I'm thinking of replacing my LR driving lamps with a 20" LED light bar. I have LR driving lamps adjusted so that they cross each other and effectively peep around curves - well that's the idea anyway.

Currently I run Osram Nightbreakers H4 bulbs which I'm quite impressed with. But the LR lamps don't add to the range very much at all and only really increase the spread at about the 30m mark.

Any recommendations re LED light bars? I'm considering these LED Aliexpress.

Fitting: They should fit onto the existing lamp mounting points on my nudge bar and I'll use the existing wiring, relay & switch to, which are a st'd LR accessory. There is approx 610mm between the frame and I'll go for the 505mm bar or maybe the 575mm one. They are rated at: 90W & 99.6W. Will that st'd wiring arrangement be suitable?

A good LED light bar is far better at illuminating the area in front of the vehicle than standard halogen spot lamps.

However you have to be careful of which LED bar you buy as there are good and bad for similar prices.

I'd always buy an LED bar that I can prove is fitted with CREE emmiters and avoid any bars that aren't.

Sadly some bar sellers are selling bars that claim to have CREE emmiters, but are actually fitted with cheap generic 3 Watt LED emmiters. These generic LED emmiters (often known as beads to the Chinese) produce much less light than CREE emmiters.
So to get the light output, the "beads" are driven much harder than there're designed to be, which shortens life massively.

My 20" bar has 42 x CREE XB-D emmiters which can provide over 300 lumins at a 3 Watts of drive power each. Thus a theoretical output of over 12,600 lumens is available from them. However, like most good quality LED bars, the emmiters aren't driven at full current, so emmiter life isn't compromised. A decent LED bar manufacturer will set LED driver current at 1/2 to 2/3 the emmiters maximum current so life is extended. I've measured my XB-Ds drive current at 700mA, giving an output of an output of around 250 lumens per emmiter.
This would give a total output of around bar 10,500lm.

This would make my LED bar appear less bright on paper than other less well engineered bars, simply because cheap bars over exaggerate the lm figures published.

So you if you are to avoid being disappointed, you need to make sure the bar you order is fitted with premium emmiters, not generic 3 Watt beads.

Thanks Nodge - I remember you commenting on LED lights ages ago and I did search the topic on here. The one I'm considering doesn't specifically mention Cree emitters but does comment on," LED light including rated power and actual power." ie theirs run a a lower power to reduce the likelihood of burning our due to overheating... So I hope that is a good thing.

htr said:

The one I'm considering doesn't specifically mention Cree emitters but does comment on," LED light including rated power and actual power.

Click to expand...

You can get an idea of what emmiters are fitted by looking at the pictures.
Often there's a close up of the emmiters, which is good for identifying which type are fitted.

There are 3 basic emmiters used in budget LED light bars.
The most expensive and best it the CREE XB-D, which isn't CREE's brightest emmiter, but it's good value for the amount of light produced, which is why they're used.
This is what it looks like, bonded to a board.

Next best is the genetic 1-3 watt bead emmiter. These are much cheaper than a CREE but still provide a reasonable amount of light.
They're not ideal in a LED bar, as the light emitted doesn't focus well with a simple reflector.


The worst type of emmiters used in bars is the standard COB array. These are extremely cheap and put out lots of light. These are normally used in standard household LED bulbs as they make lots of light with little beam control, so light output in a domestic bulb is evenly distributed.
Sadly these are the worst type of emmiters to use in a light bar, unless close up illumination is needed. Because there's no actual lens to focus the light forward, the long or even mid range output is severely restricted. These emmiters aren't suitable for the job, but are used because the lumen figures are high, even though useful light is low.

All the LED emmiters pictured above are much smaller than the pictures suggest. The CREE XB-D is only on a 2.54 X 2.54mm die. It's soldered directly to the board to it's fitted to.
The bead is on an 8mm diameter backing assembly with a 2mm LED emmiter housed under a 5mm lens.
It's soldered to the PCB with the 2 leads out the sides.

The COB is generally a 5mm square device, soldered directly to the PCB of the light bar.

Hopefully you now have an idea of what to look for when making your purchase.

that has enlightened my a bit

Thanks Nodge, I took your advice and looked for CREE emitters. I ordered this one as it stated it used CREE LEDs here. I'm hoping to use the LR wiring kit that powers the existing H3 driving lamps. Do you think that will be suitable? - I think it powers 2 x 55w halogen bulbs...

htr said:

I took your advice and looked for CREE emitters. I ordered this one as it stated it used CREE LEDs here.

Click to expand...

That's basically the same bar I'm using and is using CREE XB-D, or clones of them.

htr said:

I'm hoping to use the LR wiring kit that powers the existing H3 driving lamps. Do you think that will be suitable? - I think it powers 2 x 55w halogen bulbs

Click to expand...

The factory wiring will be fine for powering that bar. It's rated at 126 Watts, but that's only if the LEDs are driven at full current. They aren't often driven at full power, so the actual wattage will be less then 126 Watts. My own bar is running at about 90 Watts, which is well within the capacity of the factory spot lamp wiring.

You'll be surprised at just how much light the bar will make.

Yes, looking forward to a brighter view at night!