red/red or red/amber to the rear

[Eric1249]

I have a 2004 Ford Explorer. To the rear I have some Tomar power supply and tubes in the rear tails. I also have some old Sound Off leds (red) mounted with the license plate bracket. I believe they are the old led 3's? I am thinking of replacing them with either some Rect 13's or 14's. I was thinking of putting some amber to the rear, or do I just leave it all red? If I went with rect 14's I was thinking of possibly making them split red/amber. Opinions?


Thanks


Eric

 

[VolEms]

I would go split Red/Amber to the rear. Pm me if you want to buy some. They are still very bright even with the split pattern.

 

[Eric1249]

VolEms, how much does a plate bracket run?

 

[VolEms]

PM sent

 

[usdemt]

I wouldnt go a split pattern, they are just too small of a lighthead the output will be ok but its just such a little footprint it loses a lot of punch at a distance. I am not even a huge fan of split 900 series and those are huge.

 

[GaryErrol]

I'm not a fan of split LED's either. I thought the idea of going from a three to a four LED was to have a brighter light. So now when you split a four LED, you only have two on at a time, one less than the three the four replaced. Why not have a red on one side of the bracket and an amber on the other?

 

[VolEms]

Im also not a fan of split, but in this case I have sold many split rect14's and they are still very bright. When I split I snyc them so that they flash all red and all amber. Look at my vid of a split rect14 R/W they are still very bright.

 

[chono]

I would not split them. Maybe get 4. 2 of them red and 2 of them amber and sync them to alternate the colors

 

[kinnelonfire75]

I would like to add my opinion to the rest of them. Do not get split heads. You severely limit the light output and visibility. It is much better to get one red and one amber compared to 2 R/As.

 

[usdemt]

Im also not a fan of split, but in this case I have sold many split rect14's and they are still very bright. When I split I snyc them so that they flash all red and all amber. Look at my vid of a split rect14 R/W they are still very bright.

They are still very bright, however not as effective IMO. Especially with a R/A. The two colors are very similar and the difference going from the red to amber makes them very ineffective. You end up looking like a steady burn orangeish lighthead. With R/B it is much more effective but I still stay away from a tiny head that is split. Also like I stated above when you get to a distance just the 2 LEDs footprint is so diminished that it is not nearly as effective as a solid head.

 

[VolEms]

Thats why I sync red red . and amber amber. Only one color is on at once. Its very bright. Again if somone is on a tight budget and wants both colors this is the way to go. If you can afford it do 4 solid lights. A lot of my costumers are buying 4 solid LED's in the Grille and making an x pattern instead of split. Again its a budget thing.

 

[Eric1249]

I had a red/red Rect 14 on my running boards. I just ordered new running boards so I took them off. (for now) I held them up by the rear plate. They are a bit big back there, but all I have to the rear is the lights next to the plate and Tomar strobes in the tails. I do agree that the split isn't that great. If I do put them back there I will make the entire light flash together. On the squad cars at work there are red and amber leds in the Blade next to eachother. The red and amber tend to just blend together.


I also held the Rect 14's up to my mirrors. They don't look to bad there. I also considered the new Sound Off lights for mirrors. How hard it is to get the wires through the mirrors?

 

[usdemt]

Thats why I sync red red . and amber amber. Only one color is on at once. Its very bright. Again if somone is on a tight budget and wants both colors this is the way to go. If you can afford it do 4 solid lights. A lot of my costumers are buying 4 solid LED's in the Grille and making an x pattern instead of split. Again its a budget thing.

My vote however is still one red and one amber, same cost as the split. I realize in what you are explaining that only one color is on at one time but step back a good few hundred yards and it appears to be a steady burn with R/A especially. R/W would not be as bad but because of the bigger difference in the light spectrum but as the R/A alternates it goes directly from red to amber giving a wiggling steady burn appearance at a distance that looks orangeish. If you havent seen it it is hard to explain but if you have you know how ineffective it is.


I am not a fan at all of split heads but especially red amber splits, the colors are just to similar.

 

[pdk9]

i would have 1 solid amber lighthead on the driver's side and 1 solid red on the passenger side; amber's a great safety color and by having 2 diff colors (IMO) u get the benefits of each (i.e. some colors are better than others at day vs night, near vs. distance, etc). i personally hate split colors b/c i think they're less effective than having solid color lightheads (i think that having the whole lighthead illuminate at once is 10x better than having 1/2 of the lighthead illuminate half-ass, but that's just me)

 

[Pursuit]

Im also not a fan of split, but in this case I have sold many split rect14's and they are still very bright. When I split I snyc them so that they flash all red and all amber. Look at my vid of a split rect14 R/W they are still very bright.

The problem with that video is that it was shot during darkness, and the cameraman was literally a couple of feet away from the car. Put the same cameraman a half mile down the road during daylight, and let's see if we still get those same spectacular results.


You can add my name to the list of people who are against split color patterns in such a small light head. Just saying.