Jeep Wrangler Forum banner

LED Headlight question

14K views 127 replies 40 participants last post by  gmmoore 
#1 ·
So I was looking through the quadratec catalog and saw that they have joined the LED game. I'm considering upgrading my '06s lights. I used the search and found a lot of love for Truck lites. I think JB Speaker is another major player in the LED game, only at a higher price. I read the link for pirate4x4 about lights.
So I guess I'm asking 2 things

1. Anyone with experience with QT'S LED lights
2. Any other thoughts about Speaker or TL LED's?
 
#5 ·
I have found some (pairs) on Amazon and EBay for around $340.00. I have seen other places anywhere from 375-450 for the pair. I just watched a couple of sets sell used on Ebay for more than new!!! With the TJ we don't need the wiring adapter or the anti-flicker mod.
 
#16 ·
Anyone know a more affordable option, I have seen the reviews but I can't be spending 400 bucks on headlights at the moment. Maybe they'll come down in price.

How are the Hella Halogen conversions compared to the stock lights? How much brighter are the LED than the hella?
If these rebranded Truck-Lites are the real thing from NAPA, that makes it about $320. I'll know tomorrow or Wed when they arrive and will post!
 
#21 ·
How are LEDs in the winter? I have heard they don't do to well with snow, sleet, and ice as far as the heat eating through the crap so they are usable. We had some stop lights that were LED put in last year and they have been changed out for that reason. They lasted about a month until people complained too much. So do they put out enough heat to be able to melt through all that crap?
 
#23 ·
Update
Just picked up the lights from local NAPA. They are Trucklites. Not rebranded. Come with full 3 year limited warranty. Pretty good deal. Right around $340 including tax. If you have coupon/discount, a little less. Store manager said it was September deal. Might be more next month. Works for me!
 
#36 · (Edited)
Here is accurate information.

I own both TruckLite headlamps and JW Speaker headlamps and fogs. I have the TLs on the JK and the four Speakers on my TJ.

JKs and TJs are wired the same. Same connection, same output. There is no such thing as a mod for these. The only thing that is an actual issue is the pulse width modulation system used on JKs that cause LED lamps to flicker to varying degrees from JK to JK. (Mine just barely flicker.) The TJ does not have this issue. There are no adapters, no mods, nothing. Plug them in. That is it. Either brand runs directly off the stock wiring and power.

Here are my personal experiences with both...

JW Speaker 8700 headlamps
Very cool looking. Emit a lot of light that is very intense and white. Has a rainbow cone on the road in front of the vehicle where, at the edge of the cone is a dark patch directly in front of the vehicle. Very difficult to aim properly. High beams make next to zero difference. If others tell you differently it is because they do not want to make their über costly lights look like anything other than a modern miracle. I am telling you that I and several others on this board think they are a waste of money. Do not get them. Very nice, but that is a lot of coin for no high beams.

JW Speaker 6150 fog lights
Costly as hell for fog lamps. Worth it. Excellent pattern for FOG conditions. Lousy if you are one of those fools who use fogs for extra driving lights. They are FOG LIGHTS and if used properly they are worth the money. And they look badass. ;-)

TruckLites
Excellent, clear pattern. No real rainbow effect. No dead spot in front of the vehicle. Clear, bright, intense white light with a hard cutoff line where it needs to go. Very easy to aim. Excellent, usable high beams. Excellent purchase worth every penny I spent on them. Amazing improvement.

The Speakers, while excellent and almost as good as the TruckLites, just cost too damned much money for what you get. Sorry, Speaker Co. Lower your prices or improve your crappy, useless high beam pattern. I expected at least TruckLite-level illumination and pattern quality since your product costs like 50% more. Trucklites win, hands down, in my opinion.

The JW Speaker fogs are excellent, however. But they are also costly. Beware, you might think you are getting a deal online somewhere, but they sell these guys singly as well as in pairs. Make sure your deal is not actually just one light like what happened to me with Quadratec.

