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Found 21 results

  1. Zane Merva Executive Editor, GM-Trucks.com 9/18/18 As the few remaining snow piles melted away last spring, we wrote about our impressions installing the latest LED lights from Sylvania. The Cube-X and the company's new parabolic LED spot light bars. A few weeks later, we gave away a set of Cube X's to one lucky forum member, @Veee24 This summer RJ ( @Veee24) installed his new Cube-X lights and sent us an update. We asked him how he liked the lights and how the install went. He told us: We think the end result is pretty amazing. RJ's sick 1997 Chevy Silverado. Check out the photos above and below and let us know what you think about RJs ride and his Sylvania Cube-X LED lights.
  2. GM-Trucks.com and Sylvania Automotive are teaming up to give away a pair of Cube-X LED Lights! We just installed our own set, so if you are not familiar with the Cube-X just head on over and read our review. It's very easy to enter and costs NOTHING. Just read through our rules, answer a three question survey, post your answers to this thread, and a random winner will be announced on April 16th. Product Description - What We're Giving Away TWO (2) - Sylvania LED Cube - 45 Degree Flood Light SYLVANIA LED CUBE-X Off-Road Wide Flood Light offers 1100 effective lumens at a 45-degree angle. The Wide Flood light is our widest beam pattern, illuminating obstacles, debris and potential hazards. Great for illuminating work sites, too. Unique X-shaped LED accent light for on-road use Intense 6000K off-road 45º wide flood light with 1350 effective lumens Rugged aluminum body designed for optimal thermal conductivity, handles rough off-road environments and resists corrosion Lifetime limited warranty Cube-X assembly Includes: LED module, Mounting bracket, Carriage bolt (M8 x 1 1∕8), Two lock nuts and three split lock washers https://www.sylvania-automotive.com/products/other-lighting/led-off-road/led_cube_flood_45_degree.jsp The Giveaway Rules No purchase necessary as this giveaway is all in good fun and not scientific. To be considered, answer the questions in our Giveaway Poll (below) and post your honest answers in this thread. Any incomplete or illegible responses will disqualified Users may only submit one set of answers. Moderators/Admins/Staff are not eligible On April 16th, 2018 the admins (Zane/Josh) will choose a random winner out of all completed and valid responses. This giveaway thread will close April 15th at 11:59pm eastern. The Sylvania Cube-X Giveaway Poll Answer the following questions as honestly as you can. Please elaborate as much as you feel comfortable. These answers will be used as an informal marketing survey by Sylvania Automotive. Is accessorizing your truck something that you are currently interested and/or investing in? IF YES: What is your to top priority when choosing accessories for your truck? (Quality/Price/Look/Reviews) IF NO: Why not? (No time/money, inexperience, no vehicle) Would you purchase something because it's priced cheaper, regardless of negative reviews, or options of higher-end, better quality products? (YES or NO) Would you purchase an accessory purely based on how it looks? Even if that means the product does not work well or may not work at all? UPDATE- WE HAVE A WINNER
  3. Zane Merva & Josh Merva GM-Trucks.com 3/6/2018 Here at GM-Trucks.com, we’ve spent a lot of time upgrading nearly every light bulb in Project Sierra to LED over the past two years. The change has been immense and the high-tech, clean crisp shine our truck now exhibits is one of our most noticeable and favorite upgrades. From brake bulbs to marker lights, interior lighting and replacement daytime running lights, we’ve been tapping Osram-Sylvania LED bulbs as a reliable product produced by one of the worlds largest automotive suppliers. The company offers a wide arraignment of LED aftermarket replacement lighting and we’ve been digging the results on our truck. In fact, we've even just recently moved to LED headlight bulbs, but we'll show you them in another review. A staple in the original equipment headlight and tail light bulb supply chain, it's a guarantee that your truck has some sort of Sylvania product on it as factory equipment. The company also sells straight to the consumer with Silverstar and ZEVO LED aftermarket replacement bulbs. Sylvania introduced their first off-road oriented LED cube light just under two years ago and has been expanding into the segment ever since. The company announced another round of LED off-road lights at SEMA last November, including a 10-inch parabolic spotlight bar. So with two new LED products that caught our eye, we asked if we could take them for a spin. It's rather interesting to see an industry OEM diving head first into the off-road lighting scene that has so far been dominated by LED giants like Rigid Industries, Baja Design, and Rugged Ridge. Especially when those brands sell product that use Osram LED chips. So we ordered up some examples directly from the company and got installing. Here’s