Andyinchville
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2019
- Messages
- 5
General lighting questions and hope I didn't make a mistake buying LED drop in "bulb"
Hi All,
Lots of interesting reading and information here. Hopefully, I can get a few general lighting questions answered that I have been trying to wrap my head around.
I do a lot of night driving for a delivery company and unfortunately I see (and probably don't see) plenty of deer on country roads and even on the interstates ... sigh).
Being that it's nearly impossible to "avoid" what you can't see , I figured getting my lights / lighting system "better" would be a good way to help prevent deer strikes.
I have tried the standard deer whistles and the roof mounted strobe light doesn't seem to deter many (if any?) deer.
Anyways, I typically drive an older1996) Toyota Corolla at night.
In the search for better lighting this is what I have done so far ....
1) had the lenses of the headlights polished to look like new (reflectors seem good too).
2) Had the lights aimed.
I did the following and wonder if you had any direct experience with the following...
1) I know the general feeling is that drop in LED bulbs is typically frowned upon BUT (before seeing this forum) I had ordered some Supernova V.4 LED high beam bulbs for the car .... the videos put out by the seller (headlight Revolution) seemed to make a pretty convincing promo that they put out lots of light in the right pattern .... Any body here familiar with that particular bulb and is it good ?
Firsthand I KNOW all LEDs are not the same since I have previously experimented with LED brake lights (the theory I had was night time vision is hindered if a person BEHIND you follows too closely and ruins night vision) so I decided to try different tail / Brake tail lights to keep people "off my bumper" .... some LEDS were actually dimmer than stock bulbs but I found a really great set that really kept people at bay and that is what I run in the rears on my other car (I have some in the mail coming for this car so hopefully that will help).
2) I think the prevailing thought on the site is that a sharp cutoff is a good thing .... why is that in terms of trying to see down the road?
I had driven a car with more "modern" lighting and a sharp cutoff and , while the lighting in the field of view, was bright and great up to the cutoff, everything just above that cut off was pretty much not illuminated for practical purposes .... would it not be "better" to have a cut off that was NOT sharp so things could be better illuminated in a larger area (in may case Virginia is hilly and banks are often on the sides of roads so seeing deer higher up the sides would be or could be helpful.
3) I did buy dot approved or at least dot spec LED cube lights from Rigid Industries but have not had the time to install them yet ....
Being that they are "DOT" spec would they be any "good" ..... seems like if you really want to see, off road lights are the ticket but I really don't want to get a ticket since I drive on public roads.... but then again driving in the wee hours of the AM means sometimes I don't see cars for 15 to 30 minutes at a time depending on where I am headed to (the record I think I had for not seeing a driving car was about 43 minutes)...
4) This may just be a courtesy question but when I drive down a 2 lane road, if a car is on coming I will dim my high beams (obviously since they are so close and I don't want them blinded and hit me or run off the road ... I now also dim lights on roads where I have 2 lanes going in my direction separated by a median of grass and 2 lanes going in the opposite direction if there is on coming traffic BUT , more recently I am thinking on such larger roads I would keep my highs on with oncoming traffic ....
The reason being despite some additional glare if the oncoming traffic keeps their highs on I can see MORE overall still rather than dimming down and I assume the same would hold true for the other driver as well (i.e. they should keep their high bean on too so despite glaring me a little bit more they can overall see more too) .... of course this assumes stock / legal lighting and not good off road lights ....
anyways, what do you think about keeping high beams on in the latter case?
Admittedly, I tried that the other day on the larger roads and only was flashed once or twice but maybe they were overly sensitive since their highs really didn't bother me ??
Other things I have done so far ...
Oh, I also tinted the rear windows so glare from other cars behind / near me is cut down and I made a removable / hinged tinted windshield screen that covers about the bottom 40 or so percent of the windshield so my headlights near the car are toned down to promote better long distance night vision .... last thing, I cut some plexiglass and window tinted it so I could dim my GPS and gauges ....oc course my windows and glasses are clean not foggy / smudged ....
I just want to be able to see / avoid deer and better my night vision .... Any other suggestions ? (I do have to drive nights so not driving at night is off the table... ha) .
