7 inch LED conversions

In the 7 inch round headlamp field there seems to be a growing number of LED models that keep getting mentioned in various discussions. My search results were of little value. Will one or more you who are knowledgeable about these headlights be willing to pull it all together into one thread?

Please tell which ones you consider to be good ones. Also, which ones are the same units but simply re-named by another company for re-sale. So many look nearly the same: ie: Peterson, Sylvania Zevo, Quadratec, GE etc. Are these re-badged or are they unique models?

In a nut shell, what is good, what is bad? Which are the same lights with re-badged names?
Thanks a million.

The best-performing 7" LED headlamp is the excellent JW Speaker 8700 Evolution 2, which is available in black or chrome. It is designed and manufactured in the United States, and meets both the US and the UN ("ECE", "European") photometric standards -- though any individual example will have only US or UN markings on it. This lamp is available with built-in front position ("parking") and daytime running light functions, but those variants are harder to find from North American vendors; you may have to contact Speaker directly.

The Truck-Lite units, also designed and manufactured in the USA, are objectively very good, but their beam pattern (in the US version) is very "choppy", that is, it has a lot of artifacts: streaks and spots of light in the beam. These can be distracting on the road under some circumstances. The GE and Philips LED units are rebranded Truck-Lites, functionally identical to the Truck-Lite branded product. So far, the rebrands seem to be listed at higher prices than the Truck-Lite branded lamps. There are UN ("European") versions of the Truck-Lite lamp available for left- or for right-hand traffic. These have a much smoother beam pattern than the US lamp, but low beam peak intensity is not as high as with the US lamp.

The Peterson headlamp, also American-designed and made, is a good one. Its beam is smoother than that of the Truck-Lite. Low beam peak intensity is not as high as the Truck-Lite, but the Peterson high-intensity zone is wider. Neither way is overall better; they are two companies' choices in how to optimize low beam performance for the driver. This lamp is also sold as the Sylvania Zevo and the KC HiLites lamp.

The Quadratec (which they falsely claim to be an "exclusive" of theirs) and the Grote are an offshore import; a rebranded Maxxima that is several significant steps below the three above. From there we continue going downhill with "Nolden" (a German rebrand of a Taiwanese lamp made by a dubious company called Microlight), Dialight (a truly pathetic item in terms of beam performance and formation), Hamsar (ditto), Optronics (ditto) and assorted own-design or knockoff lamps from a myriad of companies in China.

Thank you, this will make shopping much easier.

I saw that the price difference on certain ones was large and they looked the same.
Thank you for bringing this information together.

The new JW Speaker Model 8700 Evolution-2 is the benchmark. The darker and twistier the road, the more I love them.

The more times I check this forum, the more times I think I want a Jeep.

As a shopper on the quest for better lights, it seems LED is headed to the fore front in headlights. Ford's F-150 had HID for 2 years before going to LED in upper level models. Is there another technology that will by pass LED or will LED continue to grow in usage and in quality?

fastgun said:

As a shopper on the quest for better lights, it seems LED is headed to the fore front in headlights. Ford's F-150 had HID for 2 years before going to LED in upper level models. Is there another technology that will by pass LED or will LED continue to grow in usage and in quality?

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Unless OLEDs (still technically a LEDs) suddenly get improved, I don't think anything will replace LEDs any time soon. I'll be glad to see HID go away. They had their fun, but it's time to let LEDs take the forefront. ('Course, tungsten-halogen will be remain for a looooong long time.)

fastgun said:

The more times I check this forum, the more times I think I want a Jeep.

As a shopper on the quest for better lights, it seems LED is headed to the fore front in headlights. Ford's F-150 had HID for 2 years before going to LED in upper level models. Is there another technology that will by pass LED or will LED continue to grow in usage and in quality?

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Sharks with frickin lasers on their heads....

Hilldweller said:

Sharks with frickin lasers on their heads....

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But those cost One. Million. Dollars.

Alaric Darconville said:

Unless OLEDs (still technically a LEDs) suddenly get improved, I don't think anything will replace LEDs any time soon. I'll be glad to see HID go away. They had their fun, but it's time to let LEDs take the forefront. ('Course, tungsten-halogen will be remain for a looooong long time.)

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I will be happy to see the aftermarket junk go away, both HID and LED. I can live with factory versions of any of the 3. (Except the shitty OEM halogens ((looking at you dual filaments))...insert exceptions to every rule here.) <<<< no exceptions to the mickey mouse conversions, NHTSA needs to get on the ball and make these a "used to be"....