our take on these two new and unique LED spotlight products from Sylvania. What are they? Sylvania LED Off-Road 10-Inch Light Bar - SPOT 2300 effective lumens at a 10 degree angle MSRP: TBD, Not on sale yet Longer versions will also be available LED spot light bars are nothing new and as a result they’ve all sorta started to look the same. Now, that’s no longer the case. With a futuristic parabolic reflector, the new line up of Sylvania LED light bars resemble the headlights on the new 2019 Silverado instead of the light bar from your friend’s old beat up Dodge Ram. With the LED chips mounted at a 90-degree angle from the road the curved reflector is the main focal point of the light bar instead of the LED chip or lens. It's a different, high-tech, motif that will look right at home on the 2019 Silverado and Sierra lineup. However, all those good looks would be much less satisfying if this light bar didn't have the performance to match. And, since this light bar is made by Sylvania, it does. This 10-inch spot is designed to send light extremely far down-road. With only a 10-degree horizontal throw the 2300 lumen beam from the 10-LED chips is super concentrated. This spot bar will illuminate hundred of feet away but not right in front of you. That makes it an extremely powerful, albeit niche lighting tool. Packaged with two polished aluminum attachments, the 10-inch spot is fairly easy to mount and and only a little harder to aim. We appriciated the included quick disconnect electrical harness. Sylvania says that these light bars will be available in a range of sizes including a 20+ inch variant. So if 10-inches seems a little small for what you've envisioned for your LED project, rest easy knowing bigger versions are on the way soon. On the downside, like the Cube-X, this spot bar is intended for professional installers and requires electrical knowledge to properly wire. Sylvania LED CUBE-X Cube Light - SPOT 1170 effective lumens / each MSRP: $84.99/each Also available in Flood and Wide Flood There is a massive selection of small square LED spot lights in this world. However, there is only one you can legally use on the road. Meet the Sylvania Cube-X Spotlight. It features an integrated daytime running light “accent” and a powerful 1170 raw lumen spotlight in one package. The obvious benefit of this combination is you now have a light that can be used every time you drive and not just every time you drive off-road. For trucks built before LED daytime running lights became a “thing” (like our 2011), the X-shaped accent light makes for an excellent DRL upgrade. When the situation presents itself, you can also fire up the four Osram LEDs to produce an outstandingly crisp narrow field 20.5-watt spotlight. Simply speaking, the Cube-X is two lights in one. A DRL and an off-road spotlight. The compact and standardized design of the Cube-X allows for mounting in a variety of locations. The included mount kit has all the hardware to attach your Cube-X but comes in a silver color. We would have liked to see a color matched mount. Like the 10-inch spot light, wiring this light is entirely up to you. No switches or harnesses are included. This is ideal for an expert installer who might use their own gear but may be intimidating to a newbie working on their first LED light install. How We Installed Them Above all, we wanted a simple, clean, and purposeful install for our LED spot lights. To accomplish that goal we mounted our five LED lights to an N-Fab light bar that was designed specifically for the 2011 Sierra (and Silverado) ahead of the front grille. To avoid complex switch wiring through the firewall, we ordered up a remote controlled two-channel 12-volt automotive relay and designed an auxiliary power center to control our new lights. Since these lights will pull some considerable wattage, we felt it was safest to create a power tap point that couldn't drain our battery and wouldn't interfere with our truck's sensitive electronics. With this system our lights won't be able to turn on unless the truck is running and charging the battery. They also won't stay on after the truck is shut off. We also limit the DRL lights to only run when the truck is running. Although this system is very DIY, it's an effective and safe way add high power accessories without tapping fuses or wiring harnesses. We'll have a write-up on how to create your own key-on aux power block in the near future. There's also pro versions of this type of aux power system you can buy. Once we had the electrical wires run through flexible conduit (purchased separately) and the mounting hardware tight, we cleaned up the install with wire ties. Some of our Cube-X lights had shorter wire harnesses than others, making a clean look harder than we wanted. You can see on the photo below how we would have preferred the Cube-X wires be longer, so the connections could be hid farther behind the grille. The Results After a smooth installation process with all lights functioning correctly on the first try, we were excited to head out and see just how