Night Driving in Ski country - LED headlights

[gmcunni]

considering a switch to LED headlights. Anyone have them and have trouble driving in winter with snow/ice build up?

 

[bdfreetuna]

Not LED I have HID Xenon but it's not the type of light bulb that affects your visibility as much as the brightness, spread, and color temperature.

Want better visibility, get a 3000k or 4000k yellowish/white bulb and not a 6000k blue toned bulb.

I don't see how snow/ice on the assembly lens would lead to greater restricted visibility with one kind of bulb vs. another.

That said if you want maximum brightness go Xenon projector.

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

Because the LED's don't throw the heat like the older bulbs to keep the lenses from freezing up.

 

[twinplanx]

The new breed of extremely bright headlights are great when your BEHIND them. They absolutely SUCK when your in front of them!

 

[andrec10]

The new breed of extremely bright headlights are great when your BEHIND them. They absolutely SUCK when your in front of them!

Thats what auto-dimming mirrors are for!

 

[gmcunni]

Because the LED's don't throw the heat like the older bulbs to keep the lenses from freezing up.

^^

 

[bdfreetuna]

The new breed of extremely bright headlights are great when your BEHIND them. They absolutely SUCK when your in front of them!

If you have the projector cutoff set right they should actually give drivers in front less glare than a regular halogen with more vertical spread.

I did not think about the snow/ice melting! HID Xenon supposedly gives enough heat to melt snow/ice too. Better than LED in every way IMO.

 

[gmcunni]

Truck Lite makes a heated LED headlight. but the $$ is crazy (to me). and this video doesn't make it seem like they are great anyway

 

[Hawkshot99]

Headlight housings are designed for the type of light that will be put into it.
If you go and put a led in a light designed for a standard filament, then the reflectors are not aimed properly. You will have tons of light scatter.

 

[bigbog]

The new breed of extremely bright headlights are great when your BEHIND them. They absolutely SUCK when your in front of them!

The newer headlights that jack up the brightness a bit and, most of all, spread the field of vision are terrific..imho, but for drivers older than 50 = the extremely bright lights should be illegal(but, as everything, tough to do once out of the bottle)...everyone's eyesight goes downhill a bit after 50 = just going to result in more expensive materials in windshields = mo sticker $$$. It's rather tough to see the sides of some of the old, narrowly paved and broken up roads in financially stretched townships @night facing those bright lights coming around a curve...or a bunch of them in a row coming out from SL or SR.

 

[steamboat1]

I just try to avoid driving at night as much as possible now. I realize some of you don't have that option.

 

[jimk]

the new breed of extremely bright headlights are great when your behind them. They absolutely suck when your in front of them!

post of the year.

 

[twinplanx]

Thats what auto-dimming mirrors are for!

Great, but I don't have that option. I'll have to settle for flicking the switch by hand, the same way my Dad did. But this doesn't help with oncoming traffic. My high-beams aren't even as bright as these things.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Broadway 270mm convex mirror FTW

No blind spots and high beams aren't really a problem

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/161359831009?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

 

[Los]

The new breed of extremely bright headlights are great when your BEHIND them. They absolutely SUCK when your in front of them!

+1

 

[freeski]

If I think oncoming lights are too bright, even when I know they're not on high, I put my highs on. They always flash their highs to let me know their highs aren't on and I keep mine on.

 

[steamboat1]

If I think oncoming lights are too bright, even when I know they're not on high, I put my highs on. They always flash their highs to let me know their highs aren't on and I keep mine on.

 

[twinplanx]

If I think oncoming lights are too bright, even when I know they're not on high, I put my highs on. They always flash their highs to let me know their highs aren't on and I keep mine on.

+1

+1

 

[River19]

Yes the newer lights (especially Acura and Audi products) suck when you are in front of them.

I don't really get the whole "I blind them back and leave the high beams on" thing. Now neither one of you can see....before at least one guy could avoid the head on crash......

 

[andrec10]

If I think oncoming lights are too bright, even when I know they're not on high, I put my highs on. They always flash their highs to let me know their highs aren't on and I keep mine on.

Thanks for being "THAT" guy!