LED overhead light

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Everyone with blue headlights should be flogged!!!! I have blue tint cataracts and am blind when looking at blue led’s.

I put LED headlights in my truck and there is nothing blue about them, they are white light behind clear lenses. Have only seen a couple of different imports with headlights that appear blue. They are most likely Halogen bulbs, not LED's.
 

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
HID and LED can be gotten in several other colors. The normal range is yellowish to extreme white towards the blue spectrum. You know how to make white bright? You add blue. But the ones that are being talked about are really blue.

We have a big import racing scene around here. I have seen about every color there is on these. The green and blue are the ones I hate.

But the other thing now is everyone are now putting in the HID or LED lights in older models. And most of these headlights are 100W or more. And they don't have a high beam as they are always on high. And none of them are DOT legal. I can see using these on a motorcycle as you need every advantage possible riding one. But the cars and trucks really piss me off. And none of them have taken the time to align them so they don't shine right into peoples eyes. Some cant be adjusted but most can
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I put LED headlights in my truck and there is nothing blue about them, they are white light behind clear lenses. Have only seen a couple of different imports with headlights that appear blue. They are most likely Halogen bulbs, not LED's.
Oh no, most assuredly LED. I had a set on my old Burb. Oddly, for as bright as they are, they were near worthless in fog, rain, when there was a lot or dust or pollen in the air. In snow they were terrible if it was blowing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ian

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Haven't been in fog with them yet but in rain they were far better than the old headlights.

In snow?
Don't know emoji-small.png
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Yes HID can be blue or tinted blue. Halogen "ice blue" aint blue... Hallogen while WAY "whitet" then a "regular" head light bulb is dim compared to LED. LED can be any color but you would never know unless its powered. We used to install them on truck bodies when wr built trucks. It was frustrating if they didnt have the colored sticker on them to tell You the color... you have to energize them to know.

Last month I bought new headlight assemblies for my '01 gmc. Guy offered me "great led" lights for nearly free with purchase if I bought the turn/Marker light assemblies too. So Looking @ costs knowing mine was nearly as bad as headlights... I agreed.

Received & installed. Three days. I came home late & lights suked!! Couldn't immediately see but he sold me BLUE LIGHTS!!!! I returned them & got my revenge without a word... As I bought white leds and applied the cost already paid to new lights... FULL price was applied!' ;).

MUCH MUCH better now!!!

125A9BEC-60A7-414C-895B-9D52D13E3269.jpegCB0E5881-CE95-4E2F-8326-A35047C328CA.jpeg93B3AC5B-5EA9-4ACA-9C94-4D3994511C85.jpeg
Who would want a bulb that blue???? Light blue hugh ok maybe....
 
Last edited:

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
In my state, NY, it is entirely illegal to have any forward facing light that is not white or amber/yellow, except for police/fire/EMS that can have white, red, blue, green and I think a couple others. I've asked the Baby Troopers up here about all the blue, green and red headlights I see. They tell me nothing has changed in the law, it's just that everyone is installing them so fast they can't keep up!

It's also illegal to display a white light to the rear. Guess what the latest snazzy gimmick is? Yeah, white/blue lights that face aft! WHY?!!!! WHy do you need a million candlepower LED backup light that you can turn on driving down the road?!!!
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
I also installed LED backup lights on the truck. It's pretty rare though that driving down the road I slip it into reverse. :eek: Only one switch to turn them on and it's in the gearshift linkage. Also, they are a bit shy of a million candle power. By roughly 950,000.
 

Ian

Notorious member
We get pretty bad fog around here sometimes, not like coastal fog but still bad enough that you do NOT want arctic white or bluish white in any form. It's amazing how much farther you can see with dim Halogens than with bright white LEDs.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I also installed LED backup lights on the truck. It's pretty rare though that driving down the road I slip it into reverse. :eek: Only one switch to turn them on and it's in the gearshift linkage. Also, they are a bit shy of a million candle power. By roughly 950,000.
These yahoos up here take a light bar and put facing to the rear. Believe it or not, you can add a switch in a vehicle to turn a light on whenever you want! Amazing, eh?
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah, I've seen those but not turned on driving down the road. Maybe it's just me but I'm more interested in where I'm going rather than where I've been. :D As for the switch the one in the gearshift linkage works just fine for my purposes.

