MTFCA Forum

I just saw an article that Massachusetts has started enforcing an obscure law. The law states that automotive headlights must be considered as a unit. You may not use LED headlight bulbs in housings that were not originally designed for them. This means that you could be given a defective equipment citation for having LEDs in the factory headlight bucket and lens assembly. Whether a cop would actually write the citation is in my opinion doubtful, but they could. My suspicion is that the blue or yellow headlights are the target of the law, and it is always easier to beg forgiveness then to ask permission. If I had LEDs in my Model T headlight assemblies I probably wouldn't change them; but it's something to be aware of.

Massachusetts does love their DMV code book. I think that most other states are a bit more relaxed (maybe not California).

Since I just swapped a new set of the focused LEDs into my '27 runabout headlights, my first thought is to keep the old bulbs in my "road kit", so that if an officer wanted to discuss the situation, I could swap in one of the old bulbs and get their opinion on which technology they would rather have on the road for the safety of myself and other drivers. Plus, if they chose the incandescent bulbs, I could finish the swap while they watched.

But as you alluded to, I doubt that our particular headlights are the ones that they are looking to moderate. The "racers" and lifted 4x4 crowd running 100's of thousands of CP of badly focused light are a real safety hazard and should have some controls imposed upon them.

As an aside, back in the '70s, my cousin installed 747 landing lights as high beams in the quad light setup in his racing '67 Corvair. If he turned them on behind you, they would warm your face from the rearview mirror. I remember him saying that they were 1,000,000 cp units, but looking them up online says that they were only 765,000 cp at 600W. And yes, each high beam bulb was pulling around 50A.

Keep crankin',
Eric

That is another reason why my Dad was from Massachusetts.

What about acetylene ? OK ??

What they are doing I suspect is going after the over bright, ill directed, blue lights caused by many LED bulbs. Finally here in Australia, bulbs on sale have a DOT compliant specification. Without this, the bulbs are suitable for off-road use only. These work with high output Halogen and HID bulbs, which still use the original reflectors as part of the system. It wasn't until recently that LED bulbs with their own lens to properly direct their output were finally available for our T's. Even so, it would be a hard argument to win with a patrol man with these, but at least they should be safer for those driving into them.

Allan from down under.

If you get pulled over for led lights in your T, you're in a very safe area. The cops have nothing else to do.

I saw the same article on Massachusetts. It stated that the bright pure white light that LED bulbs produce, tend to blind oncoming traffic, more that the 'yellow' light that halogen bulbs, produce. That was their reasoning. I may be mistaken, but I though the article mentioned it might become a federal law, sometime, too.

Does headlight brightness really play into this?... Or is it specifically misaligned headlight aiming / continual hi-beam headlight use ? ..... And a chance I found that driving at posted speed limits, there are tailgaters in back of you with high beams on wanting you to increase speed, also oncoming traffic neglecting switching back to regular beam. As an observation, during beginnings and events we had to go through with covid, schools that had driver instruction were out and those who received their licenses had very little training, and that may not exclude those privileged minded kids think that they're in charge of everything. ..... I'm sure there's more than myself that have observed this.

I would be very surprised if there were not already mandated vehicle standards for headlights in USA. The rush to LED's here has led to a plethora of replacements for standard bulbs, most of which are not DOT approved for road use. That does not mean they are not used on the road though. The earlier LED bulbs for T's are a good example. An array of many LED's mounted to direct light to the original reflector just results in an ill-directed, big blob of blue/white light being sent down the road.
Finally, a single LED with its own lens/reflector was made available, so that its output can be focused and directed. This is how modern vehicle lights work.
The problem is not the lights. It is the drivers behind the wheel that are the problem, for the reasons already stated, non compliant equipment, and non compliance with road rules. Have at 'em officer!

Allan from down under.

So these 6v LED bulbs mounted in reproduction E&J 666 headlamps would be illegal...
But the original acetylene powered headlamps on my 1911 would be legal?
YMMV

: ^ )

Allan wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 9:20 pm

I would be very surprised if there were not already mandated vehicle standards for headlights in USA. The rush to LED's here has led to a plethora of replacements for standard bulbs, most of which are not DOT approved for road use. That does not mean they are not used on the road though. The earlier LED bulbs for T's are a good example. An array of many LED's mounted to direct light to the original reflector just results in an ill-directed, big blob of blue/white light being sent down the road.
Finally, a single LED with its own lens/reflector was made available, so that its output can be focused and directed. This is how modern vehicle lights work.
The problem is not the lights. It is the drivers behind the wheel that are the problem, for the reasons already stated, non compliant equipment, and non compliance with road rules. Have at 'em officer!

Allan from down under.

There are Federal standards for headlights in the USA. There are (as we have seen) State standards as well. When the auto manufacturers switched from the large, single sealed beam headlights to the smaller quad sealed beams, some manufacturers had to offer the single large lights in at least a couple of states. I can't remember the car company, but it decided not to offer the single headlighs setup in at least one state. The state(s) changed their laws very rapidly.

If they are concerned about lights being too bright at least in Oregon then they need to do something with the strobe lights on police cars especially the blue light, at night they are dangerously bright.