The Number One Club for owners of Triumph's range of small saloons from the 1960s and 1970s.
https://forum.triumphdolomite.co.uk/
I am very wary when it comes to insurance, I declare every modification, however small. Frankly I would rather be safe than sorry. All it takes is somebody to notice the mod, say if the rear light fittings where smashed in the accident and you're giving them a potential way of not paying.cliftyhanger wrote: ↑Wed Apr 08, 2020 12:35 pm I have just fitted a pair of LED stop/tail lights in my spitfire.
They are brighter than the old bulbs (actually fairly new bosch ones) and give a lovely even red light. Not excessive, but on our old cars every little helps when it comes to being noticed (somebody drove in the back of us in the spitfire on the way home from the silverstone classic 2018. We were in a stationary queue of traffic, but she "forgot" we were there! Not related to bulbs, but car size is small so good bright lights can only help)
More than happy with them, and can only see an insurance company refusing a payout if the bulbs somehow contributed to the accident. Difficult to prove that one. And certainly in the handful of accidents I have had, no assessor has looked at anything except tyres and the damage. Badly fitted headlights could be an issue if they blinded oncoming vehicles. Then again the latest cars are terrible for that.
The bulbs came from classiccarleds. Lovely chap, great service and from others experiences, decent quality bulbs.
I fitted them to the bootlid of the spitfire and toledo. Cheap as chips indeed, and fitted at the rear of the boodlid (bumper end!) on the normally horizontal top panel. (sorry, trying to avoid confusion and making it worse) In that position they illuminate the boot contents from above, handy and better than the OE position on teh spit where the lamp gets covered.
I agree with all of that and the other thing with LEDs, is the claims about their extra life don't always match reality. I know more than one person whose had a LED light fitting fail on their car and then discover they have no option but to replace the whole fitting. Sometimes with an eye watering bill in the £100's of pounds. LEDs have brought the days of sealed light units back, the cost of replacements justified on the grounds they are not suppose to break.Carledo wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:35 pm I would and never will use LED headlamp conversions in a normal bulbed headlamp, i've seen firsthand, driving at night on unlit roads in a car so converted. I could see fine, even on dip, but anyone within a mile of me was dazzled silly! Aside from the fact that any MOT tester would have kittens when it reached the beamsetter! Dedicated headlights built for LED is another matter, but the things look AWFUL on a classic IMO.
HEADLIGHTS are the illegal bit that you need to worry about, the smaller sidelight/brake/indicator bulbs are not so much concern and are more technically illegal because a) not E marked and b) C+U regs give max power output in watts and if you used that wattage LED they'd be blinding! So you need equivalent values for LEDs but the C+U regs, still firmly rooted in the 1930s, simply haven't caught up with modern tech yet. It will happen eventually, give them time (probably another 50 years or so!)
However I don't really understand the obsession with LED bulbs in more minor lights. Ordinary tungsten bulbs are readily available, cheaper than chips, C+U approved, can last an inordinately long time, what more do you want? Nobody drives at night purely on sidelights any more (even though it is still legal in well lit built up areas) so front sidelights are largely irrelevant. Rear sidelights and brake lights have to be toned down with coloured LEDs so they don't show white though the lenses so most of the advantage is lost. Also, anyone who has followed a muppet using rear foglights in the rain will know how frustrating it is. LED tail lights have the same effect!
My only concessions are to fit side repeaters on the indicators (with tungsten bulbs) rear foglights (with tungsten bulbs) and a high level LED strip brake light in the back window. And this last is only because it's virtually impossible to get a tungsten bulbed aftermarket version. All of this makes my car safer and more visible and is completely legal! I could have gone a bit further and added daytime running lights, but i'm not that obsessive about it! The best defence is to drive defensively, see the accident coming and drive round it! And I have a towbar too!
What I AM seriously considering is some cheap LED strips to light the boot and underbonnet area for the RBRR. This can't upset anyone and might prove useful to me!
Steve
It is not the bulb design, it the headlight housing. It isn't designed to work with the output from an LED bulb, which leads to the incorrect beam pattern.cliftyhanger wrote: ↑Sun Apr 12, 2020 9:51 am Agree completely that the LED H4 (and other() headlight bulbs are not a great idea. Last RBRR we were followed on a few occasions by cars with LED conversions, and were constantly dazzled via the mirrors, but no problems when normal headlights were behind us.
I do wonder if that is down to poor bulb design. I know somebody who paid £100+ for a pair of Philips LED H4's, and they seem to have a decent beam pattern. However, what I don't like is they have a very sharp cutoff to the pattern, where halogens tend to have a more diffused cutoff.
I sort of disagree. The halogen (or tungsten) filament is in the correct place, but the LED chips are not, or are spread out too much.cleverusername wrote: ↑Sun Apr 12, 2020 3:34 pmIt is not the bulb design, it the headlight housing. It isn't designed to work with the output from an LED bulb, which leads to the incorrect beam pattern.cliftyhanger wrote: ↑Sun Apr 12, 2020 9:51 am Agree completely that the LED H4 (and other() headlight bulbs are not a great idea. Last RBRR we were followed on a few occasions by cars with LED conversions, and were constantly dazzled via the mirrors, but no problems when normal headlights were behind us.
I do wonder if that is down to poor bulb design. I know somebody who paid £100+ for a pair of Philips LED H4's, and they seem to have a decent beam pattern. However, what I don't like is they have a very sharp cutoff to the pattern, where halogens tend to have a more diffused cutoff.