LEDs not recommended for low beams??

[Janelle]

Hi
I I walked into my local auto parts store to upgrade my wife’s 2014 ram 1500 for better lighting. The sales person didn’t recommend LEDs for low beam because he said they don’t work well with snow and fog. The light just bounces back as if you have your high beams on. He recommends just OEM for low beams. I live in Alberta so having good vision in fog and especially snow is important. What’s your experience?
Thanks for the help.

I have a 2014 sport and installed Auxito leds from Amazon, what a game changer, I live in Idaho and my stock halogen visibility was terrible with the Auxito it’s amazing. You do have to orientate them correctly like the instructions say, there is a tiny set, screw where you can rotate them inside the bayonet mount housing. Good luck!

 

[Garth Schindel]

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. I ended up putting in Sylvania ultra high performance halogens. Not so sure how good they are. I couldn’t tell any difference in the daytime. Hopefully they are a bit better than stock. With LEDs in the fogs though I’m happy enough either way.

 

[DodgeV10]

I would like to throw in my two cents. Changing your halogen bulbs to LED's. Is like putting on bigger and wider tires. Sure you get better traction on some driving conditions and the truck may look cooler. But the truck was not made for those tires and it will take it toll on the drive line, suspension, and frame. I had done a mod to my truck where I took out the broken mechanical fan, and replaced it with a electric fan kit that was on other Dodge Ram trucks. Found out the hard way when I needed it most. It couldn't keep up with the demand and just about overheated. The truck was not built to use an electric fan. Or else they would have built one in.
Headlight reflectors made for halogen light do just that. Work with the light a halogen puts out. Now change it to LEDs and now you have a whiter and brighter light. It doesn't matter where the led is positioned. I know this because I bought a pair of Auxito LEDs for my truck's quad headlight low beams. (Not the cheap ones either.) I had great lighting! With a bunch of cars, even in a four lane road, flashing there brights at me. I tried everything. Lowering the headlights all the way down. Tried to shim the reflector to point towards the passenger side more. Adjusted the heck out of the position of the leds inside the housing. Nothing worked because those headlight housing and reflectors were made for the brightness of halogens. Not the scattered intense light coming from LEDs.
Plus. The crisp white light was refection hard on snow, rain, and fog to the point I slow down to a crawl so I didn't run into anything.
Went back to halogen bulbs and what do you know. It worked just fine. I drive mostly in the city so street lights are everywhere. I did put LEDs in my high beams. After all, when those are on. Your in the country or with no oncoming traffic. People say I look like a train with the high beams on.
So if you do want LEDs. Look for a headlight housing that was made for them. Don't be that guy that puts in LEDs in a halogen housing just to see better while blinding everyone else. Even if people don't flash you, your still putting out more light then the housing was designed for. Maybe your blinding them just as you pass them and they don't have time to react.

 

[RamDiver]

I would like to throw in my two cents. Changing your halogen bulbs to LED's. Is like putting on bigger and wider tires. Sure you get better traction on some driving conditions and the truck may look cooler. But the truck was not made for those tires and it will take it toll on the drive line, suspension, and frame. I had done a mod to my truck where I took out the broken mechanical fan, and replaced it with a electric fan kit that was on other Dodge Ram trucks. Found out the hard way when I needed it most. It couldn't keep up with the demand and just about overheated. The truck was not built to use an electric fan. Or else they would have built one in.
Headlight reflectors made for halogen light do just that. Work with the light a halogen puts out. Now change it to LEDs and now you have a whiter and brighter light. It doesn't matter where the led is positioned. I know this because I bought a pair of Auxito LEDs for my truck's quad headlight low beams. (Not the cheap ones either.) I had great lighting! With a bunch of cars, even in a four lane road, flashing there brights at me. I tried everything. Lowering the headlights all the way down. Tried to shim the reflector to point towards the passenger side more. Adjusted the heck out of the position of the leds inside the housing. Nothing worked because those headlight housing and reflectors were made for the brightness of halogens. Not the scattered intense light coming from LEDs.
Plus. The crisp white light was refection hard on snow, rain, and fog to the point I slow down to a crawl so I didn't run into anything.
Went back to halogen bulbs and what do you know. It worked just fine. I drive mostly in the city so street lights are everywhere. I did put LEDs in my high beams. After all, when those are on. Your in the country or with no oncoming traffic. People say I look like a train with the high beams on.
So if you do want LEDs. Look for a headlight housing that was made for them. Don't be that guy that puts in LEDs in a halogen housing just to see better while blinding everyone else. Even if people don't flash you, your still putting out more light then the housing was designed for. Maybe your blinding them just as you pass them and they don't have time to react.

