The Dual Beam Vision X Vortex 4x6 Inch LED Sealed Beam Housing

If you are driving a semi-truck, fire truck, ambulance, or any number of other cars and trucks that come from the factory with sealed beam 4×6″ rectangular sealed beam headlights, chances are you’re looking at upgrading them so you can see where you’re going at night!

Updating to LED headlights is a great way to add style, safety, and increased performance to your vehicle. Some common 4×6″ sealed beam headlight part numbers are 1A1 2A1, and 4656 5001. If your original sealed beam headlights match those part numbers, these new Vision X 4×6″ Vortex LED headlights may be a great option for you. In this post, we go over the details and specifications of the Vortex headlights and compare the output and beam pattern to the original stock bulbs. If you happen to find the Vortex headlights are not for you, give our whole 4×6″ LED headlight video series a watch to see the other headlight options that were reviewed.

Vision X has been making an impressive LED headlight line called Vortex, and the newest addition to the line, the Vortex 4×6″ headlight, is a perfect addition. We are excited about this headlight because it is one of the few 4×6″ headlights in the world available with dual-beam functionality meaning it features high beam and low beam in a single headlight!

The Vortex 4×6″ LED Headlights are available in Chrome and Black Chrome.

Looking at the Vision X 4×6″ headlight (part number XIL-46D for chrome OR XIL-46DB for black), you’ll see the same characteristics in it as in the other headlights in the Vortex line.

The headlight features the two 10w Iris reflector LEDS, an upper multi-surface-reflector used in the low beam, and two side lights to create fill light on the road. And just like in the other Vortex LED headlights, this 4×6″ light also features an LED halo around the bottom, sides, and a portion of the top of the headlight.

Vision X Vortex 4×6 LED Headlight Low Beam, High Beam, and Halo Demonstrated.

Next, we compared beam pattern, advertised lumen, and lux at 25 feet. We placed the Vortex headlights at 25 feet from a wall and used a digital lux meter to measure the lux at the brightest point we could find inside the beam pattern. But why measure lux? What is the difference between lumen and lux? Well, to get the whole picture of how well a headlight performs, we needed to take into account all three things: beam pattern, lumen, and lux.

Lumen is the measurement of how much light the headlight is creating. The greater the lumen, the greater the amount of light the LEDs are producing. But all that light is no good if it is not properly focused down the road. Even if you have a massive amount of light coming from the headlight, if it’s not focused into a usable beam pattern the headlight will not truly be usable.

That is where the lux measurement comes into play. By looking at the headlight’s beam pattern from 25 feet, we are able to find the single most focused spot of light and measure it. Lux measures the usable amount of light at a specific distance. In our case, we measured the headlight’s beam pattern at 25 feet to find the usable amount of light that would be in front of your vehicle.

Original (brand new) sealed beam 4×6″ headlights low beam.

Original (brand new) sealed beam 4×6″ headlights high beam.

We took these photos while testing the headlights on a dirt road. As you can see, we measured the road in 10-yard increments and placed a marker sign all the way to the 100 yards mark. The farthest sign placed on the road is at 100 yards and you can see in some of the pictures some trees and fences another 100 yards after that. We also locked in our camera at a setting of F5.0, 1/2, ISO 1600 and placed it on a tripod.

With those settings, the images above show the stock 4×6″ headlight’s beam pattern in high and low beams. For both photos, we used two headlights mimicking one side of a vehicle. While measuring lux indoors against a wall at 25 feet, we measured a single headlight on a low beam to be 650 lux and a single headlight on a high beam to also be at 650 lux.

With the same exact camera settings and location, we took the bottom photos on the Vision X Vortex 4×6″ LED headlights. For the following three photos, we used two headlights mimicking how your vehicle would operate. While measuring lux indoors against a wall at 25 feet, we measured a single headlight on a low beam to be 1,210 lux, a single headlight on a high beam to be 1,140 lux, and on both high and low beams to be 1,850 lux. Each Vortex 4×6″ headlight creates 2,150 raw lumens.