It's no secret that there are idiots out there, that doesn't make LED bulbs bad any more than a small percentage of idiots make guns bad.
 

Dusty Bannister

Well-Known Member
I can see where a light set on the rear of the cab of a truck would be handy for folks that get out early or late, and need extra light for launching or boat recovery. Or perhaps for loading or unloading building materials at a job site. Or a farmer who needs to feed stock before he goes to the city job to keep the farm.
 

Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
For home lighting I have a mixture of incandescent, fluorescent, LED, halogen, and a few that don’t require electricity. For low power consumption, longevity, and little heat – the LED’s win. As the larger fluorescent fixtures die, I’m replacing them with LED units. I have some halogen fixtures over my loading & work benches, not because they are great but because that was cheap at the time. They do produce nice bright white light but at the cost of some heat and high-power consumption. When those die, they will be replaced with LEDs. For seldom used exterior lights, nothing beats the old incandescent bulbs in a good fixture. They are instant on in cold weather and the fixtures are simple. I suspect LEDs will eventually win that segment too. For reading light, I still prefer good old incandescent lamps.

For vehicles – I’m squarely in the “Less is More” camp. And by “less” I really mean “fewer”. Under Virginia law any auxiliary lighting equipment added to a vehicle has to comply with the law and it must function. If it fails to function, it becomes defective equipment. So, the easiest way to avoid creating defective equipment is to not add equipment. My vehicles are old enough they still use incandescent bulbs for most of the lighting (brake lights, marker lights, turn signals, etc.) I’m sure LEDs will be the future for vehicle lighting.

With the possible exception of fog lights, I see no need to add complexity to vehicles that already look like a Christmas tree at the end of a runway.

Anyone remember the U.S. version of the late 1970’s Mercedes cars? They had 7” clear sealed beams outboard for high & low beam. And they had 5 ¾” sealed beams inboard that could be clear (driving lights) or amber (fog lights). They looked a bit odd because the lights were different sizes, but they were extremely reliable. Sometimes the simple solutions are the best.
 
Last edited:

Rick H

Well-Known Member
MIchigan reserved blue/blue tint lights for law enforcement by statute until some judge decided that the slightly blue tint LED's weren't really blue....and thus they were legal. Since then the lights have been getting bluer and bluer....and there isn't a judge in the state who will back up an equipment violation citation.

They say the measure of a good law is voluntary compliance.....in this case even the factories ignore the statute. Michigan law set a maximum width of a motor vehicle including mirrors at 8'. Sometime in the early 60's Greyhound designed a new widebody vista cruiser type bus....It was luxurious for the time, with wider more comfortable seats. They designed the thing around existing laws at 8' wide and put it into production and on the road....hundreds of them....8' wide.....without the mirrors. OOPS! Rather than scrap the entire production run of Greyhound busses they just made an exception, and widened the standard lane width from 9' to 12'.
 
Last edited:

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
In my state, NY, it is entirely illegal to have any forward facing light that is not white or amber/yellow, except for police/fire/EMS that can have white, red, blue, green and I think a couple others. I've asked the Baby Troopers up here about all the blue, green and red headlights I see. They tell me nothing has changed in the law, it's just that everyone is installing them so fast they can't keep up!

It's also illegal to display a white light to the rear. Guess what the latest snazzy gimmick is? Yeah, white/blue lights that face aft! WHY?!!!! WHy do you need a million candlepower LED backup light that you can turn on driving down the road?!!!
Whats changed in the law is that now officers can be sued... (Thank you liberals) So enforcement is very subjective... Its seen with a short drive any day of the week any town in our USA. People do things on the roads today that would never be allowed or even thought of even twenty years ago... We are on a slippery every steepening slope.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
We get pretty bad fog around here sometimes, not like coastal fog but still bad enough that you do NOT want arctic white or bluish white in any form. It's amazing how much farther you can see with dim Halogens than with bright white LEDs.
Or low to the ground LED DEFUSED YELLOW lights.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
These yahoos up here take a light bar and put facing to the rear. Believe it or not, you can add a switch in a vehicle to turn a light on whenever you want! Amazing, eh?
IF it only works when vehicle is NOT MOVING. (OR wired into factory reverse lighting system.