That's a great block of ranting, you might try using a bit more spaces for some of us older readers.

I'm sorry to hear that LED replacement bulbs didn't work very well for your truck.

I've heard other complaints from users with Quad housings.

The LEDs are spectacular in my truck with the projector housings.

More than 95% of my driving is rural and I've very rarely been flashed and never on a level road.

I chose specific Fahren bulbs based on excellent performance and fitment reviews from many other users with projector housings.

The cutoff line on these projector housings are quite sharp and defined. I marked the garage door with tape using the original halogen bulbs for reference and the Fahren are definitely below that same line at 3' or 25'.

Later on I changed the high beam bulbs from Fahren to non-clockable but more powerful Auxito bulbs.

And, although I'm not certain they have the same reach down the road as the Fahren, they certainly turn a dark country road into daylight all around my truck.

Lighting up the ditches and treeline is important to avoid the suicidal critters where I travel.

.

 

[nlambert182]

To be honest... I swapped my 1500 over to all LED (inside & out) using the quad housings and the difference was literally night and day. I didn't have an issue driving at night in the snow nor in fog. More importantly, I didn't blind anyone in oncoming traffic because I made sure they were aimed properly.

My 2500 has the factory projectors and the light output is noticeably worse than the LEDs I had in the quads.

I'm probably one of the "armchair lawyers" that Crash referenced about towing, but from personal experience I don't see any issue with running LEDs as long as they're aimed correctly. I never had an ounce of problems towing with them. I think quality of the LED bulbs you choose are probably as important than anything else.

 

[04fxdwgi]

I agree with @nlambert182 100%, except on the towing part. With LEDs, if aim is a little off and the blinding effect is worse than the std bulbs.
OEM LEDs do the same thing as it's the nature of the beast with such a focused beam with a 5000 k (approx and up) color temp.

The only thing about towing is if it squats the rear of the truck down, it will then throw the aim high. That's just plain a fact but not much you can do about it at that point.

 

[09SilverRam]

That's a great block of ranting, you might try using a bit more spaces for some of us older readers.

I'm sorry to hear that LED replacement bulbs didn't work very well for your truck.

I've heard other complaints from users with Quad housings.

The LEDs are spectacular in my truck with the projector housings.

More than 95% of my driving is rural and I've very rarely been flashed and never on a level road.

I chose specific Fahren bulbs based on excellent performance and fitment reviews from many other users with projector housings.

The cutoff line on these projector housings are quite sharp and defined. I marked the garage door with tape using the original halogen bulbs for reference and the Fahren are definitely below that same line at 3' or 25'.

Later on I changed the high beam bulbs from Fahren to non-clockable but more powerful Auxito bulbs.

And, although I'm not certain they have the same reach down the road as the Fahren, they certainly turn a dark country road into daylight all around my truck.

Lighting up the ditches and treeline is important to avoid the suicidal critters where I travel.

.

Aftermarket LEDs in Projectors is very different than aftermarket LEDs in dual and quad low beams that scatter the light everywhere. The projector housings hard cutoff shields the other driver from the beam in normal operation unless you are cresting a hill.

 

[mands0807]

Headlight Revolution tests different LED's in reflector housing

 

[StateOfMind]

Proper positioning and alignment allows for an led in a quad housing to have a crisp and safer falloff. First hand experience.

 

[StateOfMind]

View attachment 550783

Proper positioning and alignment allows for an led in a quad housing to have a crisp and safer falloff. First hand experience.

I should note that I have black headlight quads, not the chrome buckets. I don't think it makes a difference, as they both use the same reflectors

 

[04fxdwgi]

Aftermarket LEDs in Projectors is very different than aftermarket LEDs in dual and quad low beams that scatter the light everywhere. The projector housings hard cutoff shields the other driver from the beam in normal operation unless you are cresting a hill.

I have proper LEDS clocked and aimed correctly in my projectors and the cut off is extremely defined.

 

[BigDaddy02RAM]

I have LED's all around my dodge and had no issues.

 

[09SilverRam]

I have proper LEDS clocked and aimed correctly in my projectors and the cut off is extremely defined.

Right, that’s what I said. The projector housings hard cutoff work better for LED than reflector housing