Halogen lights are ineffective?

[User_34235]

Study from AAA here stating the limitations that halogen lights have driving above 40MPH. Interesting read.
Sorry if I placed this in the wrong forum so please move if needed.

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

Yep, you know the football coach that taught drivers Ed when I was a kid said don't drive faster than your headlights let you see. Guess he should have gotten the grant money for that study....

 

[jmt8706]

In terms of safety, I don't mind paying a grand or two extra for the best lights a manufacturer has to offer.

 

[Bob.]

Halogens are so 80's technology. Why do they still use them?

 

[Norvak]

I say BS on this. I have the halogen and they are excellent. Best vehicle I’ve had in 25 years in terms of night driving. Yeah the LEDs are better, but calling the halogens ineffective is ridiculous.

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

I say BS on this. I have the halogen and they are excellent. Best vehicle I’ve had in 25 years in terms of night driving. Yeah the LEDs are better, but calling the halogens ineffective is ridiculous.

Best vehicle in 25 years or first in in 25? What are you comparing it to? Hopefully not your old Dodge Dart you had when you were younger.

Have you driven a Ram or Jeep with LED lights? My 2020 Jeep had halogens. I could not find the package I wanted with LED. The halogens were like putting oil lamps in the grill.

 

[Bob.]

My 2015 Wrangler had horrible lights. First thing I did was throw them lights away and replaced them with complete led housings, The new Ram was much better but the factory fogs were garbage,
Same thing, went all LEDS for the Ram as well

 

[n8zcc]

The AAA study was an interesting read but fell a bit short. Remember, America motored for many decades on incandescent and halogen lighting. Later vehicles have migrated to HIDs and LED lighting through the use of projector lenses that can place the light where it is needed.

What the study did not discuss, which has a great effect on what you can see from headlamp lighting, is the color temperature of the light produced. I believe the natural color temperature of LED lighting is around 6,000 Kelvin, HIDs come in ranges from 2,700 to over 8,000 Kelvin. Recent technology has enabled various Kelvin temperatures of LED lighting. I was able to relamp my garage with 4,700 Kelvin LED fixtures.

Looking at a roadway illuminated by a 2,700 Kelvin Halogen versus the same wattage HID at 4,300 Kelvin is completely different. I don't know what the Kelvin temperature is of current LED automotive lighting but I will soon find out when I get my new Longhorn. I hope it isn't 6,000 Kelvin.

What would be cool is dynamic lighting that could change the color temperature based on driving extremes from a rainy night on black asphalt (with missing or worn lane lines) to fog conditions.

 

[c3k]

Someone has to mention the European digital adaptive headlights. No, that does not mean they dip or swerve the assembly in turns. Think thousands of LEDs, like a TV screen, each LED responsible for a specific spot of illumination. If something is there (oncoming traffic) that LED is turned off, but the rest stay illuminated. Words don't describe what a leap they are over our truck's LEDs. (Which, in turn, are an equal leap over modern halogens.)

At 5:01, notice how the beam disappears around the oncoming vehicle as it appears and then approaches.

And this is REALLY spectacular:

 

[n8zcc]

Someone has to mention the European digital adaptive headlights. No, that does not mean they dip or swerve the assembly in turns. Think thousands of LEDs, like a TV screen, each LED responsible for a specific spot of illumination. If something is there (oncoming traffic) that LED is turned off, but the rest stay illuminated. Words don't describe what a leap they are over our truck's LEDs. (Which, in turn, are an equal leap over modern halogens.)

At 5:01, notice how the beam disappears around the oncoming vehicle as it appears and then approaches.

And this is REALLY spectacular:

I get an error on the first link.

Several years ago, Ford was playing around with a like system, it used an LCD panel between the light source and the projector to control the area the project was able to illuminate. I don't recall whatever became of that system but it is safe to say it never made U.S. production.

 

[Finn5033]

When I got my 2019 5th gen I was one of those people that said no way am I paying 1k for headlights I don’t need. At that time I had never had anything other than halogen headlights. When I got my 2020 ecodiesel It came with the halogen lights but I got a great deal on some OEM LED’s which I bought mainly for looks. Wow what a difference they make. I will never go back to Halogen headlights.

my wife has a Grand Cherokee that has projector halogens and the first thing I did after that was buy led bulbs for her Jeep. Once you have nice headlights you realize how much worse your night vision is with the halogens

 

[Richard320]

Did any of you read the article or are you just commenting on the alarmist headline?

Additional testing found that while the advanced headlight technology found in HID and LED headlights illuminated dark roadways 25 percent further than their halogen counter parts, they still may fail to fully illuminate roadways at speeds greater than 45 mph. High-beam settings on these advanced headlights offered significant improvement over low-beam settings, lighting distances of up to 500 feet (equal to 55 mph). Despite the increase, even the most advanced headlights fall 60 percent short of the sight distances that the full light of day provides.

