Headlights... again...

[Todzilla]

Apologies in advance, as there's already a plethora of headlight questions –**just none recently that I could see...

After a near death scenario the other week –**plus with the onset of shorter days – I'm finally getting around to upgrading my headlights. But what do I get? I'd like to keep the Jeep looking 'factory' so I'm not super keen on any of the halo type lamps, or the JW Speaker look for that matter.

I'm kinda keen on KCHilite Gravity's –**but I can't find them in Australia too easily... would the DOT approved US ones be legal here?

What about the Stedi Homage LED's?

Or should I just get new bulbs? What about flickering?


Many thanks in advance

[humdingerslammer]

well all I did on mine was to put in 130% plus white halogens and they r all that I have needed. Plus a pair of HID driving lights yrs ago that are as good as anything else for night driving at speed and over distance.

[Fishframe]

I think Stedi’s are approved but many overseas LED’s throw a light pattern favouring LHD vehicles which when I looked into are not approved in Australia.

I did some pretty comprehensive research on that before purchasing Stedi’s for my TJ.

[eksjay]

I have been grappling with the same problem on my 2016 JKU. The low and high beams are just inadequate. I love the factory look and don't want to get anything, not even light bars or additional driving lights. I have seen a JKU with an ARB Intensity light bar on top of the front factory bumper which in my view looked great. When I asked ARB about it, they said that there were no mounting points on the factory bumper (I would need a new front bumper or bull bar). Oh Well. Must have been a DIY job I figured.

I am thinking of upgrading the loom like I did in the XJ. The installed loom was a game changer. I couldn't believe the brightness with factory head lamps and standard bulbs (23 years after purchase).

Humdingerslammer, is a loom upgrade needed on the JK/U to put more powerful bulbs in the head lamps? This would sort out my problem.

I was once driving along Lachlan Valley Way to Cowra in darkness. There were fields on both sides of the road. I thought it was my imagination but it was as if I was driving with no lights on even with the slightly better low beams.

[humdingerslammer]

Humdingerslammer, is a loom upgrade needed on the JK/U to put more powerful bulbs in the head lamps? This would sort out my problem.

No. All I did was put in the different bulbs and the difference is night and day. Make sure that they r halogen so that they will not be too hot for the reflector. I have had mine in for almost the life of the vehicle and no problems.If u put in LED replacement bulbs you will need to have an anti flicker thingy in place on each light.


really, try the extra brightness halogen bulbs first and see what u think. I have found this to be all I needed including for 100km/hr night driving.

[Nanook]

I put Stedi's 7" older style headlights in my JK and loved them. They were brilliant to use and lit up a wide area.

I didn't realise how wide an area until my wife was driving it and I was following behind in my work truck. They were casting a beam across a two land road with a massive divider in the middle. I never had anyone flash me though so they weren't annoying on coming drivers.

The only issue I had was that I had to set the in-cab height adjustment knob to 2 otherwise on highbeam, they'd blind koalas.

[st_za]

I used Philips 130% bulbs in the stock housing, which was a decent upgrade and then swapped them for Britax reflectors, which were another step up again. I then upgraded to JW Speaker LED bulbs and after 4 years when the Britax polycarbonate lenses became dulled and badly scratched, swapped the stock headlights back in.

I know that LED bulbs are illegal but I have gotten away with it for 2 years so far and never get flashed by other drivers, probably because the lights look stock and the temperature is very neutral, because I don't have lots of lift and big tyres so I can lower the beam enough and because the bulbs with the stock reflector have a decent beam pattern with good spread and OK cut-off.