LED headlights and snow
- Thread starter Dustdevil
- Start date
OP
Not yet. We haven’t had snow since then. But more coming early this week, and I have a few chances to get the Jeep out during the storm to check. We usually only get 2-3 snowfalls each winter. We have already had two. Might see more than normal, but the crystal ball is a bit fuzzy.
OP
I think I might eventually do the halogen flood lights thing. Maybe KC. Always liked their daylighters and their commitment to off roading. At the moment, I’m committed to massive spending on Search and Rescue gear, as I’ll be using the Jeep for that purpose. It forces me to be fully prepared, trained, and equipped for personal trips as well. Everybody should have a good bug-out bag in their Jeep anyway. I’m just taking it to the point of ridiculous!
The Chinese copies could just be knock offs of the truck light series lights. The Chinese are famous for doing knock off. I have a buddy who has a large Volkswagen manufacturing business and every time he would send his weatherstrip molds out to have parts manufactured they would start selling parts out the back door. I could very well see the factory taking the design and building a cheap copy and putting it on the web.
OP
Possible, but much more likely they are identical lights, and some are simply private labeled for Truck-lite. Here’s why: Check out the two Amazon ads. Identical description wording. Both are made in China. On their own website, Truck-lite lists country of Origin as “ZZ”. Technically, that designates origin as “unknown”. But on the Trucklite channel on Amazon, they let the cat out of the bag. Trucklite claims slightly higher wattage, which can be a source of more heat. But it’s so slight, it’s very unlikely the difference would melt snow, except at very specific conditions. Much more likely this particular snow was warmer, wetter, and stuck easier. At this point, it’s not worthy of endless speculation, as my own personal choice of a solution will likely make the point moot.
Since they must be the same lights, maybe he got the TruckLites from the reject pile.
OP
So, you knew all along you paid 375 bucks for the same ”cheap Chinese knock-offs”? Or did you just learn that because I pointed it out? Or, are you still pretending your lights are different because they’re “made in USA”, and supposedly better than that “cheap Chinese copy”?
And then you actually recommended that I take the very same path. Misery loves company, I guess. And you actually mocked.
So, now you’re going to hear what I think. Not sure you should be dispensing advice on Jeep forums. You don’t seem to spend much time doing your homework. And you’re full of crap. I found the information in, literally, 5 minutes of searching. I presume you could have done that, too. But you didn’t. You also didn’t bother to take me up on the offer that we simply act like adults, drop this, and move on. Instead, you just keep digging. So, here is my conclusion: your “advice” isn’t worth a runny crap. You need to save face, so you mock others you deem have made inferior choices, mostly to make yourself seem like some sort of authority on the topic. This time, you got exposed as a phony. Makes me wonder how many others you gave unsolicited bad advice. Had I heeded your advice, I would have wasted almost 400 bucks by stepping in the same pile of $#1+ you stepped in. If I wanted to blow a pile of money, I could buy heated LED lights, because apparently all major manufacturers of them have discovered the same thing I did 2 weeks ago… that LED lights, as a rule, don’t waste enough energy in radiated heat to keep the lens clear in certain conditions. I already knew that. Further, you dont seem to have run into similar conditions with your identical lights, and ignorantly presume your lights must be somehow special, purely because of the fact you got waylaid for 375 bucks by a headlight sales pitch.
Personally, I wouldn’t even heed your advice on how to sit right on a toilet seat after seeing this. Cheers!
For the OE TruckLights maybe but my experience with the knock-offs was horrible. Everyone has different levels of acceptance.. for my needs the pattern was unacceptable.
OP
OP
So, turns out, there is a good study done on led lights for Jeeps. Doesn’t necessarily solve my particular issue, but certainly addresses the light pattern issue.
At this point, I'm just enjoying your insistance that your Chinese counterfeits are the same thing as what doesn't ice over. Which must mean Arizona has really weird snow.
All this stuff has been shared on this forum long time ago.
I recommend that you do a bit more research into Chinese knockoffs in general and how they treat Intellectual Property. A lot of people simply don't care and want to justify it with the exact set of reasons you've already shared in this thread (made in the same factory, maybe truck lites are private label etc etc etc). If it makes you happy that you did not "waste" money on Trucklites, so be it. You aren't the first person and you won't be the last buying those Amazon specials, and nothing anyone says will matter.
Your 5 minutes of research consisted of comparing two product descriptions on Amazon, and because the descriptions were close to identical you concluded that they are the same product. Do you think a company sophisticated enough to create a knock off of the truck lights would not be able to replicate the marketing copy?
As others have said, if it makes you feel better to think the cheap knock offs are the same product, then good for you. They fooled you.
I have read many, many bad reviews of the knock off Truck Lights, and very, very few bad reviews of the actual Truck Lights. And generally, the only complaint on the Truck Lights is the cost.
Occam’s Razor.
OP
At this point, I’m just enjoying the fact I have given you the answers, and you’re still failing the tests.
OP
Did you even look at it? Or did you simply jump up to defend your preconceived notions?
OP
My employer manufactures nearly all of our products FOR the US market IN the US market. We are well aware of the tactics used by Chinese companies and the CCP. We deal with it every day. Ours is a worldwide company with revenues approximating $40bn USD. We are a target. And yet, we somehow find ways to compete. Our product typically sells at 15-35% above our competitors from China. Not 4X, and certainly not by private labeling their same product. That is a poor business decision, because more intelligent people eventually figure out the only thing that really changes is the packaging and the sales channel. The buyers who will pay 4X as much for the same product are the low information buyers and the gaslit buyers. If you really believed your statement, you would not defend a Chinese product with a US label. There is a reason even TL is offering heated lights. They don’t use the magic leds that melt snow.
That is why I went with a set of H4 housings and a set of HID lights. I couldn’t see spending $700 on a set of headlights that a rock could bust tomorrow. That was he price when I was looking, they have come way down in price. I also problem wouldn’t accept the knock off beam patterns.
https://www.truck-lite.com/media/wysiwyg/LEDHeadlightBrochure_1.pdf
See page 2.
Here are their manufacturing locations - https://www.truck-lite.com/locations
I am not gaslit, and I am not a "low information buyer". I am not defending a Chinese product with a US label. I deeply care about IP and IP theft. I exactly know what the Amazon lights are and why they cost what they do. You have an issue with how much Truck-lites cost and that part I can understand, everyone has different levels of paying for something that they are comfortable with. FWIW, I have seen truck-lites in person and they are excellent headlights. I have also seen the cheaper copies too and they do not even come close in terms of light quality and pattern.
You can continue to be intelligent and support whoever you like with whatever justifications pleases you. But don't go calling other people names. It is entirely possible that you may have the same problem with truck-lites and there is only one way to know. However, when @jjvw and @NashvilleTJ say they don't have a problem, I entirely trust that they do not have a problem.
As I said before, you have made up your mind that Truck-lites and the copies are equivalent based on whatever information collecting you did. If it makes you happy that you paid 3x less for your set, so be it.
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