LED Headlight Conversion

[theastronaut]

The only good options for LED are JW Speaker and Trucklite. The cheaper ebay/amazon/lmc lights have a horrible beam pattern; you won't be able to see well and they'll blind oncoming traffic.

https://www.amazon.com/J-W-Speakers-...+speaker+evo+2

https://www.amazon.com/Truck-Lite-27...=trucklite+led


If you don't want to spend that much on lights, Cibie H4's with a relay harness are the best H4 headlight available. The relay harness with take the load off the factory wiring and switch, and the headlights dont' see any voltage drop so they're brighter.

https://www.amazon.com/Cibie-082440-...words=cibie+h4

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

The only good options for LED are JW Speaker and Trucklite. The cheaper ebay/amazon/lmc lights have a horrible beam pattern; you won't be able to see well and they'll blind oncoming traffic.

This is just not close to the truth, sorry.

Dapper 575's have a tightly controlled beam pattern and are completely "aim-able"

My vision is now out to over 1,000 feet.


here is the install posts I did.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...hlight=LED%27s

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Robert Haas

This is just not close to the truth, sorry.

Dapper 575's have a tightly controlled beam pattern and are completely "aim-able"

My vision is now out to over 1,000 feet.


here is the install posts I did.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...hlight=LED%27s

I had a set of Dapper 7" V2 HID's in my Miata, ended up going back to Cibie H4's because they perform soooo much better. Dapper uses small H1 halogen projectors with re-based HID bulbs, so the optics aren't designed for the HID bulb. The beam pattern was only 90* wide, not at all adequate. They also include instructions on how to bend the three prongs on the base if the bulbs to center the hot spot with the middle of the cut off... the end user should not have to adjust the bulb's placement inside the reflector! Very poor quality control. The cut-off was clean and sharp, but there's way more to a "tightly controlled beam pattern" than having a good cutoff. The fact that they offer a halogen, HID, and LED bulb with the same projector shows that they don't really care about the beam pattern...

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I had a set of Dapper 7" V2 HID's in my Miata, ended up going back to Cibie H4's because they perform soooo much better. Dapper uses small H1 halogen projectors with re-based HID bulbs, so the optics aren't designed for the HID bulb. The beam pattern was only 90* wide, not at all adequate. They also include instructions on how to bend the three prongs on the base if the bulbs to center the hot spot with the middle of the cut off... the end user should not have to adjust the bulb's placement inside the reflector! Very poor quality control. The cut-off was clean and sharp, but there's way more to a "tightly controlled beam pattern" than having a good cutoff. The fact that they offer a halogen, HID, and LED bulb with the same projector shows that they don't really care about the beam pattern...

Here we go again.

Geesh.

The guy asked about LED's not HID's

You keep posting about your one bad experience with a HID project you had on your little Import.

You have no experience at all with modern focuse beam LED head lights so kindly shut the heck up.

You trashed my original thread about a positive experience I had with a company that has some of the absolute finest customer support and deserve to be considered by any of us.

If anyone wants advice on sealed beam upgrades, you are the guy.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Robert Haas

Here we go again.

Geesh.

The guy asked about LED's not HID's

You keep posting about your one bad experience with a HID project you had on your little Import.

You have no experience at all with modern focuse beam LED head lights so kindly shut the heck up.

You trashed my original thread about a positive experience I had with a company that has some of the absolute finest customer support and deserve to be considered by any of us.

If anyone wants advice on sealed beam upgrades, you are the guy.

Dapper uses the same halogen projector for their halogen, HID, or LED bulbs. They don't use an appropriate projector designed for each bulb type. That wrecks the beam pattern with HID or LED bulbs. Another problem is that they use small, under-performing halogen projectors due to the size constraints of the headlight buckets on older cars. Add bulbs that aren't ideal for the optics of a halogen projector and their light output is less than ideal. Those aren't opinions, they are facts. I never said I had a bad experience with them, they were great to work with and I have no bad feelings towards them. They've even emailed me asking if I knew of a solution to overcome the problem of fitting a better performing light that still fits inside the headlight bucket of most older cars/trucks; they know that's an issue with their V2's.

So when you recommend dapper's LED headlights you're really recommending a set of halogen projectors with LED bulbs.

[dapperlighting]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Dapper uses the same halogen projector for their halogen, HID, or LED bulbs. They don't use an appropriate projector designed for each bulb type. That wrecks the beam pattern with HID or LED bulbs. Another problem is that they use small, under-performing halogen projectors due to the size constraints of the headlight buckets on older cars. Add bulbs that aren't ideal for the optics of a halogen projector and their light output is less than ideal. Those aren't opinions, they are facts. I never said I had a bad experience with them, they were great to work with and I have no bad feelings towards them. They've even emailed me asking if I knew of a solution to overcome the problem of fitting a better performing light that still fits inside the headlight bucket of most older cars/trucks; they know that's an issue with their V2's.

