New look headlamps!

[Chris Hawes]

This chap (Daniel Stern is a guru of car headlights) http://www.danielsternlighting.com

I bought Cibie's from Dave Howarth four years ago and one of the bulbs has just failed so was looking for advice as to how I can legally put out the most light from the existing units so I emailed Daniel above at dastern@torque.net and he was very helpful (he's okayed me to share his feedback)

Quote:Well, the brightest regulation-wattage (E-marked, road-legal) H4 bulb is this one:

http://www.powerbulbs.com/store/categor ... ing/h4-472
(reliable UK vendor).

Do note the 165mm x 100mm rectangular lamps are quite inefficient no matter what bulb is in them. You can do very considerably better whilst retaining full road legality with this full-LED headlamp made in Wisconsin by JW Speaker:
http://www.jwspeaker.com/products/headl ... uct=100160

http://www.jwspeaker.com/products/headl ... ngular.pdf

They're quite exceptionally good (and they are the only LED headlamp in this size format worth considering; there are others on the market, but they're all junk). You'd want to contact the maker and ask, but last time I checked they were able to furnish them in E-marked, left-traffic configuration with inbuilt sidelight.

NB most garages in the UK will tend to aim the dipped beams far too low. See if you can get a cooperative garage to set the dipped beams to 0.7% declination rather than the 1.3% to 2.0% they will typically tend to use. The 0.7% figure is within allowable MOT range and gives MUCH better seeing distance without running afoul of glare control regulations.

Best DS

Hi Daniel,
Thank you for much for the replying and your invaluable information.

Before receiving your reply I had come across the below whilst researching various options but didn't see anything about testing/reviews:-
http://www.horizonleds.co.uk/headlamp-c ... -dual-beam

I suspect that even if the Cree's are good they will be hampered by the existing inefficient halogen based unit that they would be being inserted into i.e. it was never designed for output of this type of light/design of bulb... would this be right?

As it stands I'm tempted to go for the Philips Xtreme halogen bulbs that you have recommended as I suspect the Speaker units will become cheaper over time? My existing enclosures are only four years old so it would be shame to bin them at this stage...

What are your thoughts of the Cree units above?

Kind regards,

Chris Hawes

Here is Daniel's response when the below were suggested:-

Quote:http://www.horizonleds.co.uk/headlamp-c ... light-kits

No. No, no, no, no, no. *NO.* Absolutely not. This is a scam/fraudulent product, not even remotely capable of producing even a minimally adequate, safe amount of light in an appropriate beam distribution. It does not matter whose name is used (usually fraudulently; "Cree", etc.) or the particulars of the (bogus) claims made. DO NOT buy these.

Best DS

As my Cibie enclosures still have some mileage left in them I've ordered a set of H4 bulbs that Daniel recommended although the LED JWSpeaker set he recommended look great and I'm sure they'll come down in cost as my quick google from one supplier showed $1300 for the set of four and that's before customs/shipping

In summary if you want to go LED with your headlights and you use your car enough to justify the outlay then it looks like the JWSpeaker units would be the way to go based on Daniel's (and other feedback I've found) advice/experience...