evamonkey, in theory, yes, led's are brighter and when not in a housing they are too but.....i've bought enough of them and installed them in enough oem red brake light housing to tell you from experience, they do NOT fill out the housing as good as an incadescent bulb and you do end up with a dim red dot no matter how many led's you have on the side of the bulb. and, why pay $30 per bulb??

as for the faster light up time, you could not be more wrong. yes, its fractions of a second but at 60-80mph that translates to about 200+ feet. you get it now?

 

Ok I'm gonna dismantle this.

1. Your first point is absolutly right. But since were talking in microseconds here it's not really an effective arguement.

2. Now, it won't add up to 1 or 2 seconds for the lights to actually light up. So since the brain won't start reacting till it see's the lights (which as I already pointed out is microseconds) it takes 1-2 seconds for the brain to react period. There is not an extra 1 or 2 seconds with regular bulbs. As I recall it actually takes up to 5 seconds for the driver to see the lights and then actually hit the brakes.

So take away or add a less than a second it won't add up to a second or 2 in total reaction time.

3. Now since it's going to take that long no matter what a 1/10th of a second is not going to be the difference between rear ending someone or narrowly missing them unless your tailgating.

4. I won't be surprised cause I have seen it already. I saw it when I was a kid (thank you Jiminy Cricket).

Basically the amount of time you save is so small it's only going to add that amount of time to the time it take the brain to react.

So 1/10th of a second is not going to become 1-2 seconds. If it takes 5 seconds with LED's it will be 5 1/10th of a second with regular bulbs.

This is why it doesn't matter.

And no I won't because I have better things to do with my time rather than sit around and wonder if I get bulbs that light up a fraction of a second faster will it save my life?

 

You can't decide if you like them or hate them huh?

I can't tell exactly how much better they will be untill I put them in my own housing and look at them.

Now, for fractions of a second becoming 200+ feet. I'm gonna google that.

http://www.cut-the-knot.org/arithmet...d/safety.shtml

You couldn't be more wrong buddy.

At a full 60 MPH your traveling at "87.9 recurring feet per second" so 1/10th of that would be approx. 10 feet per second. So by switching to LED's your gonna save 10 feet of travel. Given an average trucks ability to stop from 60 in about 130-140 feet for some random numbers.

http://www.intellichoice.com/reports...olet/Silverado

So depending on what's behind you they could go 10 feet past you or 30 feet behind you. But that's only if you are trying to come to a complete stop from 60. How often do people have to do this? I never have personally.

Of course you gotta take into consideration too that as soon as you hit the brake and start slowing down, your no longer moving at 60 mph and the actually distance you travel before the lights kick on could feasibly be even shorter 6-8 feet for example.

So basically you guys think too much about things to really don't matter. Becase in the end your trying to control something you really have no control over the person behind and in front of you.

If the person behind you is busy texting on their palm pilot and can't see your brakes light up 10 seconds earlier even though they have 10,000 candlepower it's not gonna matter when they eat your bumper.

Now can we talk about something fun?

 

hmmm, i don't know where you got the 1/10 of a second and why u're sticking to it.... i do have better things to worry about is why i'm not really worried you see. just telling you how it is. god, don't make me google my source. it was on motorcycle site of some sort. thats where most of my exp with led's and tail light housings is from. sport bikes. this is also where it matters.... one tail light on a bike. these bikes are also insane fast so these things matter if in group situations or just for when cars follow you. but ya, i agree.....and i think i said that.....to me the price diff b/t the bulbs is not worth it either. also keep in mind veriables such as road surface, age, experience, sex, etc.

ok, fine.... i found an article similar to the one i read and the figure are closer:

"MPH = 88 fps. (fps=1.467 * MPH). If your deceleration rate is 20 fpsps, then stopping time = 88/20 = 4.4 seconds. Since there is a 1 second delay in hitting your brakes (recognition and reaction time), the total time to stop is 5.4 seconds, just as I said.

To determine how far you will travel while braking you take 1/2 the starting velocity and multiply the result by the stopping time (ie, you calculate your average speed and multiply by how long you are moving.) In the cited case, this works out to be:

.5 * 88 * 4.4 = 193.6 feet. Since we traveled 88 feet before we hit the brakes, we add that to 193.6 and end up with a total of 281.6 feet, as I said (missed by .1 feet.) "

 

Wow! I really didn't expect this thread to take this route. I was just curious if there were any LED upgrades for our trucks cuz I think they look good and wouldn't mind having them!

This is interesting discussion to follow though!

