IMHO trucklites put out more light and are a better upgrade. To add to what Eddie said, the JWs APPEAR to put out more light, but that's due to the pretty poor projector design that "hotspots" in the center making it appear brighter...and while the dead center may be a tad brighter than the TLs, the extreme sides are pretty poorly lit...the TLs have a wider throw of more even light. The JWs look fantastic though. The old JWs were IMHO laughable for the money, the new ones are better, but still subpar IMHO when compared to say an OEM HID projector headlight. For the money, you are paying ONLY for the looks with JWs. If you want the best bang for the buck, the TLs are what you want. If you want the maximum possible output, you will have to go with an HID projector setup.
I disagree from experience. Except for your wide pattern comment, which has been taken care of in the newer models. There are no hot spots in my JW's like there are in the Truck-Lites. The connectors are put together much better also. With the price hike of the Truck-Lites I can get the newest model JW's for like $20 more. That in my experience is $20 very well spent. I do like the looks of the Truck-Lites better though.
How much are TLs now and which store/vendor?
The price I can get JW's for isn't online unfortunately. I also don't keep up on prices or shop a lot since it depresses me and my broken bank account. I wait for sales before even looking. I do use google shopping links a lot to at least avoid location based fees.
How much are TLs now and which store/vendor?
Everywhere I've looked they are $399 +/- for the kit, unheated.
Everywhere I've looked they are $399 +/- for the kit, unheated.
I know that once they were Rigid branded, the price was supposed to go up somewhere around $200.
I know how everyone loves their led headlights - in particular JW's and Trucklites, but I'm done with mine. I've been running with JW Speaker for the better part of 6 months now and I finally switched over to a set of Trucklites. I ran the Trucklites for one hour before removing them. The brightness of both lights are great and they really light things up, but for the money, I just can't get over the hotspots of the Trucklites and the irregular beam pattern of the JW's (see my earlier post for a pic). Maybe those of you with either JW or Trucklite don't have these issues, or it just doesn't bother you enough because the light output is just that much better than stock. But for me, if I pay that much for a set of lights (close to a grand invested now), I kinda expect better than what I've seen with these lights. I've bought led lights from Inspired Engineering, Rigid, and even some cheap led's for my 4-wheeler and none of them have hotspots or irregular beam patterns. I contacted JW about what I thought is an abnormal light pattern, and they said it's absolutely normal - calling it a "chevron" and said its required by DOT. My Trucklites don't have anything similar to the JW "chevron", so who knows. My factory lights don't have it either, nor do they have any hot spots, they're just not that bright. And right now, after trying 2 of the most talked about led lights on most, if not all Jeep forums, I'm happy with going back to my stock lights. Luckily I'm not at a total loss. Since my dad and I both have Harley's, I was able to find homes for the JW's. I can live with one "chevron" in my light pattern (at least it points to the right side of the road). Anyway, that's just my 2 cents. Take it for what it's worth to ya. It's only my experience and opinion - nothing more.
Did you adjust the headlights? The beams cross at some point in my Trucklights which tells me I need to order the horizontal adjusters to get them aimed properly.
Just Dremel out the original screws to adjust. That's what I did and now the field of light is waaaaay better
Yup, did this. I adjusted the beams left/right and up/down. The beam coverage (field of view) is great for both lights, but couldn't get rid of the chevron in the JW's or the hotspots in the Trucklites. Heck, while running the JW's, anyone I ever had in the Jeep would always ask if something was wrong with my lights or if they were a knock-off (I bought them from Northridge4x4).