Best LED Headlights For Can-Am Defender

You're out for a ride and your OEM headlights aren’t making the ground ahead visible. Where stock headlights fail, LED headlights are the perfect solution.

Visibility is a key feature for any ATV, which means that your ATV should have excellent headlights for night rides. Although stock headlights are decent, they are inferior to their aftermarket LED counterparts. Let me tell you about headlights that are worth your time if you own a Can-Am Defender.

There are other factors that can contribute to improving the light intensity and scope of your Can-Am Defender, but replacing halogen lights with LED lights is the most viable and feasible option. Now you wouldn't want to go and change the entire design of the front of your defender, would you? Changing to LED headlights offers significant improvement to the light that your defender throws; it costs little when compared to other remedies and can be done much quicker, in a matter of minutes, in fact.

To get you the names of the best LED headlights, I spoke with several ATV owners that have swapped their OEM lights for LED lights and asked them about their experience. I also went through countless online forums and looked up the names that I got from them. I read reviews, looked at the product ratings so rest assured, I did my research.

‍First Things First

Before we move to the best LED lights for your Can-Am Defender, there are a few things that you should know. Firstly, what kind of bulbs is your Defender equipped with? A Defender comes with H8 stock bulbs, so when looking for LED lights we need to look for bulbs that are H8, H9, or H11. Going for anything else would require you to change the housing of the bulbs.

When changing the lights, you simply need to take out the old bulbs and put in the new ones, but there is a catch. The new lights work only when plugged in a certain way. So if you install the new lights and they don't work, do not ask for a refund. Instead, try plugging in the lights the other way around and you should be good to go.

When looking at a bulb, it has a rating often found as LM along with a number before it. The number represents the intensity of light that the bulb emits. High rating means a brighter bulb whereas a lower rating means a dimmer one.

 The LED Headlights You Should Be Looking At

BEAMTECH H11 LED Bulb

These are one of the most popular lights that you would find in any store, be it an online or physical store. They carry a smooth, fanless design; a wide issue with some LED lights and HID lights is the fan making a lot of noise which ruins the experience for the driver.

This is not an issue with these lights as they use an aluminum shell to dissipate heat rather than a fan. This makes for a noiseless experience.

The lights are rated at 50W each, consuming less power compared to the stock bulbs and therefore putting less stress on the battery. They have a rating of 12000LM which is quite good. The lights have over 14,000 reviews on Amazon 76% of which are 5 star ratings. Users describe these bulbs as being noiseless, having a light intensity better than original stock halogen bulbs and also having better light distribution.  You can pick up these lights for around $50 from different sites; the BEAMTECH official site has them listed at a discount as well.

Vehicle enthusiasts who love to modify their rides also widely use this brand when changing their headlights. This speaks to how trusted this brand is.

If you ride ATV's check out the Best LED Headlights For Can Am Outlander!

Fahren H11/H9/H8 LED Headlight Bulbs

These lights are no short of being popular themselves, having close to 42,000 ratings on Amazon of which about 80% are 5 star ratings and also being the best selling lights. They offer a light intensity of 10,000LM, a little less than what BEAMTECH delivers, but nevertheless still impressive.

These lights are integrated with a heat sink carved into the body and a 12,000 rpm turbo cool fan made of plastic to help dissipate the heat generated. The lights are rated for 50,000 hours of running life, built with aluminum.

The users are quite satisfied with the performance of the lights, labeling its performance superior to that of the stock ones and of other more expensive competitors. There have been no complaints of noise even though these lights are equipped with a fan. They consume 60 watts of power, quite less than stock lights. These LED headlights can be found on a couple of sites for $40 for a pair.

SEALIGHT 9005/HB3 H11/H9/H8 LED

You cannot go wrong with these, having a lumens rating of 14,000 higher than any of the mentioned LED headlights. Claiming to be 400% brighter and having a 100% wider vision than halogen lights.

Having a rated life span of more than 50,000 hours, they would serve as a reliable replacement for your stock lights. They do not use a cooling fan; instead they have a hollow carved design, with metal fins to allow heat dissipation. This allows for a noiseless experience.

These are also the LED headlights that are most preferred by car enthusiasts and auto stores. There are over 13,000 reviews for them on Amazon with 81% of them being 5 star reviews. People are happy with their intensity and scope. These cost around $40 on various websites such as Amazon and EBay.

HIKARI H11/H8/H9 LED Bulbs

This Japanese brand is relatively new to the LED headlight field, but offers good specifications, comparable to its competitors. It is rated at 12,000LM, which is a commendable value considering that it consumes only 30W of power. It is claimed to have 50,000 hours of running life.

It has only 181 reviews on Amazon owing to being a new contender in this market. Still 81% of the reviews are 5 stars with people being more than satisfied with the performance of the bulbs. It uses a fin design to allow heat dissipation, providing a noiseless drive.  They cost $34 on Amazon.

Cougar Motor H11 | H8 | H9 LED Bulb

One of the most highly ranked led headlight bulbs on Amazon. It delivers light having an intensity of 10,000 lumens. It also carries a fanless design, using an aluminum shell with fins to dissipate the heat; this helps it operate with minimal noise. The lifespan rating of these bulbs is 50,000 hours.

It has over 9000 reviews on Amazon with over 78% 5 star ratings. Users are pretty satisfied with the performance, describing the product to have a far and wide range along with a good distribution of light. It can be found for a little over $32 online.

Check out the Best LED Light Bars For Your UTV if you need more light for those bonfire nights outdoors.

Complete Swap with LED Headlights

If you're looking to redo the entire look of the headlights of your Can-Am Defender, then I have some news for you too.

There are a couple of new companies in the market that provide complete swaps for the OEM headlights with LED headlights. Unfortunately, there is only limited customer feedback regarding the company, their products and their services.

One such company, Hays Fab, started in 2016. They offer different headlights for Can-Am Defenders. Only a few user discussions are available on online forums. The LED headlights look very appealing but little detail about their specifications was listed even on the company website.

The lights come in three different versions, as follows:

●            Can-Am Defender Triple Threat LED Headlights 'No Halo'

●            Can-Am Defender Triple Threat LED Headlights with RGB Halo

●            Can-Am Defender Dual Pod Duo

The triple threat LED headlights consist of two strips of LEDs and a pod (square-shaped LED); they offer light intensity of over 14,000 lumens. The brackets for the headlights are made with aircraft grade aluminum. The triple threat LED headlights with RGB halo have four modes of operation: Flash, Strobe, Fade, and Smooth.

These headlights can be swapped for the original ones relatively easily. The most difficult part of the process is to remove the stock lights. Next, all you need to do is plug in these lights as they come with a plug-and-play harness. That’s it - you're ready to go! The headlight design looks aggressive but appealing. The light intensity ratings are also remarkable, but with just a few user reviews to go by, so it is difficult to recommend it.

If you ride ATV's check out the articles below:

Best ATV LED Headlights 2022

‍Best LED Headlights For Can Am Outlander

Best LED Headlights For Honda Rancher

Best LED Headlights For Yamaha Grizzly

Best LED Headlights For Arctic Cat Alterra

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