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

Someone has to mention the European digital adaptive headlights. No, that does not mean they dip or swerve the assembly in turns. Think thousands of LEDs, like a TV screen, each LED responsible for a specific spot of illumination. If something is there (oncoming traffic) that LED is turned off, but the rest stay illuminated. Words don't describe what a leap they are over our truck's LEDs. (Which, in turn, are an equal leap over modern halogens.)

At 5:01, notice how the beam disappears around the oncoming vehicle as it appears and then approaches.

And this is REALLY spectacular:

Yea this is real cool. I can see it now. Driver just takes delivery of his $70k truck two weeks earlier. A rock pops up from road debris in traffic and he calls insurance about getting it fixed.

Adjuster "Ohhhh, yea, sorry about the damage to your vehicle sir. Yes, I see the small rock chip that disabled your headlamp. Well we are going to have to call this one a total loss. We will send a check for the vehicle value minus depreciation to your lender. That will be $54k. You will have to settle with them for the balance. Have a nice day!"

 

[Norvak]

Best vehicle in 25 years or first in in 25? What are you comparing it to? Hopefully not your old Dodge Dart you had when you were younger.

Have you driven a Ram or Jeep with LED lights? My 2020 Jeep had halogens. I could not find the package I wanted with LED. The halogens were like putting oil lamps in the grill.

I've owned 19 vehicles in the past 25 years. This is my 5th full size truck. If you read my post I said the LED lights are better. I also said that halogens on my Ram are great.

I did test drive a Gladiator with halogen lights and that was absolutely horrible. I felt that I could have held a flashlight out the door and had better lighting then that dang Jeep. I have no idea how Jeep could actually make a vehicle with lighting that bad.

 

[jmt8706]

Halogens are so 80's technology. Why do they still use them?

Time to phase them out. Their technology and output has peaked. HID and LED should be standard by now...

 

[ferraiolo1]

Because for your common man a $10 bulb is easier on your wallet than a $1000 headlight assembly.

Quality led assemblies haven’t gone down enough in price to be a viable lighting solution for every vehicle.

Usually why they are only on higher trim models, if you can afford that level trim, chances are you can afford to replace the light assembly if something goes wrong.

Even on the standard HID equipped vehicles, that hid bulb replacement is around $300

Everyone complaining about halogens, why didn’t you buy a trim model that came with led housings?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LaxDfns15]

So a lot of people don't realize how fast you're actually going when you drive. Yeah, 70mph is "fast", but because everything around you is going near the same speed, and objects on the road are spaced so far apart, you don't have a concept of your speed. 70mph = ~100 feet per second. That means you're traveling a football field in 3 seconds. How often do you see a deer or an object less than 100 feet away from you on the highway? Often, which means you have less than 1 second to react in a 3000-6000+ pound vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed.

If car manufacturers were more "compelled" (required) to provide safety over wringing the last cent they can out of consumers there wouldn't be halogen bulbs left in any vehicles.

I will also take this time to say AIM YOUR FREAKING HEADLIGHTS PROPERLY. So many idiots that mess with their suspension or tire size and don't adjust their lights, or even just "want to see a little better" that blind everyone else. If you lift your truck even 1/2" you need to adjust them. Yeah, you can't make everyone in a Miata happy, but if your lights hurt my eyes sitting in my truck then they're too damn high!

 

[Buz]

There's a very, very fine line between seeing far enough ahead and not blinding oncoming vehicles.
It's been getting better, but it's just the inherent nature of driving at night. It's more dangerous, especially at speed.

 

[bpwj76]

I have the LED's on my truck. When I first bought it (CPO), they weren't very effective. I was always out-dirving the headlights at night, even at lower speeds on city streets. I had to use the high beams a lot. Come to find out, the factory didn't aim them properly. I had to do the aiming process at home and they were about 5-6" too low at 25'.

 

[c3k]

Because for your common man a $10 bulb is easier on your wallet than a $1000 headlight assembly.

Quality led assemblies haven’t gone down enough in price to be a viable lighting solution for every vehicle.

Usually why they are only on higher trim models, if you can afford that level trim, chances are you can afford to replace the light assembly if something goes wrong.

Even on the standard HID equipped vehicles, that hid bulb replacement is around $300

Everyone complaining about halogens, why didn’t you buy a trim model that came with led housings?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My Big Horn (on order) was NOT available with LED. Originally, it was, for $1,000 and I ordered it. Then Stellantis dropped it. I'd have to upgrade a trim level (to Laramie) to get them. Or, go aftermarket. Rhymes with Yishimoto...

Adding 5-10k to a truck for better headlights when there's a 1,000 dollar option available is what I chose. (Note, for my Laramie in sig (yes, I'm talking a different truck), it has LEDs)