LED floods and Spots from China - your views

[Smego]

I have brought a set of 18w 6LED work-lights and am pleased with them (60 degree spread pattern) and am now looking at a set of these 27w 9 LEDs with the 30 degree spot pattern to sit in the middle of the flood lights on the roof, has anyone used a pair and can tell me how they compare to normal 55w halogen spots?

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...E:B:BOC:GB:1123

Ta.

[mmgemini]

How **** much.

I'll stick with my Defender reversing light fitted with a LED thank you.

[Turbocharger]

I'm no help to you, but what're modern LED lamps like now?

LEDs ten years ago produced a reasonable amount of light but it seemed to 'fade' quickly with distance, so the effect was a sphere of light, enough to read a paper by if you were close but not enough to use as a headlight, for example.

[simonr]

It really depends what you are looking for!

LED's are very bright and will make your truck look like a flying saucer, but because of the nature (colour balance) of the light they produce and the way it interacts with your eyes, the useful spread of the light is much more limited than the measured total light output would indicate. It's all down to how your eyes & brain percieve depth & detail.

As a rule of thumb, even though the total light output of an LED can be several times as bright as an equivalent Halogen, the equivalent useful brightness is about the same as the same wattage Halogen.

Thus, the 27W LED's will give you about the same range where you can pick out contours etc as a 27W Halogen. The problem comes in that often they are so bright that it hurts your eyes when they are bright enough to give you a useful range.

They are getting better though and it will only be a few years before they exceed the performance of Halogen. The only thing that truely does now is HID.

Si

[tuko]

I have a pair of 24W 30 degree spots on the rear of my hybrid plus 4 x 27W 60 degree floods on the front roll cage.

The 24W lamps are great for general use and even better when camping. I really like the long range of these lights. They drain only 1.8Amp so I'm able to use them to light up our camp for an entire evening without any worries about the battery condition in the morning.

The 27W lamps are also great but with them placed up above the bonnet I get a lot of reflection so they are not used when driving. In camp again they are great but because of their flood pattern they don't have the same range as the spots.With hindsight I would have ordered the 27W spots instead of the floods. (just my preference)

Todd.

[ashtrans]

good thread here on the LED's from China :

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1052847&highlight=led

[Guest]

I put H3 LED bulbs into some of my spot light/work lights on the trailer and on the front roll hoop of the defender whilst the lights on the trailer are a great balance of light V's battery load.

The four on the roll hoop I use for lighting areas when static (camp site whilst pitching the tent) putting lots of light down when recovering broken down things etc, whilst they are great for that purpose, as Si says above are horrid for driving. This has not been an issue as I have a pair of 7" HID spots on my bull bar which put down plenty of light when needed and are great on the dark roads around here for letting you see the animals before you hit them!!

The cost of HID has dropped through the floor of late, I guess with LED improving I have therefore just acquired four HID bulbs and kits for £30 posted, which I intend to use in the lights, mounting the basalts in waterproof boxes on my roof rack.

Back to your original question, as I have not brought any I couldn't comment on the quality of the Chinese units but given the price is continuing to fall weekly, if you can I would wait for six months given the current rate of price decay they are likely to have reduced by a further 20%

Jason.

[ChrisB]

Jason, did you get your recent HIDs from the bay, dealextreme or somewhere else? Any chance of a linky please?

Thanks

Chris

[Guest]

I picked them up from the bay, they were from a UK person who had brought them to fit and then realised they couldn't because of the MOT regs, he had tow sets so made him and offer which he took.

If I were to buy them I think you could get them new for between £40-£50 The looms seem to go for really low prices £0.99 with a relay in etc, then just buy spare ballasts at £5 ea and bulbs at the same price.

Jason.

[Ridgeback]

With LEDs you really do get what you pay for. I run the UK lighting division for a large electronics company and we work with all the top names in LEDs. Lots of the low cost stuff is using low quality LEDs with very low CRI (as per the post from Simon above). They also tend to be very blue, this is because the cooler white , low CRI LEDs offer more flux (lumen output) for less money .

The driver electronics (power supply), optics and heatsink are all areas that make the difference between a good product or a bad one regardless of what LED is used.

On the plus side even the low quality stuff should last 10,000+ hrs and that's a long time in defender driving hrs.

A good thing with LEDs is the ability to use optics to focus the usable light to get maximum light extraction in the place you want it. High CRI LEDs are now becoming available and the cost is coming down . LED performance is always getting better and now parts are available at performance above 150 lumens per watt .

Light output is measured in lumens not watts. A poor quality 50w LED spot light might kick out less light vs a high quality 25w LED spot.

Matt

[Smego]

Thank you Tuko that's the sort of answer I wanted someone who actually has seen some. I am, looking for a light I can use offroad and also leave on without draining my aux battery in 30 minutes.

ta.

