New head lights

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Bingobelle

Member
As all know the stock head lights are very bad. Do not know if my eyes are getting older but in the dark in country side the light is so bad is feels uncomfortable to drive, especialy if it rains.

So was looking at the JW speaker led head lamp called evolution 8700 J2 that is supposed to be a plug and play lamp. It also have a ECE version so it will be legal in Europe.

But I started to think about cold weather and snow and how that will work out with LED lights. In summer I do not need light at all kind of because we have sun light from like 2.30 am to 23.30 Pm so nearly it is light all day long but in winter we have like 18 hours of darkness so it is realy in winter time I would like better lights. But if they are going to freeze up with snow and ice the whole point with them is gone.

Then I saw that evolution 8700 J3 will soon come and they have heated lens and my shop told me that they will proberly have them feb/mars already but they cost twice a much!!

That is equal to 19 000 swedish crown. that is about what a police or nurse is paid after tax for one month of work. So, they are super expensive and I´m not sure if I´m ready to pay that kind of money for a pair of head lights.

Anyway, some advice on other good head lights that is ECE certified and have heated lens. Any one here that have experince with LED lights and snow and ice and how that affect them if they do not have heated lens?

Because I´m also very interested in the evolution 8700 J2 because they cost half as much as the new upcoming J3 but do not have heated lens. But if they will be covered with snow and ice in winter time there is no point to buy those either.

Thanks
 
B

Bingobelle

Member
longarmwj said:
Have you looked into heated TruckLites?


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Yes, I have but for what I can see they are not ECE compliant and not sure what will happend if mr police men stop me with not street legal lights.

Thay also only have 3 years of warranty compared to life time what that now are worth in real world the day something breaks.

Proberly the J3 will be the best lamp in the world and I also like to put US made stuff on my jeep but the price for the J3 is just mind blowing!

edit: not sure where i did get the life time warranty from, it looks like 5 years or 2 years on the heated version.
 
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Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
I donl't know that any of the aftermarket LED's will be ECE compliant. It may be something you have to take the chance on. Also, any of the heated LED headlights are pretty costly.
Even the Quadrtec brand is $599 usd.

https://www.quadratec.com/p/quadratec/heated-led-projector-beam-headlamps-jeep-wrangler-jk

Quadratec also has the heated Trucklites on sale for less than their own brand - $569 usd. Can you order from Quadratec & pay a value added tax? At that price it may be worth it.

https://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_8003.htm
 
B

Bingobelle

Member
Ddays said:
I donl't know that any of the aftermarket LED's will be ECE compliant. It may be something you have to take the chance on. Also, any of the heated LED headlights are pretty costly.
Even the Quadrtec brand is $599 usd.

https://www.quadratec.com/p/quadratec/heated-led-projector-beam-headlamps-jeep-wrangler-jk

Quadratec also has the heated Trucklites on sale for less than their own brand - $569 usd. Can you order from Quadratec & pay a value added tax? At that price it may be worth it.

https://www.quadratec.com/products/97009_8003.htm
Click to expand...

thanks will look into that.

the jw speaker head lamp is actually sold in many different versions. both dot and ece compliant and the ece versions is also made for right handed trafic and also left handed traffic versions so they realy put some extra effort on their products.
 
B

Bingobelle

Member
After reading some other post here on way a life it seems that people generaly are very happy with the truck light ones and the price is very very good compared to the jw speaker.

Now I feel like that the heated truck light is the way to go but not feeling very good about not ECE compliant. Not sure what can happend, will the police give me a ticket if stopped or maybee the car will be prohibitted to drive untill lights changed out?

Any way, my export jk do come with the same contact wich means the old h4 bulb version but must look if there are day time running light or some other stuff, not sure.
 
trailraider

trailraider

Active Member
I live in the great white north and run the JWS without the heater element and I have never had them freeze up. running them for 4 years now 0 issues.
 
B

Bingobelle

Member
notnalc68 said:
You can go with H4 bulbs and Hella ECE housings. I’ve ran them before, and the light output is much better than the stock JK. The bulbs may need changing more often, though.

HELLA 002395991 7" H4 Type Single High/Low Beam Headlamp https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002M9QJM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_jGOlCbTNYEQ4G


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thanks

will take a closer look at this to. changing a bulb once a year i do not mind. and the prise is like 1/20 f a pair of jw speaker.

I took a closer look to my lamps and besides the h4 contact there is also some more contact on the housing. There is a small bulb and I think they are called parking lamps or some shit like that. And with out that I guess the police and the anualy car testing place will all get excited.

Sweden is a asshole country just for your info.

Seems those Hella is like a stock lamp but have a refined and better reflector?
 
