LED Headlights for LMTV

[Bowmanvolfire]

Hello Forum:

Looking for suggestions on plug and play LED headlights for LMTV's with little to no modification required.

Thanks very much for everyone's input.

John
Wichita Falls TX

 

[NDT]

I put JW Speaker military LEDs in all 3 of our FD LMTVs and everyone loves them. About $150 each on ebay from time to time. Flawless.

 

[Guruman]

Hello Forum:

Looking for suggestions on plug and play LED headlights for LMTV's with little to no modification required.

Thanks very much for everyone's input.

John
Wichita Falls TX

You can buy an adapter harness off FleaBay that will allow you to use pretty much any 7" round LED light. Basically it's just a regular headlight harness with some military cannon connectors crimped on.

 

[TomTime]

Look at the write up from @TechnoWeenie on LED lights, very enlightening. Read all of it.

https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threads/technoweenie-educational-series-vehicle-lighting.201328/

 

[Green Mountain Boys]

I have a 1998 M1078 LMTV and I used Grote 7" LEDs (pn# 90941-5). They are fairly inexpensive at $119.00 each, seem to produce plenty of light and are easy to install. The Grote headlight includes a H4 adapter pigtail which I soldered onto the military wires. This allows for the headlights to be easily unplugged if needed. The only downside I can see so far is I expect the headlights will be unacceptable in a moderate to heavy snowfall due to the fact they do not produce enough heat to melt snow. I do not plan to use this as a plow truck so I think it will work for my needs. The lights are for 12 and 24 volt systems.

I posted this in a thread called "LED headlight" in the FMTV forum. There is more information in that thread.

 

[coachgeo]

make sure to get heated LED lights. Regular lights get hot..... melt snow some... and HID a lot...... LED's do not at all; so snow will blank them out, unless the lens has a defroster wire grid.

 

[Third From Texas]

make sure to get heated LED lights. Regular lights get hot..... melt snow some... and HID a lot...... LED's do not at all; so snow will blank them out, unless the lens has a defroster wire grid.

You realize that like a $500 per light option to upgrade to those, right?

Good thing those $1000+ pair lights are totally rock-proof and never burn out (sarcasm).

It makes for a VERY solid argument to stay with filament lights or HID....vs LED.

Makes an even BETTER argument to MOVE TO WHERE IT DOESN"T SNOW

;p

 

[Guruman]

Living in Montana for years has taught me a lot about snow. I've had LED lights both heated and non-heated in a diverse range of conditions.

In my personal experience, the heated option is useful in only a very narrow set of circumstances. When the temp is just right, and the snow is heavy enough and wet enough, snow can build up on an unheated lens. But... it's kind of rare.

First, LEDs do produce SOME heat. Not much compared to the old filament style, but some. So, even unheated bulbs can melt some snow at near freezing temps.

Also... when the temp really drops down, unheated bulbs can be so cold that the snow does not stick.. By keeping the lens well below freezing, snow hitting it will just bounce off. This is also a useful premise to use with the windshield. Anyone who has plowed snow much will realize that it's sometimes better to keep the glass cold to keep the snow from sticking, rather than try to melt an ever growing pile away with the defroster.

And, eve unheated bulbs can get so cold as to be ineffective under the right conditions. More than once I've had to stop and clean off my heated Trucklites.

 

[Awesomeness]

In my personal experience, the heated option is useful in only a very narrow set of circumstances. When the temp is just right, and the snow is heavy enough and wet enough, snow can build up on an unheated lens. But... it's kind of rare.

It's a lot more common in more humid parts of the country (e.g. NE and NW USA).

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Well the military felt that LED's with defrost grids were enough of a benefit to roll them out to essentially every truck. Currently they are supplied by TruckLite.

 

[Third From Texas]

Well the military felt that LED's with defrost grids were enough of a benefit to roll them out to essentially every truck. Currently they are supplied by TruckLite.

I heard we'd have lost both wars in the sandbox had they not arrived just in the nick of time.

But I really don't see the benefit down here on the beach. Perhaps if they doubled as a cigarette lighter of something...

 

[Guruman]

Well the military felt that LED's with defrost grids were enough of a benefit to roll them out to essentially every truck. Currently they are supplied by TruckLite.

The military also has an unlimited budget of our taxpayer's money, and a much different use case than your average civilian. It's a lot easier to justify the "benefit" if it's not your money.

The heated ones are nice though. I might just steal the Trucklites off my Jeep before I sell it.

 

[GCecchetto]

Well the military felt that LED's with defrost grids were enough of a benefit to roll them out to essentially every truck. Currently they are supplied by TruckLite.

Would a 2008 A1R already have the Trucklite heated LED headlights?

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Would a 2008 A1R already have the Trucklite heated LED headlights?

Mine did not. Mine had halogen headlights but LED everything else. The halogen's were military bulbs so if they were swapped it was in service or someone wanted them for a different truck, etc.

That said - if it *did* have LED headlights from the factory they would be the old style one's with the grid array of white through-hole mounted LED's. Also three of my four turn signals and tail/turn lights were bad and I've seen a lot of those older style units fail on trucks in service. Sun damage and age seems to not be real friendly to them - the lenses get foggy, individual LED's burn out, the driver boards get wonky (flash a couple times then just fade away), etc. A couple of my LED markers on my 1079 van enclosure were bad/dim and basically all of them had failed neoprene gaskets that leaked water into the cable raceways and unless you want to cut your own gaskets the only way to get them is with new light assemblies from Trucklite.... many of my lights were actually Grote brand and they don't even seem to make them anymore..... at the end of the day even though my truck had 2,750 miles on it and came with all LED's except the headlights - I've actually replaced almost all of them anyway due to failure, leakage, fogged/sun damaged, etc. Just plan on new lighting if you buy any military truck.

Did we mention this isn't a cheap hobby? LoL.

 

[GCecchetto]

T

Mine did not. Mine had halogen headlights but LED everything else. The halogen's were military bulbs so if they were swapped it was in service or someone wanted them for a different truck, etc.

That said - if it *did* have LED headlights from the factory they would be the old style one's with the grid array of white through-hole mounted LED's. Also three of my four turn signals and tail/turn lights were bad and I've seen a lot of those older style units fail on trucks in service. Sun damage and age seems to not be real friendly to them - the lenses get foggy, individual LED's burn out, the driver boards get wonky (flash a couple times then just fade away), etc. A couple of my LED markers on my 1079 van enclosure were bad/dim and basically all of them had failed neoprene gaskets that leaked water into the cable raceways and unless you want to cut your own gaskets the only way to get them is with new light assemblies from Trucklite.... many of my lights were actually Grote brand and they don't even seem to make them anymore..... at the end of the day even though my truck had 2,750 miles on it and came with all LED's except the headlights - I've actually replaced almost all of them anyway due to failure, leakage, fogged/sun damaged, etc. Just plan on new lighting if you buy any military truck.

Thanks, planning to order the heated trucklite headlights, $350 a pair, but didn’t want to if it maybe had them already.

 

[Awesomeness]

T

Thanks, planning to order the heated trucklite headlights, $350 a pair, but didn’t want to if it maybe had them already.

If you aren't sure, wait and see. There's really no telling which trucks have what. Things get replaced when stuff breaks, or the mechanics feel like it, and then some trucks get pillaged for parts before getting auctioned off. So there's no real answer.