I noticed there are a bunch of 7" replacement headlights (to fit our 6012 type bulbs) on the market now from name brands such as Philips, GE...

I was searching for 7" replacement bulbs and found these and others:

https://www.amazon.com/GE-NIGHTHAWK-Rou ... awk+7+inch

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Round-LE ... 7+headlamp

They are still pricey, but I'm sure the price will come down...

Anyone have info or experience with these? Dan I'm sure will have some opinions and maybe some testing.

Side note: What is the best filament-type std sealed beam replacement for 6012? Regular 7" GE Nighthawks are apparently no longer available.

Thanks much,

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Halogen NightHawks look available to me. https://www.amazon.com/GE-H6024NH-Night ... B000H29WN2

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Joshua

I have LEDs in my rear lights (turn and tail) and have Cibies from Dan as headlights.

The LEDs work fine in the stock DeSoto buckets and look awesome with the stock DeSoto Frenel type lenses.

The Cibies are a cut above the NAPA sealed beams . .....but 7" NAPA beams are a ton better than say the stock lights in my wifes Honda Civic.

The Cibies are pricey,,,,,but allow night driving in Mexico or deer country. ....and no one flashes their high beams at you.

Unfortunately rocks seem to go through then the same as $20 NAPA sealed beams.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Thanks, guys! Somehow, I missed the H6204NH GEs earlier. Just ordered a pair from Amazon for $15.50 each...

Still interested in Dan's or other's 2016 thoughts on the GE LED NH's...

All the best,
Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

The "GE" and "Philips" LED headlamps are just rebranded Truck-Lite units; the "Sylvania Zevo" is a rebranded Peterson.

The "LED bulb conversions" now flooding the market are not a legitimate, safe, effective, or legal product. The failure is at the concept level, not the implementation level. These are a fraudulent scam. Not capable of producing even a fraction of the amount of light produced by the filament bulb they supposedly replace, let alone producing it in the right pattern for the lamp's optics to work.

But there's a growing number of engineered LED headlamps on the market -- they range in quality and performance from pathetic to excellent. The 701C from Peterson is good. The Truck-Lite unit is good. By a big, big margin the king daddy of them all is the 8700 Evolution 2 from JW Speaker in chrome or black (fun: all of these linked lamps are well-made in America).

There's also a giant mountain of Chinese knockoff garbage on the market. The answer to "What about <this or that or the other> lamp you didn't mention?" is 99.999% certain to be "No, it's unsafe junk".

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks for "shedding some light" on this issue Dan!


Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

Thanks for the rundown, Dan. I will stick with filaments for now...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I recently installed in one of my OTR trucks a set of Grote common large reactangle LED units. They are amazing, very nice cut-off, bright, and excellent color temp. Downside from Summit $187/ea. I would do it again. I think the biggest shortcoming of all the LED offered, few take the time or have the knowledge to get the optics correct, LED's otherwise are a waste of money without that part of the solution, IMO.

I will go with a 7" round LED set-up as soon as it has the above proven qualities, no matter the cost.

They are acceptable, but not great. That's a PFR (purchase-for-resale) product Grote brings in from what is diplomatically called "a low-cost country". In the large rectangular format, like the 7" round format, the king daddy of them all is the (costly!) JW Speaker item. There are two worthy Truck-Lite units, too. The 27490C has a razor-sharp cutoff and a smoother, wider beam pattern, while the 27450C has somewhat longer seeing distance and a softer cutoff but a narrower beam with more "artifacts" (streaks/spots). All these are American-made, too, and all of them kick the pants out of a sealed beam or H4 setup.
The JW Speaker LEDs I linked a couple of posts ago have all those qualities you like: sharp cutoff, same color temperature as the Grotes you got, etc.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

We must talking about two different items, maybe I should have mentioned FWIW, I was comparing the "Grotes" to Sylvania Halogens, and they so out perform them, I was shocked, and likely will be on my other similar equipped trucks. However it looks like the priced has jumped a bit. Where they are made is unknown to me.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gte-90951-5

The two Summit reviews also say basically the same thing.

Sandy in BC: 2007 when I purchased my 300C, I installed this type of film on both headlights and low mounted driving lights. I don't recall the brand, but to date that film has resisted UV fogging and chip & penetration from State of Maine's annual graveling of winter roads which in the past has caused headlight damage.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

No, I'm talking about those very same lights you bought. Follow the links I posted for same-size better lights that cost less and are made in America (or don't...your choice!)
You want I should repeat myself louder this time, or...? :shrug:
What we feel like we're seeing isn't what we're actually seeing. The human visual system is a lousy judge of how well it's doing. "I know what I can see!" seems reasonable, but it doesn't square up with reality because we humans are just not well equipped to accurately evaluate how well or poorly we can see (or how well a headlamp works). Our subjective impressions tend to be very far out of line with objective, real measurements of how well we can (or can't) see. The primary factor that drives subjective ratings of headlamps is foreground light, that is light on the road surface close to the vehicle...which is almost irrelevant; it barely even makes it onto the _bottom_ of the list of factors that determine a headlamp's actual safety performance. A moderate amount of foreground light is necessary so we can use our peripheral vision to keep track of the lane lines and keep our focus up the road where it should be, but too much foreground light works against us: it draws our gaze downward even if we consciously try to keep looking far ahead, and the bright pool of light causes our pupils to constrict, which destroys our distance vision. All of this while creating the feeling that we've got "good" lights. It's not because we're lying to ourselves or fooling ourselves or anything like that, it's because our visual systems just don't work the way it feels like they work.

The upshot of this is that most internet "reviews" of a headlamp are useless at best -- and that would be the case even if we ignore the bogus criteria people often use when "reviewing" headlamps: sharp cutoff on low beam! (also very low on the list of factors that determine a headlamp's actual safety performance, but it looks nifty on the garage wall), "H4" (there are at least as many bad H4 headlamps as good ones), "E-code" (irrelevant; both the US and the UN/"E-code" headlamp standards have lots of room for good and bad headlamps) "High color temperature" (irrelevant at best)...and so on.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

That stuff is OK, but must be treated as scheduled-maintenance item, replaced every 18 months or so. Contrary to advertising claims, it does not start out optically clear and it is not UV-stable. It steals about 15%-20% of your light when it's brand new, and that figure grows as the film ages. The light "theft" is quite significant before you'll notice "Hey, that film is fogging up".
Your car doesn't have driving lights. "Driving lamp" or "driving light" is a widely misunderstood term. People use it to refer to all kinds of different lights. In fact, driving lamps are auxiliary high beams. They want to be mounted up near headlamp height and they are effective, safe, and legal only for use with the vehicle's main high beam headlamps on dark, empty roads (or off road). Never with low beams, never by themselves, never in bad weather, and never in traffic.

Your car has "fog lamps", in quotes because they're toy ones. Even good fog lamps, which are pretty rare, should spend almost 100% of their time turned off. Please see here for thorough information about what fog lamps will/won't and can/can't do.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.