/end rant

-Virgil- said:

The Quadratec (which they falsely claim to be an "exclusive" of theirs) and the Grote are an offshore import; a rebranded Maxxima that is several significant steps below the three above.

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How significant are these steps and what are they, specifically?

im looking for an upgrade for my 08 jeep jk.

i think I've settled on the petersons as the best for my money. I'd love the speakers, but they are priced a bit too high. Are the maxxima worth considering for the same price range as the petersons?

thanks!

Maxxima needs to take the elevator to even get to the ground floor before they can hope to climb the steps.

Poor performance and poor quality.

The Maxxima lights are not worth considering.

In the thread titled Philips X-treme Vision +100 vs X-treme Vision +130 a poster says the current Trucklite LED is better than the one purchased last year.
If the artifacts in the light pattern have been removed, I think this would be a very strong candidate for a 7 inch headlight up-grade.

fastgun said:

a poster says the current Trucklite LED is better than the one purchased last year.

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Yeah, but I don't think he's seeing what he's been told to see (by a jobber who's not in a position to know what he's talking about). My buddy in Truck-Lite Engineering says there's been no change. It's objectively a good headlamp, for sure, but the current-production ones I got a few months ago were the same as the ones I looked at a little over a year ago.

Alaric Darconville said:

Maxxima needs to take the elevator to even get to the ground floor before they can hope to climb the steps.

Poor performance and poor quality.

The Maxxima lights are not worth considering.

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Can you or Virgil dig up some empirical testing on them? They're selling like hotcakes in the Jeep world and they'd really like to know, objectively, what's inferior about them. The pricepoint is decent...
See what I'm saying?

Hilldweller said:

They're selling like hotcakes in the Jeep world and they'd really like to know, objectively, what's inferior about them.

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A lot of things sell like hotcakes in the [insert vehicle brand] world.

The pricepoint is decent...

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It would be if the product were decent.

I'll see what I can scrape up as far as shareable data.

Hilldweller said:

Can you or Virgil dig up some empirical testing on them?

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I don't have anything that I can share.

They're selling like hotcakes in the Jeep world

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That's probably true, but since when does that mean anything? People spend good money (and bad) on all kinds of garbage. They're all loud and proud about how smart a purchase they've made, and the internet lets communities of people to talk themselves into being very sure about it. That's just human nature; nobody likes feeling like they chose badly.

Add that to the fact that (let's all sing it again!) visual impressions of headlamp performance are meaningless, and...well...

The pricepoint is decent...See what I'm saying?

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No, not really. Looks to me like the Peterson and Truck-Lite lamps can be bought for consistently lower prices than the Grote lamps.

-Virgil- said:

Looks to me like the Peterson and Truck-Lite lamps can be bought for consistently lower prices than the Grote lamps.

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And since the Grote lamps are just rebranded Maxximas, maybe actual Maxxima lamps are perhaps *slightly* cheaper than the Peterson and Truck-Lite lamps.

But, Hilldweller, there's such a thing as an entry-level product that's perhaps *ok*, and perhaps won't get you killed or something (like getting the $180 Oster mixer instead of the $1400 Hobart, or the $30.00 Wilson tennis racket instead of the $300.00 Babolat), but with automotive lighting, saving a few bucks can be the falsest of economies. Surely you can think of suspension parts and such for Jeeps that attempt to be "entry level" but just aren't near the quality of the parts you want, let alone have the performance.

Good points, but let's not get ccarried away. I don't have public data detailed enough to be able to start getting into specifics, but it's easily possible the Maxxima/Grote lights are objectively better than some of the sealed beams and poor-quality replaceable-bulb lamps on the market. And the Maxxima/Grote lights are certainly better than the truly pathetic 7" round LED offerings from Optronics, Dialight, and Hamsar-Diversco (and none of those are anywhere near "cheap")!

Yeah. I need to stick the light meter in front of them at least and see what they throw at the markers.
At least I'll have a consistent and objective set of numbers.
They certainly look a whole bunch like the Petersons, don't they?

-Virgil- said:

Good points, but let's not get ccarried away. I don't have public data detailed enough to be able to start getting into specifics, but it's easily possible the Maxxima/Grote lights are objectively better than some of the sealed beams and poor-quality replaceable-bulb lamps on the market.

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I suppose that SOMEONE at Grote said "We better make sure these are compliant before we sign this contract". Surely (but don't call me Shirley) they ran them through all the tests so they wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath of a noncompliant item bearing their name being out there.