Road test of my Truck Lite Series 7 LED headlight

[rodekyll]

I posted earlier this year about a side-by-side test I did with LED v halogen on a jeep.  The plan was to then install the Truck Lite Series 7, 35w 7" round headlight in my Convert and get some real-world impressions.  It is finally dark enough (with the help of thick cloud cover) to do that testing, and this is my report.

I first drove it as a daylight to see how the battery held up to Convert duty and full-time headlight.  My (jackal engine) alternator held up @ 13.8v and kept the battery charged.  This is an important detail -- energy savings.  Especially on the old bosch systems the headlight draw can be fatal on a Convert.  The LED passes.  At 35w it can be run all day.

The other important detail is the light quality -- can 35w really do the job of a 55/60w halogen?

The first thing I noticed as I set out on a midnight run was that I needed to adjust the beam upwards a hair.  I'd kept it down because I didn't know exactly where it was pointed and I didn't want to annoy traffic.  It's in a frame mounted fairing, so adjusting it is no casual affair.  So I left it low, and the test started less than optimal.

The next thing I noticed was the slight blue tone to the light.  It's not as annoying as I thought it was going to be -- just to the blue side of white -- but it's enough to turn yellow signs slightly green and blue signs slightly purple.

There is a bit of a hot spot in the center of the light pool.  It's probably more pronounced with the adjustment low, but it's noticeable.  It's called out in the pattern diagrams on the mfgr website, so it's intentional.  The facets of the lens are clearly visible on the road in the distribution pattern of the light.  The cutoff of light in all directions is abrupt -- you either have light or you don't.  The side-throwing facets are well aimed.  It throws a wide angle close-up that almost leads the bike through twisties.  I don't notice any lack of light as the bike leans.  However, the abrupt cutoff of light is a little disconcerting -- I'm used to a little back-scatter lighting up things around the front wheel, and this LED puts everything downrange.  A few watts of aux fill up close wouldn't hurt my feelings.

35w of LED is about as much as you can aim at a road sign without the ricochet knocking you off the bike like an apprentice jouster taking a lance.  Seriously -- you can read the lettering well, but any more light reflecting back would be blinding and the signs would be unreadable.  Aimed too high I think the effect of 35w would be overwhelming as well.  Tonight, aimed a hair low, I was picking up anything reflective for as far as the road was straight (not a big brag in my town).  The road paint, center reflectors, guard rail posts etc jump right up.  Critter eyes go off like flash bulbs.  Bottles and cans light up on the shoulders.

One of the most satisfying things about the LED was how "clean" the light is.  Compared to the mickey-mouse HID conversions and drop-in LED elements I've experimented with there is no scatter at all -- the beam is almost agonizingly focused, the cutoff is sharp in all directions, and there is no 'fuzz' in the light.  Instead of seeing the very air glow, I see clean pavement.  It was impressive.  If they could correct the light to be color neutral (daylight) it would be a clean sweep of my criteria.

I think this LED will do better than halogen and as well as anything else in 80% of driving situations.  Although I think it will outperform halogen in 100% of comparable  urban, suburban, and most casual night riding situations, there are times when you would still want some bighorn sheep-frying aux lights.

Bottom line is that this bike will never see another incandescent bulb.  All the other lights were changed out for LEDs years ago.  Halogen is obsolete.  The Truck lite LED does much better with 40% less energy draw.

Tune in next time when I have my HID retrofits installed in the trike.  If this 35w LED is any indication, twin 50w HIDs will be like that scene in Indiana Jones where everyone melts.   

[rocker59]

Thanks for the writeup   

[steven c]

 Does it fit in the standard headlight shell or do you have to modify it? I see the price has come down.
http://www.amazon.com/Truck-Lite-27270C-Headlamp/dp/B007K8AA7I

[canuguzzi]

How is the illumination of non-reflective items? I've found that getting a reflection is a lot easier than actually illuminating other things like people walking across the street, animals and the things that make you go bump in the night.

[charlie b]

Heck, that's in my price range!

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

This is an insert that fits a standard 7" headlight bucket/shell, correct?

Do you need any resistors or you just plug & play?

[Markcarovilli]

how about heat?  Does it run hotter than a standard light and or is it a problem......

thanks for the review and help,

Mark

[rocker59]

If y'all were to click the Amazon link in the above post and read the reviews and questions sections, I think your questions would be answered.

From what I have just read it's plug and play for 7-inch buckets and everyone loves it.

[guzziownr]

Is the back flat-ish?  My Eldo has all kinds of crap in the headlight bucket.

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

If y'all were to click the Amazon link in the above post and read the reviews and questions sections, I think your questions would be answered.

From what I have just read it's plug and play for 7-inch buckets and everyone loves it.

there is only one pic, cant see the back. I thought this was the drop-in one taht a member here used on their V& and after searching back, it is.

