LED spotlights

[mac06]

For those into high intensity spotlights for off road vehicles, check out these LED Intensity spotlights from ARB. Apparently they are new on the market, or will be soon. Not sure about the looks myself, but I guess they are there for effect not looks. From the video they look pretty effective.

Featuring 32 LEDs with a 50,000+ hour lifespan, waterproof to 3m and available in either spot or flood beams, ARB's all new Intensity LED driving lights have been designed and tested to military specifications to withstand even the most extreme conditions.

http://arb.com.au/products/vehicle-l...arb-led-range/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuOde...ature=youtu.be

[Wonky]

They look pretty impressive but no doubt will be bloody expensive for quite a while till they become popular. Also look to have what seems to be a shortcoming of current LED lights and that is that they have nowhere near the penetration of halogen/HID lights. I remember a while back seeing a light bar for offroaders with lots of LEDs horizontally across a bar - brilliant flood lighting but no real depth.

[mjrandom]

$745 RRP. Each. Wonky is absolutely correct. LEDs struggle with penetration (don't we all). The light bars are useful but for the $ there are better options.

[Wonky]

Ouch!!

[CLUBRED]

In the commercial world we're seeing more and more LED products out performing discharge lamps, saying they can't is completely wrong.

[axemurderer101]

only thing i dont like about these types of lights is they are usually a fully sealed unit and if one or two led's blow or if you damage it its bloody expensive to replace. i wonder what the warranty is like with these lights.

[mac06]

At $745 each they are likely to struggle to sell many of them. Hopefully the price will come down considerably. I guess other suppliers will soon hit the market to make it more competitive.
I've seen the light bars before and wasn't impressed with the depth, but these do look a lot better with their penetration in the video. Be interesting to see what they actually look like in real life. Looking at the specs it seems they have been pretty well tested with regard to handling vibration, so hopefully they'd last the distance.

[Wonky]

In the commercial world we're seeing more and more LED products out performing discharge lamps, saying they can't is completely wrong.

I'm sure the time will come where they do consistently as they continue to develop them, but at the moment on a BFB basis I certainly wouldn't bother. In the future as they a) improve and b) get cheaper I'm sure they will eventually be good value.

[C4B]

I remember paying around $1200 for a set of Hella HID driving lights about 10 years ago, so since these LEDs are bleeding edge I'm not surprised at their pricing.

The difference is that 10 years ago HIDs were light years ahead of the alternatives, whereas LED's sound like they are only on par.

LEDs are unbeatable when you have a limited power source (like a torch), but when you're talking about driving lights on a car, using half the power means SFA so unless they perform drastically better they're not going to sell like hot cakes.

[whitels1ss]

I did not think LED's were very expensive to produce, somebody would be making a huge profit at that price.

[HSV590]

I did not think LED's were very expensive to produce, somebody would be making a huge profit at that price.

True, LED's themselves aren't particularly expensive, it's the R&D in developing a light that can compete or out peform halogens that's driving the cost..

[CLUBRED]

The difference is that 10 years ago HIDs were light years ahead of the alternatives, whereas LED's sound like they are only on par.

But 10 years ago discharge lamps had been around for decades. It's all evolutionary, it's not all just about saving energy either. In my industry we're leaning away from wattages now and using lumen output packages as it can change every 12 months (eg, this year a 20w LED might produce 2000 lumens, next year they might only need 15w etc). We're also seeing interchangeable LED modules becoming norm, so you only change out failed modules instead of the entire set, and even LEDs from other manufacturers, Zhaga Consortium.

[C4B]

Looking at the Youtube video, in terms of distance they don't really seem to penetrate that much further than the Halogen High Beam.

This is ok for 4WDing which is obviously the market they are intended for, but for on-road use (especially highway) I'd still definitely go the HID Driving Lights (and $1400 will get a really good set these days).

[C4B]

But 10 years ago discharge lamps had been around for decades.

We're talking about widespread automotive usage..... LED's have been around since the early 60's, but they are considered "new" technology when it comes to automotive lighting applications.

[HSV Listy]

I have had a bit to do with the bar LED lights and spotlight type LEDs. As mentioned the depth is not close to the HID normal spotlights.

I found the CREE flood type bar lights are the best choice in over 30 inch bars. Anything less you are better off getting flood type spotlights.
I have some Cree 50 inch 240w bar lights in the flood are great for about true 150 meters and spread the light close to 130 degree wide. They light up really well as long as they have something to reflect off like trees, sides of the road grass etc. The photos in the adds for LED lights will rarly show a blank open road as the LED just dont work that well without something to reflect off. Take the photo in a valley with trees, dirt road etc and they look and work great.

You can get pretty good LED bar lights for ok price at online ones. Look for Cree LED and aim for flood type light in over 30 inch. They are not a replacement for 1km debth kick but spoties but are great for helping spot roos, animals and really good for off road work at night in among trees etc . The 50 inch ones you can roof mount on roof cargo trays and the 30 inch fit ok on bullbars.

Another note if you buy expensive spoties that look expensive get proper lock nuts to stop the thiefs. Buy expesnive and just put cheap brand covers on the spoties.