Brightest Current 9005 Bulb for Off-Road racing

Searching for the brightest bulb online is a trap, just whole bunch of fake review sites aimed at Amazon affiliate marketing and falsely stated lumen ratings.

Anybody here have recent experience with or know where I can find the brightest 9005 bulbs to fit to a 2020 Model Ford Ranger we are building. Does not have to be street legal.

Are there any super Halogens, or would you recommend any brands of LED. Interested in Achieving the best throw with the factory housings.

AJDeez said:

Searching for the brightest bulb online is a trap, just whole bunch of fake review sites aimed at Amazon affiliate marketing and falsely stated lumen ratings.

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That's certainly very true-- and not just misrepresentations of luminous flux, but other falsehoods such as how the light is "whiter" or "just like daylight" or any other number of lies.

Anybody here have recent experience with or know where I can find the brightest 9005 bulbs to fit to a 2020 Model Ford Ranger we are building.

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My data for the 2019 Ranger is that it uses either LED low and high beams, or halogen (H11) low beams and halogen (HB3 (9005)) high beams. If this is similarly the case for the 2020 Ranger, then replacing the HB3 with the HIR1 is the way to go. It's electrically and optically compatible with the HB3, and physically compatible after a minor modification to the base.

Does not have to be street legal.

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That doesn't mean that you should choose unsafe options, such as installing LED 'bulbs' in place of halogen bulbs.

Are there any super Halogens, or would you recommend any brands of LED.

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Yes, an HIR1. No, I would not recommend any LED.

Interested in Achieving the best throw with the factory housings.

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The only way to do that is to not change the fundamental operation of the lamp-- don't replace a halogen bulb with anything but a halogen bulb.

Thanks for the feedback. Was hoping for a little more true help for off-road, so the 'safe' terms for LEDs in place of Halogen do not hold much water for long distance desert off-road racing alone.

Yes indeed the Ranger uses LED projector low beams, and HB3 (9005) Halogen High beams.

I am curious to see if your observations are in fact true regarding that HIR1 and if it is the best.

I am going to get the Philips Ultinon Xtreme Vision LED +200%, the Ring +120% Xenon ultima, the Philips WHitevision and the GE +120 all in 9005 and then also these Philips 9011 that you suggested, and test them all in that same 9005 Reflector housings of the ranger.

As I was asking for the brightest and furthest throwing, I will be seeing which of those provide that, and report back.

AJDeez said:

Thanks for the feedback.

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This is often code for "I wanted something in line with my beliefs, not facts".

Was hoping for a little more true help for off-road, so the 'safe' terms for LEDs in place of Halogen do not hold much water for long distance desert off-road racing alone.

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Lights that don't put light where it needs to be on road are often lights that don't put light where it needs to be off road.
You need to see distant things with high beams, not have excessive foreground saturation hurting your distant vision. This is true on the the highway and on the salt flats and anywhere you want your high beams to let you see far downrange.

I am going to get the Philips Ultinon Xtreme Vision LED +200%, the Ring +120% Xenon ultima, the Philips WHitevision and the GE +120 all in 9005 and then also these Philips 9011 that you suggested, and test them all in that same 9005 Reflector housings of the ranger.

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The LED 'bulbs' are a non-starter. You won't have proper beam focus with them. The Philips WhiteVision is a blue-tinted bulb that costs you output, and does so by stripping useful light and leaving hard-to-see by blue wavelengths. The Ring and the GE Megalight Ultra +120 9005 (HB3) offerings would be fine among 9005s, but the 9011 (HIR1) will vastly outstrip their performance.

The nominal specs on the HB3 vs the HIR1 within their allowable tolerances: 9005: 1496lm to 1904lm; 9011: 1955lm to 2645lm. This means that the bare minimum in-spec 9011 will outperform a 9005 performing at its maximum allowable spec. The filament precision of the 9011 is better than the HB3, as well-- meaning much better beam focus.
(The +X% figures mean that within a portion of the main beam, there will be that percentage higher intensity-- this is a result of the increased beam focus and filament luminance. It does NOT mean that it's that percentage increase in the bulb's total luminous flux.)

As I was asking for the brightest and furthest throwing, I will be seeing which of those provide that, and report back.

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And you were told the brightest and furthest-throwing. You can waste a lot of money on the toy LED bulb, and buying 9005s that will not perform as well as a 9011, and on that photogoniometer generate an isocandela diagram, or you can just accept that the Vosla 9011 +30 outperforms any 9005.

Thanks for the facts. I will surely then narrow down my variety to just one 9005 +120%, the Ultinon LED and the 9011, then test all 3 and report back with pics. Just for interest sake for myself and anyone else interested.