bright our new LED lighting setup really was. We had high hopes but what we saw really lit up our world (pardon the pun). During the day, the Cube-X DRL lights are bright and serve their purpose of attracting attention. Even in poor weather, our Sierra will be visible from a considerable distance thanks to the four X accents. The spot lights are much much brighter than the DRL. Even in bright sunlight, the spot lights were powerful enough to hurt our eyes. It gave us high hopes that once the sun set, and we headed out to light up some local trails, we'd have all the light we need. Safe to say we were right. Take a look at these comparison photos. As you can see, the four Cube-X lights gave us the most improvement for the largest area. That's no surprise, as the lights are all together "worth" 4,680 raw lumens. The 10-inch spot light excelled in throwing a direct and bright beam farther than the Cube-X lights could but is only rated at 2300 raw lumens. That concentrated beam illuminated deeper and farther ahead than the Cube-X spots. Take a look at this animation to see what we mean. The next day at our garage, we took a more measured approach to comparing brightness using a light meter. We measured the output of our headlights and the spot lights inside a dark room with no outside light to compare them. The results are interesting. With all five LED lights firing, our Sylvania spotlight setup is 14.5 times brighter than our aftermarket LED low-beam headlights alone. All five lights are 4.7 times brighter than just using high-beams. The Cube-X array is 4 times brighter than the low beams. All in all, no matter which way you measure, it's a massive upgrade in light output. Our Conclusion Are you ready for some LED lights that don't cost thousands? We think Project Sierra has never looked better with our new X-shaped DRL lighting. The parabolic design of the 10-inch light bar is unique, modern, and has people asking what it is. At night the combined power of the four Cube-X spot lights brings another level of utility to our truck. Now, whether off-road or in the back yard, if we need massive amounts of light, our Sierra can answer the call. Our truck is now the brightest flashlight in our toolbox. What we like Top Tier Osram-Sylvania LED Chips Full Aluminum Design IP68 Waterproof/Dustproof Affordable Price (Cube-X) Parabolic Design (Spot Bar) What we didn’t like Cube-X wires didn’t come with quick disconnect harness 10-Inch spot's mounting hardware wasn't ideal for fine tuning Lenses are not replaceable or changeable Limited avalability Image Gallery Editor's Note: This product was provided at no cost for the purposes of a review. We only publish our honest opinions and give no consideration for the gratis product.
  4. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  5. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  6. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  7. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  8. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  9. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  10. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  11. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  12. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  13. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  14. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  15. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  16. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  17. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  18. From the album: Installed: Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights

    Read our full install and review of the Sylvania Cube-X & 10-inch Spot Bar LED Lights
  19. Review: Sylvania Silverstar/ZEVO LED Exterior Lighting Upgrade Zane Merva Executive Editor, GM-Trucks.com 9/14/15 Are you looking for more visibility and a distinctive look for your vehicle when the sun goes down? We installed replacement SilverStar headlight bulbs to see better at night and ZEVO LED marker bulbs to give Project Sierra a high tech look. Here’s how it went. Product Reviewed Sylvania SilverStar ZXE headlight bulbs (9005/H11) Sylvania ZEVO LED 194 Replacement Bulb Current Retail Cost SilverStar zXe H11: $49 / set SilverStar zXe 9005: $51 / set ZEVO 194 LED: $9.85 x 6 = $59 Total Cost ~ $159 (as of 9/14/2015) Editor's Note: This product was provided at no cost for the purposes of a review. We only publish our honest opinions and give no consideration for the gratis product. What are they? Replacement headlight and marker light bulbs that shine brighter and with a whiter color temperature than stock. The LED bulbs will also never need replaced. Tested On 2011 GMC Sierra All-Terrain Extended Cab SLT SilverStar zXe Headlight Bulbs The SilverStar zXe bulbs are Sylvania’s premium headlight bulbs. Sold in pairs, our Sierra takes H11 for the low beams and 9005 type bulbs for the high beams. SilverStar zXe bulbs are supposed to be the brightest whitest and most "Xenon like" bulbs that Sylvania offers. They