B

Bingobelle

Member
trailraider said:
I live in the great white north and run the JWS without the heater element and I have never had them freeze up. running them for 4 years now 0 issues.
Click to expand...

so they do not freze up if you drive in heavy snow or like rain that is more or less like frozen water?

it is a little bit confussing because so many different opinions. some say they clog up just after like 15 minutes and some say there is not a problem at all.

with frezing I do not mean shutting down but more like the snow and ice will prevent the light from lighting up the road.
 
trailraider

trailraider

Active Member
Bingobelle said:
so they do not freze up if you drive in heavy snow or like rain that is more or less like frozen water?

it is a little bit confussing because so many different opinions. some say they clog up just after like 15 minutes and some say there is not a problem at all.

with frezing I do not mean shutting down but more like the snow and ice will prevent the light from lighting up the road.
Click to expand...


I live in the mountains and we get to -30 deg c . There may be some instances where it could happen. but I have put my Jeep through the winter paces with no problems.
 
Snboarder113

Snboarder113

Hooked
Bingobelle said:
so they do not freze up if you drive in heavy snow or like rain that is more or less like frozen water?

it is a little bit confussing because so many different opinions. some say they clog up just after like 15 minutes and some say there is not a problem at all.

with frezing I do not mean shutting down but more like the snow and ice will prevent the light from lighting up the road.
Click to expand...

Depending on the type of snow and the light. Led lights still put out some heat just not nearly the same as a 80 watt halogen bulb. In wet snow mine cover over with about 1/4” pretty quick, but still has light output through it. Just not what it should be. If you’re like me and enjoy driving when the news channel tells you to stay home, go for the heated option.


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longarmwj

longarmwj

New member
Did euro spec late model JKs have the LED light group option?? If so your best bet might be to go to a Jeep dealership and buy the OEM LEDs. They aren’t heated (at least to my knowledge) but I’ve never seen any OEM LED light freeze over in snow. Only aftermarket


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notnalc68

notnalc68

That dude from Mississippi
Bingobelle said:
thanks

will take a closer look at this to. changing a bulb once a year i do not mind. and the prise is like 1/20 f a pair of jw speaker.

I took a closer look to my lamps and besides the h4 contact there is also some more contact on the housing. There is a small bulb and I think they are called parking lamps or some shit like that. And with out that I guess the police and the anualy car testing place will all get excited.

Sweden is a asshole country just for your info.

Seems those Hella is like a stock lamp but have a refined and better reflector?
Click to expand...

The light output is much better. The housing that comes with the JK is terrible. What you get from the Hella, is a much better reflector.


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notnalc68

notnalc68

That dude from Mississippi
Bingobelle said:
so they do not freze up if you drive in heavy snow or like rain that is more or less like frozen water?

it is a little bit confussing because so many different opinions. some say they clog up just after like 15 minutes and some say there is not a problem at all.

with frezing I do not mean shutting down but more like the snow and ice will prevent the light from lighting up the road.
Click to expand...

My JW Speaker iced over in wet Mississippi snow. Not bad enough to make visibility a problem, though.


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B

Bingobelle

Member
longarmwj said:
Did euro spec late model JKs have the LED light group option?? If so your best bet might be to go to a Jeep dealership and buy the OEM LEDs. They aren’t heated (at least to my knowledge) but I’ve never seen any OEM LED light freeze over in snow. Only aftermarket


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I think the late jk could be bought with led in Sweden but not sure. Will check that.

But why not a problem with oem led? Do they run at higher temperatures than the other brands?
 
Jsouder53

Jsouder53

Hooked
I live in the mountains where we have light fluffy snow and my KC gravity headlights (non-heated) do perfectly fine. There were a few snowfalls where it was a little wet that they did clog up, but for the most part they have been great and didn’t cost as much as JW Speaker
 
Arrcherr

Arrcherr

Caught the Bug
longarmwj said:
Did euro spec late model JKs have the LED light group option?? If so your best bet might be to go to a Jeep dealership and buy the OEM LEDs. They aren’t heated (at least to my knowledge) but I’ve never seen any OEM LED light freeze over in snow. Only aftermarket


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I've driven through several wet snowfalls with my oem led headlights and have yet to see them freeze over.
 
sm31

sm31

Active Member
I was also worried about non-heated LED lights in my area (Anchorage, AK), and I am just not in a place to be able to invest $500+ in headlights. But so far there have been no issues.

I've driven through hours of 10 degree freezing fog, and wet snow with temps hovering right around the freezing mark. The lights will sometimes get a thin sheen of ice but they are still fairly effective... which is to say they are still 3x better than the stock headlights on a clear night. Worst case... I'll pull over someday and wipe them off but I haven't felt the need to yet.
 
catahoula

catahoula

Caught the Bug
I'm cheap and can't see spending a ton of money on those. I am running high intensity ones. Inexpensive and a big difference from the stock ones.
 
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