MTFCA Forum

New LED headlight bulb on left versus incandescent on right. 23 coupe with 6 volt not running. Just purchased 2 headlight and 2 tailight bulbs from LEDLIGHT.COM for a total of $56 for the 4 bulbs including the shipping. I have no affiliation with this company. I bought the 6000k bright versus 3000k warm. I know that it doesn't look original, I want them bright as possible. Aiming is another story I can't speak to yet. My experience in my 30 Tudor is LEDS light and reflect the road lines and signs better along with being somewhat brighter. I suppose 12volt would provide higher Lumens. My other experience with incandescent bulbs is, 1 of the filaments of 1 of the bulbs can just about fail every other ride.

Is that a Minnesota Pioneer license plate #338 on your car?

If it is, I can tell you to whom the plates were originally registered.

Erik, I bought it from Stan's widow. It was kept at Stan's model T Shop at the Scott Carvers Fairgrounds in Jordan MN. It was there for a very long time. So I think the plates were theirs. The motor number matches the title.

She is a sweet Coupe. I probably have a few hundred miles on it already in just a few weeks.

I have played with some Led bulbs not happy with any of them bright to look at but don't shine down the road . Yes I have new reflectors also. can't move the bulbs enough to get the focus right.

Thinking of new LED headlight bulbs also, has anyone had any experience with the ones that Snyders’s are selling.
Thanks John M
Oscoda Michigan

My darling bride Linda and I came home with the Coupe after dark the other night and she admitted that we could see much better. I will be putting them in my 28 Huckster too.

The tailight is much better also.

Tom D, to focus model T lights requires a pinpoint light source like the original globe filaments give. The parabolic reflector is responsible for the reflection of the beam. As far as I know, there are no LED globes which can be focussed, as there are multiple let's affixed to the base. They do give off lots of light, but it is just a big, unfocused blob.

Modern led lights have multiple reflectors to direct the light from each led. Each reflector is specially designed for the application.

Allan from down under.

An LED light unit could be designed to fit in the Model T headlight shell. It would not look original.
The best chance of having good lighting on a T might be to see if one of the many motorcycle units could be adapted. Harley Davidson sells a good 12 V LED, plug and play hi/lo beam unit that resembles a 7" USA sealed beam unit and fits the later model, classic-styled HD headlight shell. One of these might fit a T shell with minimal modification. It would not look at all original from the front.

Incandescent bulbs are not exactly a perfect point source of light either (particularly the early ones), the filaments are a good 1/4" - 3/8" long.

In my view there is no need to replace the reflector if you're using LEDs, and as Steve has confirmed here in practice you will in fact get a significant improvement to your ability to see and drive at night. Who knows, that better light may just assist in saving your car and you from injury one day.

If you want to know a bit more about the technicalities behind this, along with some headlamp history, this thread may be useful to you: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25440

Luke.

Some definitions to help understand terminology and what affects what.

Lumen (aka Footcandle) measures the amount of light produced, its the measurement of light output or brightness on a one square foot surface 1 foot away from the source.
Lux measures the amount of light produced, its the measurement of light output or brightness on a one square meter surface 1 meter away from the source. It is the metric counterpart of a lumen. 1 lumen = 10.57 lux
Candle Power (candela) measures the luminous intensity concentrated in a particular direction. Often used to compare spotlights & driving lights.
Watt measures the amount of energy used to excite the filament or light-emitting diode
Focal Point in a parabolic reflector it is the point where all reflected waves will be concentrated and projected forward. Light waves emitted outside of the focal point are scattered light. The adjustment screw on the Model T headlight is used to move the the light source filament or LED(s), to its most optimum point.
Fluted Lens has patterns in the glass surface to project the reflected light in a specific direction.

Kelvin measures the color temperature of the light. Although the whiter lights will appear “brighter” than those of a lower Kelvin reading, the amount of Lumens on the brightness scale does not change, and true brightness is not affected. So if two bulbs having the same amount of Lumens but one is 3500k and the other 6000k are shedding the same "brightness, but the colors of the objects being illuminated will make the 6000k appear brighter but in fact are lighter in color.

Hey Steve,
Do you have any specific part numbers you can share for the Ledlight.com ones that you purchased?
Thanks!

This is what I use.

Thanks so much Jim! Greatly appreciate! Product Code is 68523.

Those LEDs look pretty good! I guess some folks struggle with the incandescent bulbs, but here's my 6 volt OEMs- nice, brilliant white lights!...