And to specifically address something you said Michalik - I would have to agree 100% about reaction time on a Sport Bike. I have been in a critical situation where I 'T-boned' a woman who turned left in front of me. I ended up wich a shattered RT Femur. I was on a 1995 Ninja (it was in '96) and one of the biggest things to have to contend with is braking in an emergency situation without locking up the rear wheel. There so many variables to reacting on a sport bike, just seeing the brake lights in front of you is just the tip of the iceberg!

John

 

Random number I pulled out of my ass because it's a neglible amount of time between the LED's lighting up and the regular bulbs.

NOW.

Since were talking about the amount of time it takes for the lights to actually light up the total distance used for braking is simply usless information.

Your point is the LED's light up faster and therefore are safer.

There is not a difference of 5.4 seconds between the two bulbs lighting up.

You got alot of information there, but none of it actually pertains to anything. Since were not talking about total stop time from the time someone see's the light till they actually hit the brakes.

So untill you can find the exact difference between the 2 bulbs, I still say it's a very tiny amount of time that's not useful in deciding what bulb to choose. And therefore a very tiny amount of actual footage it saves you.

Like you said all the different varibles make it impossible to find out if the LED's will actually do you any good or not.

 

http://www.discount-light-bulbs.com/...ar-lights.html

 

I'm not sure how the amount of time it takes for your tail lights to light up is gonna help the person driving the car avoid an accident.

I don't know about you, but I can't see my own taillights when I drive.

 

evamonkey.... get off your soap box and try to listen to what others are saying... you are missing the point in its entirety.

the point being made(with data to back it up), is that since led's come on quicker than regular bulbs, the small amount of time reduces the length of time it takes for a person to see the light, react to it and brake. this in effect gives precious second or two of not just stopping time, but evasive actions. this is VERY Handful in bumper to bumper traffic in alot of the big cities such as la, phx, etc etc.

next time your out on the road. look for the newer cars/suvs that have reg. bulbs in their brake housings and have leds as their third brake light in their rear windows. semi's are a perfect example of this whereas their turn/brakes are leds on the trailer but reg bulbs on the tractor itself. if you watch each time they brake. you'll notice the delay is as much as half a second. yes i timed them myself.

so for the sake of the argument, stop disproving the data that has been provided unless you can provide data itself that disproves said data. at this point we're just going in circles because of your refusal to take light(no pun intended) to data provided. cheers.

 

So John:
Looks like eva(il )monkey hijacked it pretty good.
Did you make a decision on which LED lights you were going to get?
Roger's picture convinced me that it would be a worth while project to pursue. The obvious benefits of lower power draw, faster light up time (translating into lessening the stopping distance of driver behind you ) seems pretty good to me...

Robb

 

So John:
Looks like eva(il )monky hijacked it pretty good.
Did you make a decision on which LED lights you were going to get?
Roger's picture convinced me that it would be a worth while project to pursue. The obvious benefits of lower power draw, faster light up time (translating into lessening the stopping distance of driver behind you ) seems pretty good to me...

Robb

 

And your ability to double post is amazing .

It's also more cost to put in, and maintain (those flashers they sell you can't run down to your local auto parts store and buy). The amount of power you save, neglible.

Your hopes of people seeing your tail lights sooner and therefore stopping sooner, only if they aren't already eating your bumper or busy texting on their palm pilots. So all the reasons you just listed.... really don't do much for you when you sit and think about it.

I'm tired of splitting hairs.

But the only reason I can think of, is cause you like the look of them.

There is nothing wrong with that. But let's be realistic and not try to come up with B.S. reasons for why they are so great. When in reality those reasons won't actually do much for you. .

Thanks for reading the same arguement over and over .

 

yawn.....

thanks for posting the same argument over and over

 

I'm glad I moved out of Shoreline.

 

Lol is that some kind of attempt to flame?

It's sad when you can't come up with a tangible reason and have to resort to petty (and pathetic) insults.

 

I haven't decided for sure what the hell I want to do. I know my lenses are shot and I need to get them replaced. That is what led me to this topic. I was looking at the Altezza, then thought about 'upgrading the cases to work with LED' and then all hell broke loose in Life. So, I haven't decided as of yet. Still there, but on the back burner a bit. I just don't want to cover the OEM light area just to put in 'wish I was a jeep' type of lights. I'd hate to look redneck when done!

John

 

Bump for an update.... I've been thinking about those Altezza style tails as mine are broken, and I think they might look sharp on my black '85, but I want to see a pic of them installed first.