provide the bright daylight colored light closer in the spectrum to HID systems without going over the top and having a fake blue tint that only serves to annoy oncoming traffic. Updated: Sylvania has clarified to us that the SilverStar Ultra is the brightest downroad bulb, while zXe bulbs have the highest/whitest color temperature. Installation is as easy as replacing any other headlight bulb. We had the best results on our 2011 using small hands and removing the air filter assembly. ZEVO LED Marker Bulbs Our trucks have around a half dozen mini-bulbs used around the exterior as marker lights. In some new vehicles, these bulbs are now LED. LED's bulbs are brighter, have a high-tech look, and never burn out. Our Sierra came from the factory with 194-sized incandescent marker bulbs that give off a dim yellow light. Even the rear license plate lighting used two of these little outdated bulbs. Thankfully replacing all of them is very easy. Our truck has two 194 bulbs in the headlights, two in the tail lights, and two to illuminate the rear plate at night. We started in the rear and removed the tail light housings using a Phillips head screwdriver. The license plate bulb housings pop out by squeezing a few tabs located behind the bumper. The four bulbs in the rear took under 15 minutes to swap out. The headlight marker bulbs are slightly harder to get to. They reside on the side of the headlight housing, tucked tightly in the front fenders. We used a pair of needle nose pliers to very carefully remove and replace the bulbs up front. Stock vs Sylvania The stock headlight bulbs (left in each photo) vs the SilverStar zXe bulbs (right in each photo). The Sylvania bulbs have a blue tint that can only be seen during the day. That blue tint on the bulbs translates to a slight blue hue in the headlight housing during the day. At night the blue tint isn't apparent. The stock 194 marker light and license plate bulbs are light and fragile. The ZEVO led replacements are sturdy and feel heavier duty. The right/driver side headlight is still stock. The left/passenger side is a SilverStar zXe bulb. The stock halogen bulb light looks yellow and dimmer in comparison. Replacing the 194 marker light bulb in each tail light is a quick job. The reward is a significantly brighter 6000k white light. Stock on left, ZEVO LED on right. The LED bulbs are so much brighter that you can see the light spilling over into the lower part of the taillight. At first we thought this might be a problem but ending up deciding we liked the more aftermarket look it gave our truck. Up close, it's even more obvious that the rear tail lamps benefit from the brighter ZEVO LED bulbs. The stock marker lights are almost unnoticeable. The LED bulbs are unmistakable. The result is the most dramatic when illuminating the rear license plate. The stock 194 bulb(left photo) is yellow and dim. The Sylvania ZEVO LED bulb is much brighter and gives the exterior a better overall appearance. Side by side, it's easy to see the ZEVO LED bulb (left) is a big upgrade in brightness from the stock bulb(right). Since LED's never burn out, you'll most likely never have to replace them again. Conclusion We replaced 10 bulbs on our 2011 Sierra during this lighting makeover. We began enjoying the results the first night and we noticed the difference immediately. Just by looking at the photos above, we’re sure you can too, and that says a lot considering it is very hard to photograph the lights in a way that accurately represents them in real life. The biggest reason that someone would want to buy SilverStar zXe bulbs is for the exterior look they give your vehicle. Sure, the whiter color temperature light is easier on the eyes when driving at night. We'd even go as far to say that we could see the road better because of this. However, in our test, there was not much discernible difference in overall brightness over stock. After all, they both use the same wattage and the same reflective housing. Sylvania offers the SilverStar Ultra line of bulbs for enthusiasts who value brightness over color temperature. In other words, don't expect this upgrade to be as bright as a HID upgrade which adds extra power to the lights. Where SilverStar zXe bulbs really "shine" is that from outside a vehicle, the headlights have a very crisp, almost HID like appearance. The ZEVO LED 194 bulbs are similar in nature. Completely hidden to the driver, LED marker bulbs are great because they will never burn out and they look better and brighter than stock. However, with that said, the brighter corner marker lighting really stands out and we've fallen in love with the modern look. We are looking forward to expanding our exterior makeover to LED tail light and backup bulbs someday in the future. Right now Sylvania doesn't make a set of LED brake light bulbs that are street legal for our Sierra but promises a solution. On the other hand, Sylvania does have backup light bulbs that fit and we're testing them now. We're also excited to share our thoughts of the ZEVO LED Pixelated DRL with you soon.
