LED reversing light opinion needed

[casm]

I'm finally getting around to starting conversion of my 2000 XJ to interior & exterior LED lights. Going to do the exterior first, since that's a known quantity for me (this'll be the third vehicle I've done an LED swap on), but choosing the reversing lights is proving tricky.

What I'm going for here is improved light throw directly rearward with performance to the side that is at least as good as a stock 3157 filament bulb. Right now, I've got two contenders in this category:

Number one: superbrightleds.com's High-power 3156/3157:

Number two: autolumination.com's Eagle Eye Tower bulbs:

My concerns are the following:

With the superbrightleds.com bulb, it has only one 3W LED set up for a 130-degree beam pattern. It doesn't sound like this is going to give me the rearward throw that I want, and side illumination will be iffy.

Autolumination.com's bulb looks like it may do a slightly better job with side fill-in, but they don't give specs on the rear-facing bulb. Since they describe it as being 'wide-angle', I'm assuming this means 130 degrees as well - so basically the same issues as I may experience with the other one.

Note that I care less about filling the lens with light than getting it out and onto whatever's behind me - tinted windows at night are awesome for backing into stuff.

Any comments or ideas? Experiments on the XJ with even 25-element LED bulbs haven't given the results I want, hence why I'm looking at these ones - which I have zero experience with.

 

['99Orvis]

I'm curious, why is side illumination important?

 

[casm]

I'm curious, why is side illumination important?

Reversing in tight spaces - I'd like to be able to tell where objects off on the diagonal are in relation to the rear bumper. There're a couple of campsites around here that require a three-point-turn between two trees with not a lot of room to spare in order to get back out, and these were specifically what I had in mind with that requirement.

FWIW, side illumination doesn't have to be to the same extent as rearward illumination - more just that I have a 'good enough' picture of where things are.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

Thought of running more than one bulb in the housing? a festoon on the side in addition to a larger LED with a more directed light throw sounds like it would solve your problem :dunno:

Or are you trying to stay with a plug and play application?

 

[cruiser54]

I know that your 2000 model probably has the plastic flat based bulb. I don't know if they make this in your base but they do for the old metal based bulb. It's a 795 in that configuration and it's base is like a 1073 factory bulb, but it's halogen. I've used these in many reverse lamp applications and the improvement is huge. It would be cool if they were made with your base. Absolute plug and play.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

The base is easy to work around, just shatter the glass and solder leads to the arms that hold the filament inside. presto plug and play whatever LED setup you want.

 

[casm]

Thought of running more than one bulb in the housing? a festoon on the side in addition to a larger LED with a more directed light throw sounds like it would solve your problem :dunno:

Funny you should mention that - I actually had the same thought and am pretty sure it would work just fine. But:

Or are you trying to stay with a plug and play application?

Bingo. I'm trying to keep electrical hackery on this one to a minimum if at all possible, particularly since I'm planning on adding in some stuff over the next few months that will require running additional wiring.

I know that your 2000 model probably has the plastic flat based bulb. I don't know if they make this in your base but they do for the old metal based bulb. It's a 795 in that configuration and it's base is like a 1073 factory bulb, but it's halogen. I've used these in many reverse lamp applications and the improvement is huge. It would be cool if they were made with your base. Absolute plug and play.

Yep, I've got the 3156/3157 plastic flat-base in there. I did look at just putting in one of the halogens for that size that came on the market a few years back, but the real issue with those was heat - having seen a couple of folks running them in other vehicles melt lenses, it seemed like waiting for LED bulbs to do what I want was a better idea.

Remember also that part of the idea here is to get as much current draw out of the system as possible; installing halogens would run contrary to that. A good chunk of the reason for paying as much attention as I am to the reversing (and, eventually, interior) lights is so that they can be used for extended periods as work lighting with the engine switched off.

Just to clarify some of the reasoning behind this conversion: I occasionally have to work at remote sites where the Jeep has to double up as a workbench while I sort out equipment. Burning gas to keep the battery charged while running the lights over the course of a couple of hours gets expensive fast, and running 110V power down from where the equipment is going to where I'm actually parked isn't always practical. Doing an LED conversion inside and out is about the best middle ground - and pulling a few amps out of the system during winter running (when the wipers, blower motor, high beams, seat heaters, and radio may all be on at the same time) is a nice added bonus.

 

[95REDXJ]

you won't like led back up lights, they dont throw light back very far

 

[casm]

you won't like led back up lights, they dont throw light back very far

Hasn't been an issue in the vehicles I've put them in so far. The trick is to get the right bulb for the type of lens and/or reflector in use.

 

[cruiser54]

I've only used the halogens as reverse lights and current draw and melted lenses aren't an issue. But, if you are intending to use them as worklights, that could be disasterous.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

An HID bulb in a small fog light housing would accomplish what you're after, the standing amp draw once the arc has ignited is marginal (I've left my HID headlights on for an entire day before and still had my DD start after work). You would need to run additional wiring to accomplish this but nothing more than a 12g power wire from the front to the back, a relay, and a ground in the back near the light itself. Although the warmup time with HID bulbs would make them less desirable as a back up light, they would throw plenty of light within a second or two to see where you are going even through limo tinted windows, and a lead from your stock wiring harness could be used to trigger the relay to power the new light once the reverse lights come on.

 

[casm]

I bit the bullet and bought autolumination.com's Eagle Eye Tower bulbs. Couple of interesting things were noticeable out of the box:

That inward bend that they appear to have is not an illusion; it's how they arrived, and, having never used this particular type of LED bulb before, may be intentional. None of the other 3157s I've got before have been like this, though. I doubt it'll be a problem.

There's a dab of what looks like silicone over the forward-facing LED, which wasn't something that was apparent in the photos on the website. Again, probably not a huge deal, but I'm thinking that it needs to be removed before they're installed since those metal surrounds they're set into function as heatsinks.

Anyway, I'll get them in in a few hours when it's dark and post some comparative shots. FWIW, I sent email to Chris at Autolumination asking for a clarification on those two points.

An HID bulb in a small fog light housing would accomplish what you're after, the standing amp draw once the arc has ignited is marginal (I've left my HID headlights on for an entire day before and still had my DD start after work). You would need to run additional wiring to accomplish this but nothing more than a 12g power wire from the front to the back, a relay, and a ground in the back near the light itself. Although the warmup time with HID bulbs would make them less desirable as a back up light, they would throw plenty of light within a second or two to see where you are going even through limo tinted windows, and a lead from your stock wiring harness could be used to trigger the relay to power the new light once the reverse lights come on.

Hm, interesting idea and I hadn't even considered that in planning all of this. Do you have any recommendations on where to do some reading-up on HIDs? I've been planning on doing projectors for the headlights at some point, but never thought of going this route.

 

[casm]

Anyway, I'll get them in in a few hours when it's dark and post some comparative shots.

Completely forgot about this thread. No comparative photos due to my camera finally croaking after eight years of service, but here are my impressions:

- Visibility in the lens is fine; they're very noticeable.

- Side fill-in is noticeably better than with filament bulbs.

- Rearward visibility is about the same as with filament bulbs; throw is approximately the same.

- The real plus is in the wavelength of light that they're putting out: the best way I can describe it is that the clarity of objects behind me is improved.

For the roughly $50 that this cost, I'd have to conclude that the real plus comes from being able to run the reversing lights for extended periods. However, for them to be as effective as I'd really like, they would either need to have higher-wattage main bulbs, a cluster of same-wattage ones, or a narrower beam angle on the main bulb.

Overall, they're not bad, just not the uberimprovement I was hoping for.