I currently have the 5W CREE Reverse light bulbs that are pretty darn bright and have been thinking about replacing some other bulbs with LED as well.
Has anyone here tried them (the CREE style not just the SMD) for the foglights? Which wattage did you get? Do people flash high beams at you?
Looking on eBay I can get CREE H11 bulbs for $10 each from US sellers or $15 for a pair from Asia but they are listing them in different wattages. Some say 7W others list them as high as 50W
From what I've found, these replacement leds aren't great for headlights or fog lights. I recently saw some new 10w single led lights at an off road shop and they're ok, but I'd think 18 watts would be the minimum for a decent fog light. At least IMHO.
The only way I've found to compare light output is in lumens, and that still doesn't tell the whole story. If the light is spread out too much, or scattered, because the bulb doesn't work with the reflector correctly, then it's just wasted light.
A good led will produce about 100 lumens/watt, although they range from about 70 lumens to as much as 200 lumens per watt (newest gen Cree leds). Most run in the 75 - 100 range. So, a 10 watt led would output about 750 - 1000 lumens. Compare that to a 55 watt halogen, where the better bulbs put out about 1500 - 1700 lumens. FYI - HID bulbs put out about 60 lumens per watt, so a 35 watt HID puts out about 2100 lumens, or the equivalent of a good 75 watt halogen.
For the money, I'd just get a really good 55w halogen bulb. Go to Daniel Stern Lighting There's a TON of really good info there.
The listing you posted showed they were 25W, went on eBay yesterday and searched “h11 25w” but forgot to put CREE. Worked out in my favor, a seller in NY had a pair of 25w CREE h11 bulbs up for auction but he had also forgotten to put CREE in the title. Current bid was $15 and they were about to end, ended up getting them for $15.50 with free shipping. From what I have found the 25w bulbs are 1800 lumens. Guess I’ll see how they look in a few days.
I am curious if anyone on here is running LED bulb replacements for the factory fogs. I would like them to compliment my Totron light bars which are insanely bright.
Lifetime LED has started making some LED replacement headlight bulbs that are extremely bright. I imagine they probably have a bulb that will fit the foglights. Southeast Overland out of North Carolina sells them.
Usually when I see a hacked bulb into an existing housing and add in "extremely bright" it almost always means HORRIBLE beam pattern. Blinding all oncoming drivers, total moron of a person behind the wheel.
Years ago I made a set of HID off-road lights. Found some old Cebie housings, grafted in the HID bulbs. Aimed them the best I could. They were extremely bright. Pretty good pattern straight ahead and plenty of light off to the sides. I had to have NOBODY in front of me. Totally blinded EVERYONE. I loved them off-road. But could never be used with anyone looking toward them. Even when I had to stop, walk in front to check or move something like a gate, and had to walk back to the truck, they were totally blinding. But match your exact criteria of an aftermarket light in a housing not designed for it that made extremely bright light.
Fog lights are not high beams, off-road lights, or even driving lights. They are a low cutoff pattern sub-low beam light. They don't need stupid amounts of light.
About a year ago, I tried replacing with fog lights with HID bulbs. Very bright, but unfortunately the ballasts kept failing due to water getting in them. I tried LEDs from Amazon, but they were woefully underpowered. After some research, I found that you need to look at the lumen rating. The HIDs are rated at about 3000 lumen, but the LEDs were rated at about 600 lumens. I think the OEM lights are rated at about 1400 lumens. So anything rate above 1400 lumens should give you more light.
Put the bulbs I got on eBay in this afternoon to see how they looked this evening.
They don’t look like they give off much light but they do seem to throw light all over. Noticed when I switched them on and off that some of the light was about 10 feet up in the trees off to the side. No one high beamed me but I did have one driver in front of me activate his turn signal and not turn then activate his hazards for a while ahead of me before turning off quickly. Another driver was tapping their brakes repeatedly. I was a significant distance behind each of them so it’s possible they didn’t care for my lights. Or maybe I just encountered 2 lost people in 2 minutes.
the way they are reflecting and people are acting they look like they are too bright or improperly aimed. I have HID headlights and fogs and never get flashed.
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