Tom Donnelly wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 25, 2022 10:14 am

Hey Steve,
Do you have any specific part numbers you can share for the Ledlight.com ones that you purchased?
Thanks!

This is what I chose to use 64975 is the part #, they do not do the high low due to the position of the pins so i have them set for a left to right at this time

Tim Rogers wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 25, 2022 2:23 pm

Those LEDs look pretty good! I guess some folks struggle with the incandescent bulbs, but here's my 6 volt OEMs- nice, brilliant white lights!...

Illuminating the glass lens is not an indication of how much better the road is illuminated. I put led daytime running lights on my daily driver that were so bright they'd hurt your eyes, so I put a smoke film over them. Either way they have little effect in lighting the road ahead for more than 5 feet

The last 3 posts tell a story, or not. In the first of the three there is a brilliant patch of white light produced, but no mention of what it looks like to oncoming drivers.

The next tells of no ability to be able to focus/direct the light.

The third, how effective is the light produced for the purpose intended.

Allan from down under.

The flat style bulbs pictured above work well if the bulb is oriented horizontally. The original socket pin location orients the bulb in a vertical configuration. Modify the socket and the bulbs now cast a beam out in front of the car. Thanks to Bill Robinson, I changed the pin position and those bulbs work well.
Tom

Steve drove the car to our Model T meeting on the 19th. The light output is good and the headlights do focus pretty well. It looks good oncoming and there is plenty of light to see where you are going, way more then your standard lights at much less amperage. He also has rear tail/brake led lights. Better vision and visibility is a big win for driving at night.

I installed LED lights. They are bright enough that people have flashed me to turn down my high beams. However, when I am on a dark road they only help me to see the white line on the right if there is a white line.

Steve, which LED light did you purchase?

Maybe next time I drive to Rapids I will have to look you up.

I have a pair of the 9475 wedge shape led lights. Didn't like them. Way too bright and put out a funny C or U light pattern depending on whether your car has OEM or after market reproduction headlight sockets which almost always have the wrong pin orientation. If your lights are moving left to right when switching from dim to on sounds like you need to turn your sockets like Tom said. Turn them 90 degrees and drill a new mounting screw hole so the led lights are horizontal in the sockets. The bulbs have hi/lo when used in proper OEM socket. The wedge lights will work on a/c or dc 5 to 30 volts a/c so they will work on 6/12 volt cars and should work ok on a magneto but a minor wiring change at the headlights will be needed to put both bulbs in parallel.

There are new not as bright wedge type bulbs out now that have good led power but not the intense bright white. While they are better, they all our in the mid $20 range each. Until such time as these bright ones I have now crap out, the dimmer ones are not not on my radar.

With a magneto-only car, using one of the magneto-powered, 12 volt charger devices and a 12 volt lawn tractor type battery would give you at least some LED light capability. A full wave rectifier device would probably give pretty good output, but might necessitate a "2 wire" 12 volt system, that is, one with both a "hot and "ground" wire to each 12 volt device. The wattage of bulbs used in the charging device would probably need to be adjusted to suit the full wave setup and the average expected load. I'd think a good mid size 12 volt battery and the regular half-wave, rectifier and bulb type magneto charging device would give several hours of LED lighting service.

I have LED taillights on a magneto-only car and they work well.

Seth Harbuck made them up for me years ago (I'm eternally grateful and thank you again, Seth, wherever you are), using a half-wave rectifier. They're hard wired to the magneto and come on when the car starts with no need to turn them on. There is no light bulb needed and no battery. There are six red LEDs in each light, one on each side of the car under the body so they're invisible standing around the car but are blazing bright when seen from the rear about 15 feet away. At night they're visible for two or three blocks.

A number of the posts here, where people are saying they have bright but unusable light, or odd patterns, are suggestive of an improperly focused system (the system comprising the light source + reflector, and to some extent the lens).

The link I posted earlier should provide most of what's needed to explain how all this works and I'd encourage you to read that. However if you just want the short version perhaps the main takeaway is that if/when you fit LED's you should adjust the focus, and you should do so without the lens in place. If you don't do this it would likely be more surprising that you got a good light pattern than not.

I expect there could be some LED designs that may simply not work well in the T headlamp system, but without a decent attempt at adjusting the focus you wouldn't be giving them a decent chance...

Luke.

In previous posts it is mentioned that the high/low function doesn’t work because of socket & pin orientation. Snyders are selling LED headlamp bulbs with an adjustable base so contacts & socket pins line up. Has anyone purchased this bulb? Thanks John

I have them in my 15 touring and really like the way they light up. They were easy to install.
Fitz