[Smego]

Intresting thread ashtrans

[Jimmy Two-Jacks]

I use a pair as worklights and find them very good

[tuko]

Thank you Tuko that's the sort of answer I wanted someone who actually has seen some. I am, looking for a light I can use offroad and also leave on without draining my aux battery in 30 minutes.

ta.

These type of lamps will suite you perfectly without giving you any issues when lighting up a camp for a few hours. Keep your eyes open for the spots, they will give you better range vers the floods.

Todd.

[Smego]

WELL. I have brought 2 27 flood lights and a 72w Spot bar and...

the floods are really good for lighting the trail around you, better than halogen (fog) flood lights, and as for the 72w spot beam bar WOW compared to my 4 ring 55w halogens it is MUCH brighter and as it runs at about 5500k it is a much more useful light to drive and work in, so I have decide to sell my bonnet pod with the four halogens (to be fair I will never get around to fitting it)!

All I can say is go LED... BTW the "Cheap" Chinese ones are identical to a certain UK seller that has been in LRM lately, he even sent me EXACTLY the same spec sheet that the Chinese guy did and then tried to tell me his are made in the US....

[muddychris300tdi]

Hi could you post a pic of your bar please and how much was it. I've been looking at these for ages. Thanks Chris.

[Pinkrover]

I have a flood 40" 80x3w led bar on my 101, it pulls 240w/ 20A, it is very good off road and to be fair at the cruising speed of the 101 on the road you could easily drive within the range of it. it literally turns night into day and the spread is very even , perfect for greenlaning.

If I had to choose one again I would probably go for two 10" versions mounted on each side, that would be more than sufficent for offroad driving.

Too Bright for the camera, taken in daylight by Pinkrover, on Flickr

[western]

photo is wrong way round too,

[welshsurferdude]

Pink, where did you get that from and how much was it?

I have a flood 40" 80x3w led bar on my 101, it pulls 240w/ 20A, it is very good off road and to be fair at the cruising speed of the 101 on the road you could easily drive within the range of it. it literally turns night into day and the spread is very even , perfect for greenlaning.

If I had to choose one again I would probably go for two 10" versions mounted on each side, that would be more than sufficent for offroad driving.

Too Bright for the camera, taken in daylight by Pinkrover, on Flickr

[Smego]

This is my normal "high" beam

And this is the LEDs

If you look really closely you can actual notice the difference :-D

[Pinkrover]

Western the photo is the right way round, I have juggled the number plate for use on a different forum,

welshsurferdude; It was just over £400, I spotted it on fleabay, but contacted the guy and bought it direct from his company and saved a few quid. I will try to find the link to send to you

below is a picture with the light off so you can see it better;

Photos by Nick 90 by Pinkrover, on Flickr

[Smego]

Have you a picture of it on and looking away in front of the truck I bet it puts out a ton of light!

[Jon W]

Guessing these LED worklamps don't use much power do they?? Just I would like to stick one on a work truck for reversing but dont want the hassle of wiring it all in seperately so could I just wire it into the existing wiring without any issues due to the low current draw. If it was my own truck I would do things properly but am unsure how long we will have this truck for before it gets changed.

Any thoughts much appreciated

[Smego]

Yep I have done exactly that on mine with the smaller 18w can even use speaker wire the current is so low. Still brighter than our 150w household fkoodlights. I have another on the other side that is switched from the cab for recovery work too.

[UdderlyOffroad]

Guessing these LED worklamps don't use much power do they?? Just I would like to stick one on a work truck for reversing but dont want the hassle of wiring it all in seperately so could I just wire it into the existing wiring without any issues due to the low current draw. If it was my own truck I would do things properly but am unsure how long we will have this truck for before it gets changed.

Any thoughts much appreciated

See me afterwards, boy! It is your own truck, do it properly. A “Bodgit and Scarper” attitude will only add to this ‘Land Rovers are unreliable’ reputation -especially when it comes to electrics. If you even utter the word 'Bodgelok' you will be sent to the headmaster's office for six of the best, trousers down.

Ahem.

You may find that you have existing wiring already in place (e.g. for a not-fitted Heated Rear Window or Wash/Wipe) to enable you to wire up a worklamp without running extra cables all the way down the truck.

A work-lamp that comes on with reverse light is a no-no, as it will be above the allowable Wattage for a reverse light, see here for a discussion:

manufacturer fitted reverse lights are nearly always 21 watts.

8. Wattage–

(a) A reversing lamp bearing an approval mark:

No requirement

(b) A reversing lamp not bearing an approval mark:

The total wattage of any one reversing lamp shall not exceed 24 watts

copied from http://www.legislati...chedule/14/made

Note: Wattage in this will be 'equivalent' of an incandescent bulb. Also, you may want your work light on when not reversing, i.e. camping, hitching up a trailer in the dark, etc, which is why it would be better switched separately.