I'm going to order one and give it a whirl on my v65 which has a standard japanese 7" shell from something or other...  Hopefully it works with little modification, besides cutting off the plug and soldering my connector on.

[canuguzzi]

If this is about the performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyehcOie5TE there seem to be a lot of dark spots and there is no drive or ride ahead as you get with halogens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It1gNeBVnQI

Was this your experience? I was watching the sides where you might pick up something headed into the road and notice you can't really see much compared to what you get with halogens. The appear much whitter but more illumination would be better.

That video isn't very impressive. Almost like going down the road with a spotlight.

[rodekyll]

It lights up non-shiny objects too.  I can't say 'nonreflective' because if the item doesn't reflect light you won't see it regardless of the bulb.  My X was that way.     The roads were dry last night.  I have not tested the light on wet roads or one of those nights when it's so dark that normal headlight gets sucked up.

Yes, it is literally plug and play for my bike.  I have heard that the deeper shoulder around the lens (where the clamping ring sits) can be a problem for some headlight buckets, but on both the jeep and the bike I simply removed a bulb and popped in the LED.  The plug is on a pigtail and fits your standard headlight connector.  The switch controls work as expected. 

Heat is a good question, since LED is supposed to heat up to the rear of the module (front stays cool).  I did not check for heat, sorry.  I'll try to get to that.

Remember -- this is a full module for retrofitting 7" round headlights, NOT a replacement bulb to insert into your existing reflector.  you are replacing the element, lens, and reflector as though it was a sealed beam.

I forgot to mention that the bulb lights up immediately, at full brightness.  There is no warm-up time and no 'rest' time if you shut it down as there is with HID.  Switching low/high is also instant.  Either beam draws the same 35w.  The bulb is divided into an upper and lower half with a 35w element in each half.  So the bright beam is made by lighting up the lower reflector and the low beam happens in the upper half.  Iirc, only one element is active at any time.

[rodekyll]

Is the back flat-ish?  My Eldo has all kinds of crap in the headlight bucket.

It is not deeper than oem.  It might be as deep.  I was worried about clearance to the rear too (fuse box clearance).  I even asked the vendor if I could return the bulb if it didn't physically fit (it was OK to return it), but no worries on my bike.  I think if you did have a problem with yours that it would be the shoulder, which is taller (deeper) than a regular bulb.

If this is about the performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyehcOie5TE there seem to be a lot of dark spots and there is no drive or ride ahead as you get with halogens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It1gNeBVnQI

Was this your experience? I was watching the sides where you might pick up something headed into the road and notice you can't really see much compared to what you get with halogens. The appear much whitter but more illumination would be better.

That video isn't very impressive. Almost like going down the road with a spotlight.

It is impossible to accurately capture the light on camera.  If you used an exposure that picked up the fine light the heavy light would bleach out the frame.   So (as we discovered when I did the photo tests earlier this year) a picture will be naturally high contrast (drops out the low light) and look spotlight-ish.  Halogen 'looks' better on film because it's dirty light.  It's less focused and less directional, so it reflects back on the very atmosphere.  This produces a glowing smut on film that our eyes fool us into thinking is actual light (not the best expressed idea of my morning).

Yes, the beam pattern has a very abrupt cutoff.  The cutoff is like the light that shines through a partially open doorway -- a clean break between light and dark.  Light is either there or it's not.  If there, with the exception of the previously mentioned hot spot and a vague sense of 'panty lines' where the reflector facets overlap, the light is very even.  If not there, it's pitch-damn dark.

The reflector seems to have four 'zones'.  The high center hot spot, a road-hosing 'spot' area that casts the beam downrange, and left and right side cast 'flood' angles.  If an object is not in a zone it is not in the light.  period.  Although I felt the flood zones did a good job of lighting up the near shoulder, because of the lack of scatter, things directly beside or below the bike are in darkness -- there's no friendly glow of leaking light directly left and right of the motorcycle.  The flood angle seems to do a good job of getting ahead of you in a sharp twisty, even when you're leaned into it.  However, for those nights when zombie white tails are lurking in every ditch, a little aux light for wide-angle fill might be a good thing.

[rodekyll]

there is only one pic, cant see the back. I thought this was the drop-in one taht a member here used on their V& and after searching back, it is.

I'm going to order one and give it a whirl on my v65 which has a standard japanese 7" shell from something or other...  Hopefully it works with little modification, besides cutting off the plug and soldering my connector on.

If your connector is the standard 3-prong "H4" plug there is no modification needed -- as you can see in the pic guzziownr posted the plug is conventional inn every way -- except that it's not hard-fixed to the back of the housing.  This reduces the total depth of the module.