  20. Product Reviewed Sylvania Silverstar ZXE headlight bulbs (9005/H11) Sylvania ZEVO LED 194 Replacement Bulb Current Retail Cost Silverstar zXe H11: $49 / set Silverstar zXe 9005: $51 / set ZEVO 194 LED: $9.85 x 6 = $59 Total Cost ~ $159 (as of 9/14/2015) What are they? Replacement headlight and marker light bulbs that shine brighter and with a whiter color temperature than stock. The LED bulbs will also never need replaced. Tested On 2011 GMC Sierra All-Terrain Extended Cab SLT Silverstar zXe Headlight Bulbs The Silverstar zXe bulbs are Sylvania’s premium headlight bulbs. Sold in pairs, our Sierra takes H11 for the low beams and 9005 type bulbs for the high beams. Silverstar zXe bulbs are supposed to be the brightest and most "Xenon like" bulbs that Sylvania offers. They provide the bright daylight colored light closer in the spectrum to HID systems without going over the top and having a fake blue tint that only serves to annoy oncoming traffic. Installation is as easy as replacing any other headlight bulb. We had the best results on our 2011 using small hands and removing the air filter assembly. ZEVO LED Marker Bulbs Our trucks have around a half dozen mini-bulbs used around the exterior as marker lights. In some new vehicles, these bulbs are now LED. LED's bulbs are brighter, have a high-tech look, and never burn out. Our Sierra came from the factory with 194-sized incandescent marker bulbs that give off a dim yellow light. Even the rear license plate lighting used two of these little outdated bulbs. Thankfully replacing all of them is very easy. Our truck has two 194 bulbs in the headlights, two in the tail lights, and two to illuminate the rear plate at night. We started in the rear and removed the tail light housings using a Phillips head screwdriver. The license plate bulb housings pop out by squeezing a few tabs located behind the bumper. The four bulbs in the rear took under 15 minutes to swap out. The headlight marker bulbs are slightly harder to get to. They reside on the side of the headlight housing, tucked tightly in the front fenders. We used a pair of needle nose pliers to very carefully remove and replace the bulbs up front. Stock vs Sylvania The stock headlight bulbs (left in each photo) vs the Silverstar zXe bulbs (right in each photo). The Sylvania bulbs have a blue tint that can only be seen during the day. That blue tint on the bulbs translates to a slight blue hue in the headlight housing during the day. At night the blue tint isn't apparent. The stock 194 marker light and license plate bulbs are light and fragile. The ZEVO led replacements are sturdy and feel heavier duty. The right/driver side headlight is still stock. The left/passenger side is a Silverstar zXe bulb. The stock halogen bulb light looks yellow and dimmer in comparison. Replacing the 194 marker light bulb in each tail light is a quick job. The reward is a significantly brighter 6000k white light. Stock on left, ZEVO LED on right. The LED bulbs are so much brighter that you can see the light spilling over into the lower part of the taillight. At first we thought this might be a problem but ending up deciding we liked the more aftermarket look it gave our truck. Up close, it's even more obvious that the rear tail lamps benefit from the brighter ZEVO LED bulbs. The stock marker lights are almost unnoticeable. The LED bulbs are unmistakable. The result is the most dramatic when illuminating the rear license plate. The stock 194 bulb(left photo) is yellow and dim. The Sylvania ZEVO LED bulb is much brighter and gives the exterior a better overall appearance. Side by side, it's easy to see the ZEVO LED bulb (left) is a big upgrade in brightness from the stock bulb(right). Since LED's never burn out, you'll most likely never have to replace them again. Conclusion We replaced 10 bulbs on our 2011 Sierra during this lighting makeover. We began enjoying the results the first night and we noticed the difference immediately. Just by looking at the photos above, we’re sure you can too, and that says a lot considering it is very hard to photograph the lights in a way that accurately represents them in real life. The biggest reason that someone would want to buy Silverstar zXe bulbs is for the exterior look they give your vehicle. Sure, the whiter color temperature light is easier on the eyes when driving at night. We'd even go as far to say that we could see the road better because of this. However, in our test, there was not much discernible difference in overall brightness over stock. After all, they both use the same wattage and the same reflective housing. In other words, don't expect this upgrade to be as bright as a HID upgrade which adds extra power to the lights. Where Silverstar zXe bulbs really "shine" is that from outside a vehicle, the headlights have a very crisp, almost HID like appearance. The ZEVO LED 194 bulbs are similar in nature. Completely hidden to the driver, LED marker bulbs are great because they will never burn out and they look better and brighter than stock. However, with that said, the brighter corner marker lighting really stands out and we've fallen in love with the modern look. We are looking forward to expanding our exterior makeover to LED tail light and backup bulbs someday in the future. Right now Sylvania doesn't make a set of LED brake light bulbs that are street legal for our Sierra but promises a solution. On the other hand, Sylvania does have backup light bulbs that fit and we're testing them now. We're also excited to share our thoughts of the ZEVO LED Pixelated DRL with you soon.
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