Thanks in advance for any and all help .....
Hi All,
Lots of interesting reading and information here. Hopefully, I can get a few general lighting questions answered that I have been trying to wrap my head around.
I do a lot of night driving for a delivery company and unfortunately I see (and probably don't see) plenty of deer on country roads and even on the interstates ... sigh).
Being that it's nearly impossible to "avoid" what you can't see , I figured getting my lights / lighting system "better" would be a good way to help prevent deer strikes.
I have tried the standard deer whistles and the roof mounted strobe light doesn't seem to deter many (if any?) deer.
Anyways, I typically drive an older1996) Toyota Corolla at night.
In the search for better lighting this is what I have done so far ....
1) had the lenses of the headlights polished to look like new (reflectors seem good too).
2) Had the lights aimed.
I did the following and wonder if you had any direct experience with the following...
1) I know the general feeling is that drop in LED bulbs is typically frowned upon BUT (before seeing this forum) I had ordered some Supernova V.4 LED high beam bulbs for the car .... the videos put out by the seller (headlight Revolution) seemed to make a pretty convincing promo that they put out lots of light in the right pattern .... Any body here familiar with that particular bulb and is it good ?
Firsthand I KNOW all LEDs are not the same since I have previously experimented with LED brake lights (the theory I had was night time vision is hindered if a person BEHIND you follows too closely and ruins night vision) so I decided to try different tail / Brake tail lights to keep people "off my bumper" .... some LEDS were actually dimmer than stock bulbs but I found a really great set that really kept people at bay and that is what I run in the rears on my other car (I have some in the mail coming for this car so hopefully that will help).
2) I think the prevailing thought on the site is that a sharp cutoff is a good thing .... why is that in terms of trying to see down the road?
I had driven a car with more "modern" lighting and a sharp cutoff and , while the lighting in the field of view, was bright and great up to the cutoff, everything just above that cut off was pretty much not illuminated for practical purposes .... would it not be "better" to have a cut off that was NOT sharp so things could be better illuminated in a larger area (in may case Virginia is hilly and banks are often on the sides of roads so seeing deer higher up the sides would be or could be helpful.
3) I did buy dot approved or at least dot spec LED cube lights from Rigid Industries but have not had the time to install them yet ....
Being that they are "DOT" spec would they be any "good" ..... seems like if you really want to see, off road lights are the ticket but I really don't want to get a ticket since I drive on public roads.... but then again driving in the wee hours of the AM means sometimes I don't see cars for 15 to 30 minutes at a time depending on where I am headed to (the record I think I had for not seeing a driving car was about 43 minutes)...
4) This may just be a courtesy question but when I drive down a 2 lane road, if a car is on coming I will dim my high beams (obviously since they are so close and I don't want them blinded and hit me or run off the road ... I now also dim lights on roads where I have 2 lanes going in my direction separated by a median of grass and 2 lanes going in the opposite direction if there is on coming traffic BUT , more recently I am thinking on such larger roads I would keep my highs on with oncoming traffic ....
The reason being despite some additional glare if the oncoming traffic keeps their highs on I can see MORE overall still rather than dimming down and I assume the same would hold true for the other driver as well (i.e. they should keep their high bean on too so despite glaring me a little bit more they can overall see more too) .... of course this assumes stock / legal lighting and not good off road lights ....
anyways, what do you think about keeping high beams on in the latter case?
Admittedly, I tried that the other day on the larger roads and only was flashed once or twice but maybe they were overly sensitive since their highs really didn't bother me ??
Other things I have done so far ...
Oh, I also tinted the rear windows so glare from other cars behind / near me is cut down and I made a removable / hinged tinted windshield screen that covers about the bottom 40 or so percent of the windshield so my headlights near the car are toned down to promote better long distance night vision .... last thing, I cut some plexiglass and window tinted it so I could dim my GPS and gauges ....oc course my windows and glasses are clean not foggy / smudged ....
I just want to be able to see / avoid deer and better my night vision .... Any other suggestions ? (I do have to drive nights so not driving at night is off the table... ha) .
Thanks in advance for any and all help .....