Life Expectancy of LED headlights

[grendel]

I bought a set of headlights from a member here. One had a dead high beam on installation (3 months after I bought it). The other died in less than a week after installation, having idled less than 20 mins and driven less than .5 miles. Pretty bummed about that, 240.00 down the drain.

I ended up talking with Those Military guys (bought a bunch of stuff from them), who say the Mil is going back to incandescent lights due to longevity issues.

Thoughts?

 

[Jericho]

Interesting !?

 

[71DeuceAK]

I believe it!

 

[theeDIZ]

That sucks, I've wondered about vibration and heat effects on these.

 

[NovacaineFix]

One a different note, I installed some cheap LED's in my kitchen, and they only lasted for 4-6 months. Just before they died completely they started to flicker like crazy and pulse like it was a night club dancefloor. I now only buy LED's if they have brand name chip sets in them like Cree. Not sure if they would list the chipset of the headlights though, if they do, who makes them? They may be different then the actual headlight manufacturer. Like Grote will make the headlight lens and assembly but Cree or Sony will make the LED chipset.


Here is a list of the most popular chipset manufacturers of LED's

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/article...nveils-top-ten-list-of-led-manufacturers.html

 

[gimpyrobb]

I've never been impressed with the led light longevity. If the ones I'm running go out, I'll be doing the h7 conversion.

 

[Csm Davis]

I believe that most of the problems are ground related as the headlights are a known problem before LED'S came out. I once had 4 headlights go out on one trip of 400 miles. If your ground isn't good it increases the resistance across the circuit and this can change the voltage that the lights see and I also think that the housing needs to be vented if you don't think they need vents just turn on your headlights for 5 minutes and then put your hand on the back of the bucket (please don't actually touch it). I feel your pain on the price of your LED'S you might try contacting truck lite but I don't see that they have a reason to backup a surplus sale but who knows they have been a real good company so far, if that's who made your lights.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[grendel]

Yeah, I checked grounds. I have really good ground.

 

[wreckerman893]

I've had the ones in my M927 for over two years.....no issues but I don't drive it much.

 

[swbradley1]

The ground on the truck may be good but rumor has it that if you run a separate ground for each headlight they will last a lot longer.

 

[Ferroequinologist]

I have had LEDs in my M109 for 4 years now. I run everywhere with them on lowbeam. 0 issues, but I did redo the grounds.

 

[NuclearPuppy238]

I believe that most of the problems are ground related as the headlights are a known problem before LED'S came out. I once had 4 headlights go out on one trip of 400 miles. If your ground isn't good it increases the resistance across the circuit and this can change the voltage that the lights see and I also think that the housing needs to be vented if you don't think they need vents just turn on your headlights for 5 minutes and then put your hand on the back of the bucket (please don't actually touch it). I feel your pain on the price of your LED'S you might try contacting truck lite but I don't see that they have a reason to backup a surplus sale but who knows they have been a real good company so far, if that's who made your lights.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

LEDs are not as rugged as incandescent, and they do not handle transients causing them to fail too early if not protected. I remember when all the traffic lights were changed to LEDs in my area many years ago, I could not find one that did not have burned out sections in them a year later. I am wondering why HID was not adopted, as that technology is really much better, brighter, and lower power consumption. Only drawback is to find a mounting location for the ballast.

PS. I recently dealt with TruckLite and they are VERY good.

 

[mkcoen]

Well I guess I'll see how long they last. The lights in my M1078 are pathetic on low beam so I added these today.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Your truck got chickenpox or what?!

 

[mkcoen]

Your truck got chickenpox or what?!

Snout-nosed butterfly migration. Greasy little buggers.

 

[gimpyrobb]

HA! I wondered WTF was going on!

When I was driving back to Arlington from Austin last week, I thought there was an awful lot of bugs down there, now I know. Thanks.

 

[porkysplace]

LEDs are not as rugged as incandescent, and they do not handle transients causing them to fail too early if not protected. I remember when all the traffic lights were changed to LEDs in my area many years ago, I could not find one that did not have burned out sections in them a year later. I am wondering why HID was not adopted, as that technology is really much better, brighter, and lower power consumption. Only drawback is to find a mounting location for the ballast.

PS. I recently dealt with TruckLite and they are VERY good.

The problem they have in the snowy north with LED traffic lights is they produce almost no heat and in snow storms the covers the lights so you can't see them .

 

[HanksDeuce]

I've had the same (2) pair of LED headlights since late 2011. One pair is installed in the traditional deuce headlight buckets, and the other pair is below the front bumper (to be legal height for Louisiana).

Only issue I have ever had with those lights in 5 years was during the recent flooding in Louisiana. Coming out of some deep water crossings I noticed my driver side bumper headlight was flickering. Turns out I had hit some trash and it was starting to separate both halves of the low-beam power wire. I tucked the wires back inside the frame and pushed the wire connectors together again. For an added benefit I added Super Lube synthetic grease around the connectors. No issues since.

As far as people talking about the grounding issue:
- the bumper lights are grounded to the frame by sandwiching the connector between 2 nuts on a frame bolt
- the headlights in the factory buckets are grounded to the wiring harness

 

[mkcoen]

If I'd seen this before getting the LEDs I probably would have tried them 1st. Very reasonably priced alternative with the wiring already done for you.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showth...-H4-Conversion-Head-Lights!-5-Tons-and-Deuces!

 

[zanther]

I've got those lights from TMG in my truck, fit well and are much brighter. The light is a bit cool white , if that matters to folks.