I have zero experience with the Quadratec product or the NAPA LEDs. (I do not find actual TruckLites anywhere on NAPA's site. I find some products made by TruckLite and some NAPA-branded LEDs. That is it.

I would allow others to be the guinea pigs for the Quadratec and NAPA lights. If you cannot afford the TruckLites right now I would wait. If you are interested and not disgusted by the prohibitive price then save and get the real thing. These LEDs are still too expensive to drop $300 on a set that you know nothing about. The real TruckLites are not that much more expensive. Or I would do one of the popular Hella options, which require some work to the Jeep, I think.

TruckLites have been around for awhile now. They are hugely popular in the JK forums. I have so far read of only a couple of failures. Never any color mismatches. The ones NAPA sells are NOT TruckLites as the TL company spent a lot of R&D money specifically on the color output. They do not make stuff like that at all. Look-alikes are not always rebranded stuff. That generally happens with cheap Chinese-made junk. TruckLite is not in the business of selling cheap knock-offs of their own product. Sorry, it is just not true.

If you want to know more about them, search the JK forums here. There are tons of threads on them and on the JW Speaker 8700s.

Good luck, whatever you end up getting. If you get the NAPA ones do not be surprised if they do not match color or output. And who knows about the Quadratec ones? They *might* end up being great. Or not.
 
#37 ·
Appreciate the feedback Holton345 and your support of the WF, but I have to respectfully disagree with your statement that the NAPA ones are not TL's, my guess is NAPA would as well (part number is LIT 27270C).
Trust me when I say I did my own vetting of this before I shelled out $320 and I don't think NAPA is in the business of selling "boot-leg" TL knockoffs. Guess it's always possible NAPA got hoodooed by a fake, but I highly doubt it...I probably got a couple ones from the same lot that could have had a manufacturing flaw or something damaged in transit??

As you can see from the picture of the boxes, what the NAPA guys told me: and from a couple other forum members posts, these are Truck-Lites. I imagine there is some privacy reason NAPA does not advertise as TL's, but anyone can open the pdf right there and have it open the TL brochure, not to mention the price is going back up in October.

In the end, I'm extremely happy with them and zero regrets! Hope others can take advantage of this price break for a few more days! Now off to my next LED bar purchase and the overanalyzing ever detail before I hit the buy button!
 

Attachments

#41 ·
I've had the Trucklights for a couple years in my TJ. My only complaint is the "X" artifacts they project. You don't notice them on high beams as much, but it's kinda annoying t odeal with. Supposedly the KC version doesn't have them, but I can't verify that as I haven't seen any in person.

Here's a good thread from a very knowledgable light guy to check out -

Headlight Shootout - JeepForum.com
 
#43 ·
I've had the Trucklights for a couple years in my TJ. My only complaint is the "X" artifacts they project. You don't notice them on high beams as much, but it's kinda annoying t odeal with. Supposedly the KC version doesn't have them, but I can't verify that as I haven't seen any in person.

Here's a good thread from a very knowledgable light guy to check out -

Headlight Shootout - JeepForum.com
What are your thoughts during winter? Assuming you are in a climate that gets snow. Does the snow build up on the lense since they don't get hot?
 
#44 ·
Rain-X or some of the hydrophobic treatments might be able to stop most of that, but I'm not positive. The Rain-X wouldn't affect the light any, but the other might, I don't know enough about it.

I can tell you that sometimes even halogens don't get hot enough to keep it from happening.
 
#49 ·
I'm not talking about heat melting ice... I'm saying that even if there was 1/4" of ice on them, they would still be at least as bright as a stock light. To put it in simpler terms, it would be similar to going from high beams ( no icing ) to low beams (iced up ).
 
#50 ·
In my experience you can't see shit when it happens. Even if 1/4 of the output was acceptable it's going to be diffuse instead of directed where you want it.
 
This post has been deleted
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top