Thanks for the advice.

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Also on that note. How does the 9012 compare to the 9011? Will it be brighter or just a different fitting?

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AJDeez said:

Also on that note. How does the 9012 compare to the 9011? Will it be brighter or just a different fitting?

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HIR2 (9012) 55W, 1875lm (±15%)@13.2V (1593lm-2156lm). Less output, and incompatible base.

Essentially, the 9006 is to the HIR2 as the 9005 is to the HIR1 -- we usually associate the 9006 and HIR2 with low beams, and the 9005 and HIR1 with high beams.

The 9005 uses the P20d base; the 9011 the PX20d base. The 9006 uses the P22d base; 9012 the PX22d base. The base designations mean they are "Prefocus", of a particular diameter (20 or 22mm), and the X between the P and the mm describes that it has a keying/indexing variant of the original non-X base. (There's also a PZ20d base series of bulbs, the Z being a different keying/indexing variant. But that's where their similarities to the other bulbs we've described ends.)

The higher number of each (including when we more correctly call the 9005 the HB3, and the 9006 the HB4) in this case designates the lower-wattage, lower-output bulb among this bulb 'family'.

Thanks

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AJDeez said:

Thanks for the feedback. Was hoping for a little more true help for off-road, so the 'safe' terms for LEDs in place of Halogen do not hold much water for long distance desert off-road racing alone.

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It's not quite clear (at least not to me) what you mean by this comment. Today's "LED bulbs" are not optically compatible with halogen optics -- that remains true whether you're on a street, a road, an avenue, or in the middle of a desert.

I am curious to see if your observations are in fact true regarding that HIR1 and if it is the best.

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Alaric is right about this; a good HIR1 is the best upgrade for HB3 high beams. The best HIR1 is not the philips item, it's the Toshiba, and in real terms it will handily outperform any of the HB3 (9005) bulbs.

I am going to get the Philips Ultinon Xtreme Vision LED +200%, the Ring +120% Xenon ultima, the Philips WHitevision and the GE +120 all in 9005 and then also these Philips 9011 that you suggested, and test them all in that same 9005 Reflector housings of the ranger.

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How do you plan to test them? Keep in mind that subjective impressions of lighting/vision performance are usually far out of alignment with objectively real lighting/vision performance. In English: how well we feel like we can see usually doesn't match up with how well we can actually see.

Thanks for the info on the Toshiba.

I will do a plain photo test for myself to compare and you guys too.

Will setup my DSLR camera at the exact same settings and take a pic of the headlights shone on a wall inside the same dark workshop with each set of bulbs in them, and then another pic on a dark open road from the same spot. So, I will be able to choose which I feel are best and most appealing to me, and anyone else can choose the most appealing to them.


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AJDeez said:

Will setup my DSLR camera at the exact same settings and take a pic of the headlights shone on a wall inside the same dark workshop with each set of bulbs in them, and then another pic on a dark open road from the same spot.

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And you'll get... a photo.

What you won't get is an accurate depiction of how well any of these lights are performing. While sometimes a photo can tell you that a particularly poor-performing lamp is a poor performer, it won't/CAN'T tell you if a lamp is really a good performer. The human optical system is many orders of magnitude more sensitive to differences in lighting and color than any camera could ever be (although then you'll just have a subjective impression). You'll need a photogoniometer to generate an isocandela diagram to know exactly how the lamp is performing.

So, I will be able to choose which I feel are best and most appealing to me, and anyone else can choose the most appealing to them.

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"Appealing" = subjective. Keep in mind that for many bulb/lamp combinations often the poorly-performing bulbs (such as defocused, overwattage (and oversized filament) bulbs, or bulbs with blue coatings, will have a higher subjective impression because excessive foreground light and the glaring blue light of those bulbs both work to trick the human optical system.

You already should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that an HIR1 (9011) bulb will outperform an HB3 (9005) bulb.

• The filament luminance in cd/m2​ is higher
• The filament precision is higher (which means better beam focus which means longer distance)
• The worst-performing HIR1 will put out 1955lm; the best-performing HB3 puts out 1904lm. (The worst-performing HB3 puts out a paltry 1496lm)

All of this means that the worst-case-minimally-meets-the-spec HIR1 will outperform the very best HB3.

If it's your own money you could go ahead and waste it (but then potentially reduce others' safety by them picking the wrong bulb out of the choices). If it's someone else's money you're REALLY wasting it posing as an expert to them and then offering them a chance to reduce their safety.

If you want this to be done right, put aside what you think you know about this topic and listen closely to -Virgil- and me. It could mean not only winning a race, but preventing a collision, property damage, or bodily injury.