What is with Jeep Wrangler lights?

[SZR48207]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Like this?

That's what Jeeps around here look like. Jacked up, big tires, perfectly clean (because they stay on road only), and all sorts of lighting accessories.


Literally every Jeep I see on the road looks like that. I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out what sparked the interest and fad into them.

Mind you, I see people with this setup in cities where the nearest rock crawling is hours away.

I think what's even worse is some dealerships here sell Jeeps like this for $80k.

 

[sasilverbullet]

Remember in the "old" days your headlights were adjusted when you had your state inspection done? I'd sure like to see some sort of headlight check re-instituted. The glare from all the after-market [censored] drives me nuts.

 

[dlundblad]

Not endorsing the fad whatsoever, but we all see folks driving excessive vehicles.

We see folks all the time in 4x4 trucks that live in town, never haul a load etc.

Folks drive what they like.

 

[JTK]

It's not just the Wranglers, it's the whole current Jeep line-up IMO. Totally blinding. But then again, I find many of today's vehicles to come stock with blinding low-beams, depending on what you're driving in. New model trucks and SUVs seem to be the worst. Totally love when one of these guys then flashes their high-beams at me in my new Subaru Forester with standard OEM halogens with perfect aiming best I can tell.

 

[UNC017]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Factory sealed beam style.

I miss this terribly.



There are actually kits out there to retrofit old 7" round sealed-beam format headlamps to Wranglers (I would actually get a Cibie or Hella H4 replaceable bulb format if I were doing it.). That's how bad the factory plastic lamps are on the JK Wranglers.

For the person who wants to try the JW Speaker LEDs- you been talking to Dan Stern? He says those are extremely good, and as the entire internet knows by now, almost nothing passes for "good" with him... so those must really be outstanding. ;-)

 

[UNC017]

Originally Posted By: JTK
It's not just the Wranglers, it's the whole current Jeep line-up IMO. Totally blinding.


Not really. The WK2 (Grand Cherokee) had both reasonably good Halogen headlamps or excellent HID projectors from 2011-2013, and the same excellent HID projectors with LED halos from 2014 up. But the Patriot and Wrangler are awful. I haven't been behind the wheel of the modern (ugly) Cherokee yet, but they are kinda annoying to oncoming traffic since the light source is so small and concentrated. I have the same complaint about Acura and Cadillac LED headlight implementations. Making the light tiny means that it appears as an incredibly bright point source to oncoming traffic.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Like this?

That's what Jeeps around here look like. Jacked up, big tires, perfectly clean (because they stay on road only), and all sorts of lighting accessories.

Actually no! That is why I am asking whether this is OEM.
All that I saw had just main headlights and fog lights that are of course, always on. No additional equipment like large wheels, or some other off road equipment.

 

[Hokiefyd]

None of the lighting is OEM, no. The headlamps use H13 bulbs and the fog lamps probably use something like an H3, though I'm not positive.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Factory sealed beam style.

I miss this terribly.



There are actually kits out there to retrofit old 7" round sealed-beam format headlamps to Wranglers (I would actually get a Cibie or Hella H4 replaceable bulb format if I were doing it.). That's how bad the factory plastic lamps are on the JK Wranglers.

For the person who wants to try the JW Speaker LEDs- you been talking to Dan Stern? He says those are extremely good, and as the entire internet knows by now, almost nothing passes for "good" with him... so those must really be outstanding. ;-)


Didn't know about the kits. I didn't think the plastic headlights on our 08 were too bad on low beam. Couldn't see a thing on high ... but I think that is because the high beam indicator was so bright. Seriously, that would light up the whole interior. Even with tape over, it would mess with our eyes.

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Factory sealed beam style.

I miss this terribly.


Last time I had to replace a headlight in the cherokee it took 10 minutes including walking into the store. Would have been less but I couldn't find the screwdriver.

 

[UNC017]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
... but I think that is because the high beam indicator was so bright. Seriously, that would light up the whole interior. Even with tape over, it would mess with our eyes.


OK, I'm going to show my age here... but I hate, hate, HATED it when they changed high-beam indicators from red to blue in the mid 70s. Blue is a hideous color for an indicator lamp at night, the human eye has trouble focusing on blue (especially in low light), blue tends to degrade night vision worse than amber or red or even green, and it tends to glare. And yes, brighter blue is even worse. I never had a problem confusing red high-beam indicators for a warning lamp, which is why I assume they changed to blue. And red never wrecks your night vision like blue does. If red is bad as a high-beam indicator because of confusion with a warning lamp, they could have used green or amber, and (more importantly) with today's digitally controlled dash lighting it would be easy to DIM the high-beam indicator proportionally when you dim the dash lights, but I've never seen any vehicle that did so.

 

[GumbyJarvis]

http://www.levineautoparts.com/ledheadlight1.html

Ive seen these on wranglers here.
Im going to give people the benefit of the doubt and say they paid for them.
Maybe new. Maybe at an auction.

Ive also seen the rear light housing converted from the OEM to the HMMWV one

 

[edyvw]

Not sure. Those lights have some blue color. Cannot figure out based on that photo whether that is it.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: GumbyJarvis
http://www.levineautoparts.com/ledheadlight1.html

Ive seen these on wranglers here.
Im going to give people the benefit of the doubt and say they paid for them.
Maybe new. Maybe at an auction.

Ive also seen the rear light housing converted from the OEM to the HMMWV one


You're near Fort Hood. I'm near Fort Bragg. I'll simply say that it's interesting that the LED upgrades that the HMMWVs on post started getting a few years ago started trickling down to the Jeep POVs at around the same time...

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum

There are actually kits out there to retrofit old 7" round sealed-beam format headlamps to Wranglers (I would actually get a Cibie or Hella H4 replaceable bulb format if I were doing it.). That's how bad the factory plastic lamps are on the JK Wranglers.

That's actually a pretty sensible idea.

And yes, you're showing your age when you talk about the switch in colours for high beam indicators. You're right, of course, but I haven't driven something with a red indicator since I was down on the farm, and that stuff was old then! And yes, dimming the high beam indicator, too, is something that's sorely lacking.

 

[DoubleWasp]

The Speakers are pretty good, but the cheaper LED conversion is the lighting equivalent of a shotgun.