Best in test at Truckstar Magazine: Hilox XTR LED kits

The Truckstar lighting test

A while back, Truckstar asked whether we wanted to take part in the lighting test for the second issue of 2018. A safety special that takes an extremely critical look at LED products you can use to upgrade your halogen headlight to LED. We did not hesitate for a second: this was the perfect chance to show why you should choose quality over quantity. It is mostly about your own safety and that of oncoming traffic. The test was done in a truck and a van, but the outcome naturally applies to cars and motorcycles too.

The reflector headlight

The test showed that the reflector headlight is the hardest to fit with LED without sacrificing beam pattern and light output. All the LEDs tested would fail the Dutch APK inspection, except the XTR Black LED. Its beam pattern was the only one that was good, or even better than the standard halogen bulb. Ours was also the only LED where the beam pattern could still be fine-tuned, thanks to a handy adjustable sleeve.

The projector headlight

Here all the LEDs ranged from good to acceptable. The pattern is correct, but there were clear differences in light output. Again the XTR LED scored best: a razor-sharp, tight cut-off line and a bright white glow. According to the APK inspector, it was also the nicest colour, one that does not drift off towards blue or yellow.

H7 fitting

We chose to test LEDs with an H7 fitting because it is by far the most common fitting in Europe. Of course there are plenty of others, such as H4, H1 and HB3. For those too, it matters that an LED with one of these fittings performs well in both types of headlight.

Ease of installation

Ease of installation varies per brand and type of vehicle. In one vehicle you are done in 5 minutes, in another, with a bit of bad luck, you are busy for half an hour. In the test vehicle, the Iveco, the XTR LED was the only product that could be fitted without modification. The other LEDs could be made to fit as well: a handy person could, for instance, bend the little spring a bit to get the LED into the headlight. But then the question remains: will it always stay properly in place, so you do not dazzle oncoming traffic?

Of course also for cars and motorcycles

This test was carried out on a truck and a large van, but the outcome also applies to the headlights of cars and motorcycles. There are 2 types of XTR LED kit: a budget-friendly XTR Grey with 3,200 lumens and the powerful XTR Black with 3,600 lumens per bulb.

Light output

Bar one, every LED produced more light than the standard halogen bulb. Although you do have to wonder how much of the advertised lumens actually comes out of such a little bulb. The Autostyle LED even claims 7,600 lumens; even if that figure was for 2 LED bulbs, it still came nowhere near. And even if an LED did produce that much light, what use is it if it does not shine where it should? The XTR came closest to its claimed light output. Mind you, the result also depends a little on the quality of the headlight itself.

You can also see the test report in the video: watch the video on YouTube.

Onboard computer CAN-bus

All the products had a hard time here, including our XTR LED. Because of a small calculation error in the prototype CAN-bus II module we supplied for this test, an error message still popped up on the dashboard. The lighting worked flawlessly, but a warning on the dashboard is not what we want. That is the risk of testing something new in a brand-new car ;-) This problem has since been fixed.

Cooling

All the LEDs tested are cooled by a fan, and it stood out that these were all ball-bearing fans, except in our XTR LED. The XTR LED uses a Maglev fan, and you can hear it: whisper-quiet, no humming. A Maglev (magnetic levitation) fan is driven by 2 small magnets and a coil. Because it floats between the magnets, there is no wear and no ball-bearing noise. All you hear is the air. Such a fan lasts many times longer and cools far better, so more power can be put through the LED chips, which means more light.

APK

According to the critical APK inspector there is only 1 winner: the Hilox XTR. It was the only LED that had a good beam pattern straight away. The beam pattern even improved slightly when the inspector shifted the LED a few mm.

LED chips

No, not the Lay's kind but the Lumileds kind, which is partly why our XTR LED performs so well. But even with Lumileds, the beam pattern can be bad because of inaccurate positioning. Or, in the case of the Truckstar light test, one LED was supplied with CSP chips instead of Lumileds: a knock-off, in other words. The COB LED was the cheapest but also gave the least light. The Autostyle LED had some sort of Cree-type LED: plenty of light, but no beam pattern in the reflector headlight.

Conclusion

Do your research on what you buy. The bulk of the LED products on the market are of such poor quality (often recognisable by a suspiciously low price) that they can create unsafe situations. Cheap often turns out expensive, and we see that not only with LED lighting but with other consumer products too. Oh, and beware of knock-offs and promising specifications. As the old saying goes: "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is." Around 90% of all the products on offer are sold under false pretences. Products claiming a light output of 4,000 lumens or more are simply (still) not achievable without sacrificing lifespan.