LED / HID Lighting

LED Headlights

LED vehicle lighting has made great progress in the past five years.  The latest 7" round offerings from companies like JW Speaker and TruckLite are very promising, but still have a few issues that will keep them from being the ideal lighting answer for most Vanagon drivers.  

The most obvious drawback is the price of a well made LED headlight.  Typical LED headlights start at about $200.00 each and quickly climb to over $450.00 each for the top of the line models.  

Another problem that has been prevalent in many LED headlight designs is the strange lighting artifacts that are often present in the beam output.  This can range from odd shadows and dark spots in the beam spread, to geometric patterns projected into the field of view by the LED's reflector housing.  While these issues don't present an immediate danger, many people find them distracting, which can lead to reduced attention to other objects on the road.

The color temperature of currently available LED's can also present a problem for some drivers.  Filament based bulbs that most cars use from the factory put out a warm, slightly yellow light, which is good for color definition and creates less perceived glare than the blueish white light that many LED headlights provide.  "Warm white" LED's are now being manufactured that more closely mimic the color of filament based bulbs.  As the output technology of these bulbs improves, they will become available for all types of lighting, including automotive headlights.

As LED technology improves over the next few years, the price of LED headlights will certainly come down considerably.  LED's are typically seen as the future of automotive lighting, we simply have to wait for the technology and the marketplace to mature for a bit longer.

HID Headlights

Starting in the early 1990's, HID (high intensity discharge) lighting began appearing in automotive headlights.  The distinct bluish white light that is produced by most HID systems has been a catalyst for debate since it was first used on public roads.

HID (high intensity discharge) lighting works by converting the 12V power in our vans to roughly 20,000V by use of an electronic ballast.  This high voltage is then used to vaporize metallic salts in a sealed capsule, which creates an electrical arc.  The resulting light is incredibly bright and can produce good beam shape and output when combined with properly designed optics.

To be legal for on road use, an HID must be housed in an enclosure specifically designed to aim and shape the output through a projector lens.  The best analogy for this type of setup is the lens used in a movie projector, which only works when the focus is perfect, anything else will only result in a blurry mess.

Even when installed with properly designed lighting enclosures, the European Union (and most other developed nations) requires the implementation of headlight washers and automatic leveling devices to avoid blinding oncoming traffic with the intense glare that HID lights can produce.  This is also the case in most states in the US, although enforcement varies greatly by region.  

The "plug and play" HID kits that are available for less than $100.00 online and at some autoparts stores are 100% illegal and unsafe to use in the Vanagon (or any other vehicle).  These "kits" allow the user to install the HID bulb into a standard reflector headlight housing, which is designed for a filament bulb.  The resulting headlight output creates unsafe glare and an unfocused headlight beam that blinds oncoming traffic.  Regardless of what the latest marketing gimmicks might lead you to believe, there is no way to install an HID bulb into a reflector based enclosure and have a safe and legal headlight.  Anyone who says differently is trying to sell you an HID kit.

A few people have gone to the trouble and expense of retrofitting the complete projector lens, capsule and ballast system into their Vanagon using a factory HID headlight from another vehicle or a complete aftermarket projector module.  The results I have seen vary widely and don't justify the expense involved.