I was debating between using a HID-C setup with the stock housings but decided I rather be cool and different by going with a LED housing instead. I am attaching a pic of the housing just set into the hood as I have to reattach the bracket to the hood that popped off. These are insanely bright but are design as a DOT approved fog light so they have a nice clean cut-off and a modern look.
link to the lamps I am using.
I wonder how these would work. https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/daytime-running-lights/h3-can-bus-led-bulb-27-smd-led-daytime-running-light-led-tower/2263/5146/
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LED Quantity 27 LEDs LED Type 4014 SMD
Lumen 177 Lumen
Compared to:
Lighting Specs:
Light Source: 3x Philips Luxeon-T
LED Optics: Kuria Projector Fog Lens
Intensity: 2400 Lumens
Kelvin Rating: 5500K (pure white)On local/state municipal roads, whatever model or type led you use, consider that a “flood” 90 + degree type beam will blind all on coming traffic and possibly result in a citation from an officer of the law. In a closed gated community you will just pee off your fellow residents.
A “spot” beam is only 10-20 degrees wide and will not annoy oncoming traffic if they are not in the direct 10-20 degree beam.
I speak with the experience of installing both types (full & spot) on my Gem car and facing on coming golf carts in my community that have the “flood” type led head lights. It is very Irritating to face a oncoming “flood” beam that is mounted anything over a foot off the ground and not pointed perfectly horizontal with the ground. If the flood is mounted in your Gem’s head lights sockets you will blind traffic with a “flood” beam due to the mounting height, even if you adjust the led lights downward.
I now have 3,136 watt Ridged Industries Dually led spots (4 led’s per light) in my head light sockets and a combination 24 led’s (bar (6 led floods on each end of the bar, spots in the center) hanging 8" of the road pointed horizontally about 5 degrees downward. I run the 24 led lower bar on my low beam switch and the head light spots on my high beam. It took several light assembly changes to arrive at what I feel is a considerate set up for on coming drivers.
I run with the low beam led bar on until some inconsiderate oncoming putz hits me with his “Flood” beams… Then I turn on the hi beam switch and aim my 3,136 watt “spots” right in his eyes. Most of the time he has to pull over and sit for a few minuets to get his night vision back…
Just saying… have some consideration about oncoming drivers. :crutch::crutch:
jerry
I live in California where we have laws for laws. If the light isn’t OK for the vehicle the Highway patrol will ticket you. That said, (no I’m not going to move), I saw a lot of different H3 replacement led lights on Amazon. Some were for fog lights, some were projector lights, and some were for day time driving lights. I’m trying to duplicate the lights that are in the car now but with LEDs. I’m concerned about color, brightness, and and aim. Has any body got any advice? Thanks, Barry…
[quote=Rascal;27471]On local/state municipal roads, whatever model or type led you use, consider that a “flood” 90 + degree type beam will blind all on coming traffic and possibly result in a citation from an officer of the law. In a closed gated community you will just pee off your fellow residents.
A “spot” beam is only 10-20 degrees wide and will not annoy oncoming traffic if they are not in the direct 10-20 degree beam.
I speak with the experience of installing both types (full & spot) on my Gem car and facing on coming golf carts in my community that have the “flood” type led head lights. It is very Irritating to face a oncoming “flood” beam that is mounted anything over a foot off the ground and not pointed perfectly horizontal with the ground. If the flood is mounted in your Gem’s head lights sockets you will blind traffic with a “flood” beam due to the mounting height, even if you adjust the led lights downward.
I now have 3,136 watt Ridged Industries Dually led spots (4 led’s per light) in my head light sockets and a combination 24 led’s (bar (6 led floods on each end of the bar, spots in the center) hanging 8" of the road pointed horizontally about 5 degrees downward. I run the 24 led lower bar on my low beam switch and the head light spots on my high beam. It took several light assembly changes to arrive at what I feel is a considerate set up for on coming drivers.
I run with the low beam led bar on until some inconsiderate oncoming putz hits me with his “Flood” beams… Then I turn on the hi beam switch and aim my 3,136 watt “spots” right in his eyes. Most of the time he has to pull over and sit for a few minuets to get his night vision back…
Just saying… have some consideration about oncoming drivers. :crutch::crutch:
jerry[/quote]
and this is why I chose to go with these because they are DOT approved and have a clean cut-off as to not blind the other drivers. Just changing to an LED bulb in the stock headlights will not change the fact they have a somewhat high amount of light bleed at the lamp. Around here you cannot go 10 feet without someone blinding oncoming traffic and no the PD’s do not care here. Our transit buses have moved to LED headlights and they are BRIGHT so I don’t think I am going to worry too much since I am making the effort to be considerate using an appropriate cutoff. The problem with the rigid spots (I have 6 of them on my truck btw) is that although the beam may be aimed well, just the hot spot of the lamp is insanely bright. I also plan to add some other lighting as well so will probably come up with some combination of high and low intensity settings.
I have found that I really like LED’s in the 4-5k color temp, higher is fatiguing to the eyes. My HID’s in my Ram 3500 and Durango are 3500k with just a hint of yellow to not be so hard on the eyes.
found it very hard to find led light assemblies in the 4-5k temp range. Bulbs yes, but not total assemblies that could be used in my Gem’s head light housings. I tried installing led bulbs in my factory housing… it just did not work. Maybe there is a bigger 4-7k selection for use in truck head light housings… ?
Jerry
So if I understand what your saying is that you tried several different H3 replacement led bulbs in the GEMs original headlight fixture and none of them worked properly. Barry
the problem is the GEM use a fog light for it’s headlights so you are very limited on bulb choice. The stock housing is shallow and the hole is small limiting what you can fit into them. If you want to keep the stock housing and have a ton of light then you probably want a HID-C This is a link to a kit that would work you would select the H3C bulb as it is the compact version. Morimoto Elite Xenon HID System
I’m only trying to put in the led bulb to save power and maybe extend the bulb life. I don’t want it to be any brighter. I want it to mimic the original bulb. 
I’m looking for a plug and play led bulb.
me too . hopefully someone well find one . I don’t use mine much at night so spending $200 doesn’t work for me .