To be fair, depending on the housing, alignment is nearly impossible. Many housings are simply not designed to have a sharp cut off. As far as I’m concerned, LEDs should only be allowed in projector housings with projector lenses. Those are the ones that have a damn near razor blade level of light cutoff, so when you aim them to just below the windshield level of most vehicles, it’s not going to blind them at all.
That is what I have done with my car, I have LEDs brighter than the sun, but I have them in projector housings with projector lenses, and I have them aimed to be below the windshield level of a typical sedan, not a stupid SUV or truck. So nobody ever flashes me or gets annoyed and I have tested by having a friend Drive towards me on a road in the car while I am in a different car
It has the added benefit of my high beams are still mostly road level rather than up in the trees like many peoples so for like a mile in front of me it is just daytime which is very helpful out where I live in the middle of absolute nowhere rural where streetlights are just a myth and the deer are plentiful.
To be fair, depending on the housing, alignment is nearly impossible. Many housings are simply not designed to have a sharp cut off.
Yes, halogen housings. Which is why halogen headlights CAN in fact blind you more than proper factory LEDs, but people here usually won’t listen to that.
I have yet to see HID or LED headlights installed from the factory that don’t have sharp cutoffs.
That is what I have done with my car, I have LEDs brighter than the sun, but I have them in projector housings with projector lenses
If you retrofitted those, that’s most likely still illegal in the EU. The LEDs that you’re allowed to retrofit to halogen projectors are pretty dim actually. And headlights above a certain lumen count have to be auto-adjusting for when you’ve got a load and the rear end is sagging for example. Which is why it’s difficult for me to share in LED hate. HIDs and LEDs literally legally require proper aiming and cutoffs, whereas halogens are “do whatever the fuck you want” outside of having to make sure the aim is right for the annual inspection (which sometimes they’ll just adjust for you anyway and nobody’s stopping you from aiming it wrong again after you leave).
I really appreciate your attention to properly aligning your lights… but doesn’t that only help with very level roadways? Where I drive with lots of gentle hills, a car with a razor thin cut-off looks like its constantly flashing its high-beams at me. I feel like a headlight with a gradual transition would be less blinding for other drivers.
Mild unlevelness is taken into account with my aiming, obviously I can’t do anything about us going opposing directions on a steep incline, but that’s true of any headlight type.
As I mentioned, that’s true regardless of light type. I am just as blinded by the people with standard lights on an incline as they are by my LEDs. That’s just part of driving on an incline at night. People that have driven at night more than once in their life just learn to hold up one of their hands on a steep incline.
It’s less I like the bright lights and more the whole there is no other source of light anywhere near me. I’m on a rural highway and I would like to be able to see the deer before I’m on top of them.
Incandescant headlights are not dim, the tyranny of the inverse square law is unavoidable. If you stare into them head on, say, as a product of a hill, you will be unsighted regardless.
And this is ignoring the fact that just because LEDs can be brighter doesn’t mean they have to be. Trying to attribute this issue to technology instead of insufficent regulation is harmful.
To be fair, depending on the housing, alignment is nearly impossible. Many housings are simply not designed to have a sharp cut off. As far as I’m concerned, LEDs should only be allowed in projector housings with projector lenses. Those are the ones that have a damn near razor blade level of light cutoff, so when you aim them to just below the windshield level of most vehicles, it’s not going to blind them at all.
That is what I have done with my car, I have LEDs brighter than the sun, but I have them in projector housings with projector lenses, and I have them aimed to be below the windshield level of a typical sedan, not a stupid SUV or truck. So nobody ever flashes me or gets annoyed and I have tested by having a friend Drive towards me on a road in the car while I am in a different car
It has the added benefit of my high beams are still mostly road level rather than up in the trees like many peoples so for like a mile in front of me it is just daytime which is very helpful out where I live in the middle of absolute nowhere rural where streetlights are just a myth and the deer are plentiful.
Yes, halogen housings. Which is why halogen headlights CAN in fact blind you more than proper factory LEDs, but people here usually won’t listen to that.
I have yet to see HID or LED headlights installed from the factory that don’t have sharp cutoffs.
If you retrofitted those, that’s most likely still illegal in the EU. The LEDs that you’re allowed to retrofit to halogen projectors are pretty dim actually. And headlights above a certain lumen count have to be auto-adjusting for when you’ve got a load and the rear end is sagging for example. Which is why it’s difficult for me to share in LED hate. HIDs and LEDs literally legally require proper aiming and cutoffs, whereas halogens are “do whatever the fuck you want” outside of having to make sure the aim is right for the annual inspection (which sometimes they’ll just adjust for you anyway and nobody’s stopping you from aiming it wrong again after you leave).
Not in the EU but no the car came with projectors already i just changed the bulbs
I really appreciate your attention to properly aligning your lights… but doesn’t that only help with very level roadways? Where I drive with lots of gentle hills, a car with a razor thin cut-off looks like its constantly flashing its high-beams at me. I feel like a headlight with a gradual transition would be less blinding for other drivers.
Yep every little hill and it is blinding.
Mild unlevelness is taken into account with my aiming, obviously I can’t do anything about us going opposing directions on a steep incline, but that’s true of any headlight type.
…which is exactly why you shouldn’t be allowed to have the intense, blinding lights on your vehicle.
“It’s unavoidable but fuck y’all, i like the bright lights” is a wild stance to take.
As I mentioned, that’s true regardless of light type. I am just as blinded by the people with standard lights on an incline as they are by my LEDs. That’s just part of driving on an incline at night. People that have driven at night more than once in their life just learn to hold up one of their hands on a steep incline.
It’s less I like the bright lights and more the whole there is no other source of light anywhere near me. I’m on a rural highway and I would like to be able to see the deer before I’m on top of them.
Incandescant headlights are not dim, the tyranny of the inverse square law is unavoidable. If you stare into them head on, say, as a product of a hill, you will be unsighted regardless.
And this is ignoring the fact that just because LEDs can be brighter doesn’t mean they have to be. Trying to attribute this issue to technology instead of insufficent regulation is harmful.
They should be behind diffusers to break up the laser like focus of them.
Oh man I had never thought about a laser array for headlights. New goal unlocked.