So when you recommend dapper's LED headlights you're really recommending a set of halogen projectors with LED bulbs.

Hi John,

I know you've been quite vocal about how upset you were with our products on various forums online. I again apologize that you had a bad experience. We quickly refunded your money and did everything we could to make you happy.

The kit that Robert is referring to does not use an H1 projector so I'm not sure where you are getting your information from. The 575s and Sevens have three different types of projectors that we use (Halogen, HID, LED).

Again I'm sorry you had a bad experience. We really do try our best to produce a product that satisfies everyones individual/specific needs. We also greatly welcome feedback as a small company. If you do have constructive criticism and suggestions to make our products better, please do reach out and we'd love to hear your input.

It will always be a balance between performance/fitment/looks. We really do try and give customers a good balance of the three. Our new Sevens and 575s have eliminated the need to cut buckets, making install much easier.

Do we claim these are the brightest lights out there? Nope.
Do we claim these are the best looking lights? Nope.
But you will get the best customer service, a reliable product, and good performing and looking set of lights that suits you and your cars needs.

I think this is something that Robert and many of our customers can attest to.

As mentioned before, our door is always open.

Thanks!
Dapper Lighting

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by dapperlighting

Hi John,

I know you've been quite vocal about how upset you were with our products on various forums online. I again apologize that you had a bad experience. We quickly refunded your money and did everything we could to make you happy.

The kit that Robert is referring to does not use an H1 projector so I'm not sure where you are getting your information from. The 575s and Sevens have three different types of projectors that we use (Halogen, HID, LED).

Again I'm sorry you had a bad experience. We really do try our best to produce a product that satisfies everyones individual/specific needs. We also greatly welcome feedback as a small company. If you do have constructive criticism and suggestions to make our products better, please do reach out and we'd love to hear your input.

It will always be a balance between performance/fitment/looks. We really do try and give customers a good balance of the three. Our new Sevens and 575s have eliminated the need to cut buckets, making install much easier.

Do we claim these are the brightest lights out there? Nope.
Do we claim these are the best looking lights? Nope.
But you will get the best customer service, a reliable product, and good performing and looking set of lights that suits you and your cars needs.

I think this is something that Robert and many of our customers can attest to.

As mentioned before, our door is always open.

Thanks!
Dapper Lighting

Yes, I was rather dissapointed in the performance of the V2's I tried. The beam pattern was very narrow and the distance visibility on high beam wasn't as good as the 30-40 year old Cibie H4's they replaced. I expected them to be an upgrade over a 40+ year old halogen design, but I recieved lights with a halogen projector with HID bulbs adapted to fit. Had I known they weren't proper HID projectors I wouldn't have ordered them to begin with. I have shared my experience with them when they come up on forums, and usually recommend Cibie's instead since they offer better performance and fit most people's budget. The goal is being able to see the best, so I recommend what I know works best. If the V2's had performed well I'd be their biggest fan and would be recommending them instead of Cibie or JW Speaker/Trucklite. Customer service was good, y'all even took care of return shipping of the defective headlights; not something all companies would do. I have criticized the performance of the V2's; I really do feel like they should have performed better than they did. I never intended to come across that I was against Dapper as a company or that I had any issues with your customer service, and I appologize if it ever came across that way. I'm probably overly passionate about headlight performance since I do a ton of driving at night and have spent a lot of time, effort, and money to improve the lighting of my cars. I've had over 30 round/rectangle headlights , plus various fog and driving lights in my cars over the past 8-10 years to see what works and what I like best for my own cars and cars we build for other people.

I was wrong about the 575's, I posted what I did based on the V2's I had that used HID bulbs in a H1 projector, and your website showing the same LED, HID, and halogen bulb options on the 575's page that are shown on the V2's page. The website doesn't state that they use separate styles of projectors on the 575's for each bulb type; it just shows the same bulb options for the 575's and V2's. I (wrongly) assumed that they used the same projector for different bulb types like the V2's I had. That's great that each bulb type has a proper projector for it now, and I'm glad to see that you're adding to and improving your product line.

[aerochris]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

The only good options for LED are JW Speaker and Trucklite. The cheaper ebay/amazon/lmc lights have a horrible beam pattern; you won't be able to see well and they'll blind oncoming traffic.

https://www.amazon.com/J-W-Speakers-...+speaker+evo+2

https://www.amazon.com/Truck-Lite-27...=trucklite+led


If you don't want to spend that much on lights, Cibie H4's with a relay harness are the best H4 headlight available. The relay harness with take the load off the factory wiring and switch, and the headlights dont' see any voltage drop so they're brighter.

https://www.amazon.com/Cibie-082440-...words=cibie+h4

Do you have a link to the wiring harness for the Cibie H4's?