Alternative to Hella 500 HID

Currently I am rocking 2 Hella 500's with the HID mod under the grille of my truck. I love how they look and how bright they are. However due to the lights being tampered with, the seals are not perfect and now after about 4 years the insides have started to deteriorate. I figured its time for an upgrade and to fix some of my complaints on my set up.

1. Due to my make shift mount, you can see the lights wiggle up and down when you are using them. I think my solution to this will be the BAMF behind the grille light bar bracket. http://www.bayareametalfab.com/2nd-Gen-Tacoma-Behind-The-Grille-Light-Bar-bracket-05-to-18_p_9.html

2. I don't care for the mess of wires and ballasts that come with HID's. But not opposed to using HID's again if they end up being the best option.

3. Replace the deteriorated lights. Looking for something with the same look and about the same size.

Anyone have any ideas on a good replacement that are just as bright (if not brighter) then my current setup, fit behind the grille, and are not HID's?

I guess if I can't find anything I'll just repeat my setup, this time with hopefully a better seal.
THANKS!

 

I run a set of Hella 500s (driving beam pattern) on my daily driver (Scion xB) with 130 watt bulbs and can't find too much wrong with them in the stock configuration. They may not be quite as bright as an HID bulb, but I don't have any of the problems associated with the conversion either. I'm sure you can get better lighting if you go for something designed from the get go as an HID light though. As for the current (similar size / round) LED options, I'm not terribly impressed with anything yet.

BTW, I have a bunch of spare parts for that particular model light in the basement.

 

Hey thanks for the reply man. I know what you mean about the round LED lights, I haven't seen anything all that impressive in that department yet either. So did you put a 130 watt bulb in the hella 500 yourself or can you buy them with that bulb? I like the idea of a simple and long term setup even if that does mean a small reduction in light output.

 

I replaced the OEM 55 watt bulbs with the 130's myself. It's a 5 minute deal. I did upgrade the wiring (thicker gage wire & HD relay) to handle the extra load too.

 

Gotcha. Thanks man. I’ll look into going that route. Sounds like a good setup!

 

having 500, hid 500s, rally 2000s, hid 2000s they are just old tech now. LED is where everything is going.
first thing is whats your budget? That will help.
I am a super big fan of the Baja Designs XL ones, they are similar size of the hella 500 but 5x as bright.

 

My budget would be about a max of $150. I might go up to $200 if the longevity and brightness is there.

One of my concerns is the size of the light. Anything to thick will be difficult to fit behind the grille

 

I'm not going to disagree with you about everything going to LEDs as of late. Some of them are pretty good, but I have a big issue with beam definition on many LED lights. For some reason, almost nobody is worrying about where the light goes. Instead, everybody's worried about Lumens. Ok, so a Lumen is somewhat of a measure of brightness. But in my experience, "bright" isn't always the same as "useful light on the ground." With most LEDs, you simply have a choice of "spot" or "flood" beam patterns. And the relative quality of those patterns varies all over the map. A spot pattern that burns a hole in a tree at 100 yards is pretty much useless. On the other end of the spectrum, a flood pattern that (attempts to) cover a 180 degree spread is pretty much useless. At least with the higher quality incandescent lighting manufacturers, they've put a ton of effort into beam pattern so that one can select the product that puts light where you want / need it.

The other issue I have with many current LEDs is "actual life" as compared to "advertised life." If one looks at the claims by many LED manufacturers, their lights should last until hell freezes over. (Fortunately, because of the fabulous number of Lumens their lights put out, hell will be prevented from freezing over.) But since their expected life numbers apparently come from the same department that creates their Lumen figures, you can guess why I have an issue here. And I mean no disrespect to the small number of high quality LED lighting manufacturers out there.

So LEDs are getting there in my experience. But as with most things, you get exactly what you pay for. And the cheap E-bay stuff is the worst you can get.

 

I totally agree. You also cant just compare lumin output, as it seems every damn company says something different and are measured differently. I measured a china bar that claimed 2000 lumins and per my meter at 1ft it was under 1000. like you said you get what you pay for.

as for "where the light goes" I find it useful to look at the mfgs page to see what they consider "wide" "spot" and so on. as again, it seems each company thinks its different.

as you might have noticed I am a huge fan of Baja Deisgns lights (so much so I became a dealer for them) . Since changing over from ebay lights (and yes I still run some ebay ones lol) I have been blown away with them. The downside is price, but like you said, you do get what you pay for. I run a few squadron sports on my truck and a bunch of S2. And while I would love to run their light bar on top, its just not in the cards yet $$$

lets take the Squadron sport. I like that they list all the important info.
Specifications:
• Lumens: 1,800 Utilizing 4 Cree XP-G2 LEDs
• Candela: 72,675 (CD) • Weight: 12 ounces
• Wattage/Amps: 20W / 1.4A
• Dimensions: 3.07” x 2.77” x 3.07”
• LED Life Expectancy: 49,930 Hours
• Front Lens: Hard Coated Polycarbonate
• Housing: Powder Coat Bezel -Hard Anodize
• Hardware & Bracket Material: Stainless Steel
• Exceeds MIL-STD810G (Mil-Spec Testing)
• Built-In Overvoltage Protection

Standards of Compliance:
• MIL-STD-810G Certified - (Low Temperature Test, High Temperature, Temperature & Humidity, Thermal Shock Cycling, Dust, Random Vibration, Mechanical Shock, Low Pressure & Drip Box Water)
• IP69k Certified – (Submersible to 9ft)
• IK10 Compliant – (Mechanical Impact Testing)
• Salt Spray Certified

They also have Isolux graphs of their lights. So you know where they are pointing and what they should do. As you do need lights that point out a half mile, and some wide ones, it just depends on what you are trying to do.

 

I honestly have to say that this is the first time I've seen any LED lighting manufacturer share lighting pattern information - and that's a good thing! But like I said in an earlier post, many (generally lower priced) manufacturers don't even have a clue. Thanks for sharing!

 

I have some old hella 500s converted to 55W HIDs using a kit from Amazon. You will not find a cheaper way to get long distance throw with that amount of light output.

To find a LED light with equivalent throw and lumen output you will have to spend quite a bit of money.