IE most pickups come stock with "cargo" lighting. On seperate switch that only functions with vehicle immobile.
 
Last edited:

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
I have been threatening to replace all the 4 tube fluorescents in the basement with LED for several years now. My fluorescents get very finicky in the summer months, which makes no sense to me. They work great in the winter. Could be the basement it just a bit too cool in the summer for the ballasts to function.

I bought a couple LED tube lights for a work area I built for the wife in one corner of the basement. They are single tube and no more than 24 inches long and throw an amazing amount of light. If I were home more in the summer, I'd have probably done it by now. Missed a great sale at Home Depot that I'm still kicking myself over.

When we built the enclosed firing line at the club, we ran all Horror Fright LED tube fixtures. Everybody loves them. Old eyes need lotsa light to see the sight/scope settings.
 

Snakeoil

Well-Known Member
Whats changed in the law is that now officers can be sued... (Thank you liberals) So enforcement is very subjective... Its seen with a short drive any day of the week any town in our USA. People do things on the roads today that would never be allowed or even thought of even twenty years ago... We are on a slippery every steepening slope.
I believe that the law was changed in that it made certain physical constraints used by LEOs criminal. I truly doubt that you would get very far trying to sue a NYSP office for a traffic violation.

The NYSP get "guidelines" to use for stopping vehicles. There are some infractions that are not deemed important enough to justify stopping the vehicle. As we all know, with every stop there is risk. They refer to them something like primary and secondary violations. Secondaries do not justify a stop. Things like illegal helmets on bikes or loud exhausts on vehicles tend to be secondaries. They way they treat them is if you are not driving like an idiot, you are not stopped for the infraction. But if you are, then in addition to reckless driving tickets, they can/will also write tickets for every other infraction they might find once you are stopped. Your attitude plays a major role in how high the stack of tickets can grow. It is similar to just how much you can be over the speed limit before you get stopped. I spent a lot of years on the road towards the end of my career and regardless of the state, 10mph over the limit is pretty much acceptable for the state police agencies. I've gone thru speed traps or been passed by NYSP cruisers and never slowed down and all was well. This general rule does not apply to local cops. The macho factor with local cops adds a variable that might bite you. We had a local deputy that ticketed my cousin because the load of firewood he had on his pickup with a cap, did not have a tarp over the open end of the cap. We had another deputy out by our camp that would ticket you for backing out of your driveway into a public road. Yup, that is illegal by law. Never knew it until he wrote a ticket for a friend.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Ooh yes backing into a road way is a NO NO as is MANY things drivers today think NOTHING OF DOING!!! (Grrr)

Just removing the personal immunity from Officers was and is a travesty. You ALWAYS have ability for legal recourse but not personally against an officer before this change.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I believe that the law was changed in that it made certain physical constraints used by LEOs criminal. I truly doubt that you would get very far trying to sue a NYSP office for a traffic violation.

The NYSP get "guidelines" to use for stopping vehicles. There are some infractions that are not deemed important enough to justify stopping the vehicle. As we all know, with every stop there is risk. They refer to them something like primary and secondary violations. Secondaries do not justify a stop. Things like illegal helmets on bikes or loud exhausts on vehicles tend to be secondaries. They way they treat them is if you are not driving like an idiot, you are not stopped for the infraction. But if you are, then in addition to reckless driving tickets, they can/will also write tickets for every other infraction they might find once you are stopped. Your attitude plays a major role in how high the stack of tickets can grow. It is similar to just how much you can be over the speed limit before you get stopped. I spent a lot of years on the road towards the end of my career and regardless of the state, 10mph over the limit is pretty much acceptable for the state police agencies. I've gone thru speed traps or been passed by NYSP cruisers and never slowed down and all was well. This general rule does not apply to local cops. The macho factor with local cops adds a variable that might bite you. We had a local deputy that ticketed my cousin because the load of firewood he had on his pickup with a cap, did not have a tarp over the open end of the cap. We had another deputy out by our camp that would ticket you for backing out of your driveway into a public road. Yup, that is illegal by law. Never knew it until he wrote a ticket for a friend.
Where did you get that? I can tell you first hand that it's inaccurate at best. The job is about NUMBERS that can be added up in Albany and the bigger the number, the better they like it.