next door neighbor’s, barber’s niece getting a ticket in bfe.

I think a key factor here is the cost per lumen in respect to time. I don't think that this has really been any issue until the last 5-10 years.

In the past few years, extremely bright LEDs have become very cheap to retrofit into reflector housings. I think this is one facet of seeing more issues with glare with LEDs. LED bulbs used to be expensive and hard to retrofit with fitment and flicker issues. Many are now plug and play and much cheaper for better light output than what you could have bought 5 years ago.

Second thing, the stock output of headlights from manufacturers in the past 5-10 years has 2x-3x what LEDs were originally. Some googling says that stock halogen output for lowbeams is 3x-5x less lumens than the new LEDs today.

What does this result in? A solid experience for a driver with stupid bright headlights. I am a sucker for nice headlights.


On the other hand, I daily drove a Ford Focus for 10 years. If you drive a small/lower car nowadays, you literally cannot see at night if there is a new SUV coming at you. Especially if you live in any sort of hilly area. Beam cutoff is important, but my goodness it is hard to see when a solar flare hits your cornea.

I got this photo a few weeks ago. This was one single light on somebody's stock lowbeams. There's 2 cars in line there, and that light is from the car behind the 1st car..

 

[thefrey]

The ones he is looking at are the complete housings and LED's.

Ah, I didn't look it up before I checked. I think this might be a question Summit needs to answer perhaps. Summit may say these aren't "approved" for on-road use, but I don't think you would ever be bothered about it.

If a reflector housing is designed around an LED light, I can't imagine why it wouldn't work. I think most of the issues with LEDs are fitting LEDs into a reflective housing that wasn't made for LEDs in the first place.

Everything that I see when it comes to upgrading stock headlights is you get what you pay for. If I was upgrading my headlights, I would personally go with a projector type headlight.