LED headlight gripe of the day

[Carlo]

I find it difficult, no impossible to spend 800 USD for head lites. I am a big LED fan but not this much.

 

[peashooter]

The low beam will come on, stay on for a few seconds, flick off...stay dark...come back on at random. Zero issues on high beams and zero issues on the other light. I guess I should check power supply to low beam, just for giggles.

I have a similar problem with 4 of the 7 brand new military grote red led clearance lights. They come on for up to about a minute then stay off for at least 5 minutes before going on again. They must have had lots of issues with them because I can't find any reference to them on grote's site any longer. I'm not nearly as excited about LEDs as I used to be after all the issues many of us have had.

 

[John S-B]

I have a similar problem with 4 of the 7 brand new military grote red led clearance lights. They come on for up to about a minute then stay off for at least 5 minutes before going on again. They must have had lots of issues with them because I can't find any reference to them on grote's site any longer. I'm not nearly as excited about LEDs as I used to be after all the issues many of us have had.

I would think that eventually, the industry will get LED headlights right. New emergency equipment has almost all LED lighting now, (except for headlights) and the failure rate is VERY low. We used to have to constantly replace Halogen bulbs, and some equipment would go through alternators quite fast. Since LED's have been on the scene (literally), we've not had as many lighting issues.

 

[welldigger]

There are companies making automotive and industrial led lighting that is super high quality. It's just that trucklite and apparently grote are absolute amateurs at the game. Yet they seem to have excellent salesmen who specialize in reeling in dod contracts.

 

[Castle Bravo]

I find it difficult, no impossible to spend 800 USD for head lites. I am a big LED fan but not this much.

Same here, the JW Speaker headlights are cool, but not $800 cool. The deals are out there if you just watch for them.

 

[rustystud]

We have been using LED lights on our busses for over 7yrs now, and all I can say is their all junk ! At first they said they would last 10yrs ! Now they are saying they'll last 2yrs. At first all the failures where blamed on improper installation (over tightened) . Then they said it was the soap we use in our bus washing equipment ( we have an automatic washing system just like for cars, just drive the bus slowly through it ). Finally they said the heat sinks where not big enough and we would have to live with a shorter life span. All I say is stay away from LED lights period ! Sometime in the future someone will come up with a product that will last, until then I'm not going to be anyones guinea pig !

 

[cattlerepairman]

Wow, interesting discussions. Thanks, guys!
I have one last spare LED headlight left and wil swap it in, after checking that low beam circuit and the lo/hi switch. If that light dies, it'll be back to halogens.

 

[renodogs]

I find the whole LED headlight topic easily solved by going 24v H4 Halogens and forgetting about it. H4 bulbs are far cheaper to replace than having to deal with the delicate LED apparatus. I run 60- 75w H4's on my old BMW bikes and the work very well. They project light much further than normal sealed beams and they are cheaper to maintain.

On the headlights, this is an area where I think someone sold the military a 'load of goods'. Sidelight markers? No problem, I get that.

Headlights? Nope, not wasting the money.

 

[renodogs]

We have been using LED lights on our busses for over 7yrs now, and all I can say is their all junk ! At first they said they would last 10yrs ! Now they are saying they'll last 2yrs. At first all the failures where blamed on improper installation (over tightened) . Then they said it was the soap we use in our bus washing equipment ( we have an automatic washing system just like for cars, just drive the bus slowly through it ). Finally they said the heat sinks where not big enough and we would have to live with a shorter life span. All I say is stay away from LED lights period ! Sometime in the future someone will come up with a product that will last, until then I'm not going to be anyones guinea pig !

It would appear this technology originally meant for low power consumption on digital devices fits the phrase of 'putting lipstick on that pig'. Some stuff simply can't be made to work right unless you go through 50 years of design changes- just to end up doing something you should have done in the first place- throw it away and move on. Ask Eugene Stoner about that.

 

[acesneights1]

I'm glad I saw this . I was gonna order two LED's for spares when my incandescents burn out but I think I will stick with Incandescent. I found the GE4800's for 18$ each without pigtails. This thread just reminded me to order them.

 

[rustystud]

I should have added that I feel it's the vibration coupled with a small heatsink that is causing all the failures. Of course it doesn't matter how it's failing just that they are failing !

 

[Stonepicker1]

We run LED headlights in a lot of our Military trucks. We only had a problem with one M915A5 blowing out the same LED headlight.

The truck was still under warranty from Freightliner so we took it in and the shop replaced the headlight with a new one.

That same truck went back into the shop one week later for the same headlight failing.

Freightliner said it had a bad ground that caused the LED light to fail. Now it is working fine.

 

[Stonepicker1]

Some pictures of our M915A5's

 

[Stonepicker1]

We had one of the LED headlight fail. Ordered two of the new LED's. They look neat.
They costed $590 each(Military price)

Now to see how long they last.
I think they are 9v-33v multivolt and over voltage spike protected.

 

[welldigger]

Looks like the new style trucklite models. Interested if they last any longer.

 

[Jeepsinker]

I bet they will. Even big companies get tired of replacing product for free eventually.

 

[JasonS]

I bet they will. Even big companies get tired of replacing product for free eventually.

GM never seems to tire of producing vehicles requiring recalls.

 

[welldigger]

GM never seems to tire of producing vehicles requiring recalls.

Or ford, crysler, toyota, etc.

 

[Jeepsinker]

When everyone is going broke and trying to cut costs, does that surprise you? Lol Our wonderful "Recovering" economy at work.

 

[peashooter]

Here is an article I read in a magazine at work last year about LED design and technical challenges, I just ran across it again so I figured I'd post it to this thread as it seems relevant. Some of whats in there has already been said such as bad solder joints because many of these boards are still manually soldered.

The main point has to do with heat however and that "Even the best LEDs still dissipate about 70% of the power they consume as heat. That reality makes heat dissipation a top priority for designers of lighting based around illumination-grade LEDs." Since the potting materials usually used don't transfer heat too well yet, that means most of the heat travels back down the connections to the solder connection at the board..... maybe the heat coming back is wrecking our solder joints or burning out other board components.
http://machinedesign.com/energy/new-developments-led-cooling-technology